"Mephisto", Klaus Mann's sixth novel, tells the tale of actor Hendrik Höfgen's rise to success in Nazi Germany. Its characters are loosley based on real-life people, and Höfgen has traditionally been regarded as a cricature of Mann's ex-brother-in-law, Gustaf Gründgens, whose most famous role remains that of Mephistopheles in Goethe's "Faust". These accusations eventually lead to the novel being forbidden in Western Germany in 1968. Although never officially suspended, this ban is today regarded as void, and the book is freely available since 1980.
