Mephisto

(Klaus Mann)

Haughty toad sucks up to artsy-nazis to progress in the theatre; his Faustian bargain gets him more than expected.

It’s not hard to see why the estate of Gustaf Gründgens, the actor whose role as Mephistopheles bewitched that drama-lover Goering, sought to have the book banned by a German constitutional Court (in the old days they would simply have lobbed it on the bonfire).