How did Thomas Mann’s views change after the creation of the Weimar Republic?

Following the establishment of the Weimar Republic in 1919, Thomas Mann underwent a significant political transformation. Previously, he had championed an authoritarian, anti-democratic worldview, most notably in his 1918 treatise Reflections of an Unpolitical Man, which defended "creative irrationalism" and inward culture against democratic rationalism.1

After 1919, Mann began a slow, hesitant transition toward embracing democratic principles, as evidenced in his essays "Goethe und Tolstoi" and "Von deutscher Republik" ("The German Republic"). This shift was further reflected in his novel The Magic Mountain, where the protagonist ultimately chooses life and service to humanity over the "perilous sympathies" of irrationalism and death.1

Mann eventually repudiated his earlier conservative, nationalistic ideas entirely, becoming a staunch defender of humanism, tolerance, and reason. By 1930, he was actively calling for a united front of the bourgeoisie and the working class to oppose the rising threat of National Socialism, ultimately viewing the defense of freedom and human dignity as the primary moral responsibility of the writer.12