California is dealing with wildfires ravaging Los Angeles, killing several people and injuring many more. The danger is especially serious in the Pacific Palisades area, where the evacuation of more than 100,000 citizens has been ordered. There are also considerations about the fate of two iconic German buildings in the Palisades that are of wonderful cultural importance: the Thomas Mann House and the Villa Aurora.
Villa Aurora, an elaborate Spanish-style villa from 1927 that was once an intellectual center for people who fled Nazi Germany, is located in the immediate vicinity of the fires and has suffered damage from the blazes.
“There are early indications that parts of Villa Aurora would face destructive fires. However, the construction remains in the danger zone,” reads a press release on the construction website. “A full assessment of the damage has not yet been carried out, so ultimately we need to make a definitive assessment of the damage to the building, historic furnishings and the library. “
The press release also provides an update on the status of the Thomas Mann House, describing its condition as “intact” and noting: “This is also a momentary snapshot, as the scenario could change at any time: construction continues in the danger and evacuation zone. “
According to Anthony Marrone, Los Angeles County Fire Chief, more than 1,000 buildings have been destroyed by a single fire, most of which are in the affluent Palisades neighborhood. Several Hollywood personalities and celebrities own homes in Palisades, including Tom Hanks, Jennifer Aniston, and Billy Crystal.
The Thomas Mann House and Villa Aurora are important to Germany and serve as cultural centers and places of exchange between foreign scholars. Both buildings are controlled on a basic basis, although fully financed by the Federal Foreign Office and the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media.
The German government bought former American Nobel laureate Thomas Mann to save him from demolition in 2016. It was intended to foster transatlantic debate as “a position for mirror image and debate about the unusual, demanding situations of our time” while serving “as a position to commemorate the history of exile in all its forms,” according to the building’s website.
The German government has expressed fear over the fate of buildings amid the fires.
“The destruction of these cultural sites would be a cultural catastrophe. They are symbols of exile and freedom of art,” the federal commissioner for culture and media, Claudia Roth, told the dpa news agency. Roth said he hopes the two cultural establishments can be preserved and continue their work.
Thomas Mann, winner of the Nobel Prize for works such as “The Magic Mountain” and “Joseph and His Brothers,” fled to the United States in 1938 after the Nazis arrived in Germany.
The villa, in which Mann lived between 1942 and 1952, is located on the west end of Los Angeles. While living in the United States, Mann became a leading figure among German intellectuals in exile. “Germany is where I am,” he told his supporters. In recent years, with investment from the German government, the construction has welcomed interns from all over the world in disciplines.
Villa Aurora, a striking architectural masterpiece, also has an exclusive ancient significance. Marta and Lion Feuchtwanger, a Jewish couple who had to flee Nazi Germany, bought the building in 1943 and transformed it into a center for refugees from Germany. There they organized concerts, readings and receptions. Among the famous names that came and went were playwright Bertolt Brecht, silent film star Charlie Chaplin and composer Hanns Eisler.
Each year, Villa Aurora and Thomas Mann House award up to twenty scholarships to artists in the visual arts, film, and literature for a three-month stay at Villa Aurora in Los Angeles. The scholarship stipulates that participants must live in Germany, German citizenship is not required, meaning many come from all over the world and work in various artistic disciplines, from film to literature.
Architecturally speaking, Villa Aurora is a gem. It was built in 1927 as a 14-room Spanish Colonial Revival-style house of 6,700 square feet amid lush greenery. The home’s original investor, Arthur A. Weber, traveled to Andalusia and was inspired by the Teruel Cathedral in the vicinity of Seville for his design. No expense was spared to make the building as “European” as possible — wooden ceilings were shipped from Spain, and a Renaissance fountain was imported from Tuscany. Local touches included redwood walls and Moorish-inspired tiles made by the Malibu Tile Company. The house was also equipped with the latest technical conveniences — it even had a theater organ that accompanied projections of silent movies, which were all the rage in the 1920s.
When the Feuchtwangers moved in in 1943 after fleeing the Nazis, the building was so dilapidated that they spent their first nights on the lawn in sleeping bags, according to Marta Feuchtwanger’s oral history. They ended up rising to the position and turning it into a means to intellectuals in exile.
The Palisades fire that is raging through the seaside area between Malibu and Santa Monica has spread to more than 17,000 acres. It is considered to be the most destructive fire ever in Los Angeles County.
Edited by: Brenda Haas
This article was updated on January 10 to include information on the damage to Villa Aurora and the current status of the Thomas Mann House.