88 years ago today, on April 20, 1937 (March 10, 1937 in the lunar calendar), Thomas Mann called for the salvation of German culture. Thomas Mann April 20, 1937 Nobel Prize winner Thomas Mann delivered a speech tonight at the American Association for Cultural Freedom in Germany in New York, calling for an end to Nazi restrictions on artistic freedom. Mann has been in exile in Switzerland since authorities rejected his criticism of Nazism. He accused the German government of destroying the culture of its predecessors and suppressing German cultural forms. Mann believes that this suppression has one benefit: it once again wakes us up to some fundamental truths, one of which is that "the spirit must be free for spiritual products to be vibrant."