Nikolai Blaumer, born in Düsseldorf, Germany, studied at Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich and Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He earned a doctorate in philosophy from LMU with a dissertation entitled »Korrektive Gerechtigkeit. Über die Entschädigung historischen Unrechts« (Campus Verlag, 2015) and taught at Ludwig Maximilian University as well as Bauhaus University in Weimar. Since 2014, Nikolai Blaumer has been working for the Goethe-Institut’s Department of Culture. He is co-editor of the book Teilen und Tauschen (S. Fischer Verlag, 2017). In February of 2018, he was posted to Los Angeles by the Goethe-Institut, where he assumed the position of program director at the Thomas Mann House.

Benno Herz worked in the online communication division at the Städel Museum Frankfurt, Germany, before coming to the Thomas Mann House. Prior to this, he studied Theater, Film and Media Studies at the Goethe University Frankfurt and completed his M.A. with a focus on new social media aesthetics and interface theory. Since 2009, he has been creatively engaged in several music and film projects as a writer and instrumentalist.