Although there are numerous scholarly papers about Thomas Mann and his writing, one of Mann's early stories Wie Jappe und Do Escobar sich prugelten has to date received comparatively scant attention. To this end, Freisberg elucidates some of the encrypted messages in the novella and illustrates that it ties in with a series of better-known works such as Der Tod in Venedig, which so successfully conveyed Mann's Weltbild. These works provide one with such a deep insight into the turbulent Zeitgist of Mann's life up to 1918.