Thomas Mann is regarded as the best-known representative of modern German literature. This exceptional status is the result of very conscious work on his own profile. How did Thomas Mann manage to achieve this status as the representative of German literature? Which categories did he use to reflect on his role as a writer? And which alliances or conflicts determined the perception he had of himself and others had of him? What was the part played by his publishers, by German scholars and journalists in the augmentation of his fame? The answers to these questions show how Thomas Mann and both his patrons and his rivals worked to invent him as a writer. They open a new perspective on Thomas Mann and his work.

With some reference to Heine, Rosenkranz and Vischer, this study presents Prutz, Hettner and Haym as a generation of literary historians crucially influenced by Hegelianism. It thematizes the Hegel reception and the programmatic contributions of these authors in establishing an ambitious form of literary historiography. It also discusses the achievements of that historiography with reference to the studies on Romanticism proposed by these three figures. Finally, it provides an assessment of the degree of professionalism displayed by their scholarly activities and situates the three authors in the history of German studies.