Mephisto Case
Germany Federal Constitutional Court
30 BVerfGE 173 (1971)
- Written by Mary Katherine Cunningham, JD
Facts
In 1933, author Klaus Mann left Germany for the Netherlands, and in 1936, Mann published Mephisto, A Novel, or How to Get on in the World in Amsterdam. The model for one of the characters was Gustaf Gründgens, Mann’s former friend and brother-in-law. Mann described the character based on Gründgens as a “traitor par excellence, the macabre embodiment of corruption and cynicism.” In 1963, the adoptive son and heir of Gründgens (the heir) (plaintiff) sought an injunction against the publication or distribution of the novel in West Germany. The heir argued that anyone familiar with German theater in the 1920s would link the character to Gründgens because the novel was a roman-à-clef written to avenge the disastrous marriage between Gründgens and Mann’s sister. A publisher (defendant) published the novel in West Germany with a foreword from Mann explaining the character. The heir sought and received an interlocutory injunction against the further publication of the novel from the lower court in Hamburg. The lower court specifically grounded the injunction in the rights protected by Articles 1 and 2 of the Basic Law for the Federal Republic of Germany. The publisher sought a review of the lower-court injunction obtained by Gründgens in the Germany Federal Constitutional Court.
Rule of Law
Issue
Holding and Reasoning (Per curiam)
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