Thomas Mann an Victoria Wilkinson

Bedauert, dass seine Rede über Deutschland W.’s Gefühle verletzt hat. Erklärt sein Vorgehen ausführlicher: »It was my intention to try to explain to these people how things could come to such a pass in Germany, and in doing so it was, of course, not easy to find my way between an inadmissible apology and a denunciation of my native country which also would have ill suited me. The article sprang from the feeling that every German-born person, everybody rooted in German history and culture, somehow has a share in German destiny and German guilt, and that is how this declaration of solidarity (if one wants to call it that) came about to which apparently you object.« Setzt sich mit dem Charakter der deutschen ›Innerlichkeit‹ auseinander. Meint, dass dieses Thema nicht endgültig gelöst werden könne, was er mit einem Goethe-Wort belegen wolle.