Klaus Mann’s most well-known novel Mephisto was published by the German section of the Amsterdam publishing house Querido in 1936. The story of the ambitious actor Hendrik Höfgen, who surrenders himself and his art to fascism despite diverging political ideals, was interpreted as a roman à clef shortly after its appearance. The protagonist has unmistakable similarities with Gustav Gründgens, who was married to Mann’s older sister Erika from 1926 to 1929. Like his fictional alter ego, Gründgens also rose to fame as a popular theatre star during the Nazi dictatorship. In 1934 he was awarded the title “Staatsschauspieler”, the highest honour an actor could receive in Nazi Germany, and ten years later he was exempted from military service due to his status as an indispensible artist. After the war, he continued his career in the Federal Republic without any problems.

Due to a legal dispute over the protection of Gründgens’ privacy, the West German edition of Mephisto only appeared in 1981, following Gründgens’ death in 1963. A successful cinema adaptation was released that same year, directed by István Szabo with Klaus Maria Brandauer playing the lead.

Despite the undeniable biographical references, Klaus Mann did not want his most popular work to be seen as a mere literary portrait. He stated subsequently that it was not his intention to tell the story of a particular person and that the main figure incorporated many characteristics: the subject represented a symbolic type. The anti-Nazi tendencies of the novel, however, could not be doubted: his younger brother Golo Mann wrote to him after the reading, saying that he had justifiably earnt his expatriation.