# The Magic Mountain — Character guide

> Key figures in The Magic Mountain by Thomas Mann.

- [Hans Castorp](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_magic_mountain_se/characters/hans_castorp.md): Hans Castorp comes up the mountain to see his cousin Joachim, armed with good intentions, a fur-lined coat, and a perfectly healthy chest. The Berghof's seductive routines—rest cures, five meals, the flirtation of illnes
- [Joachim Ziemssen](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_magic_mountain_se/characters/joachim_ziemssen.md): Joachim is the sanatorium's model patient: punctual, disciplined, and quietly desperate to be well enough to rejoin the army. His upright military bearing and terse decency stand in constant contrast to his cousin's drif
- [Ludovico Settembrini](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_magic_mountain_se/characters/ludovico_settembrini.md): Settembrini is the Berghof's resident rhetorician, forever gesturing with his hands and quoting his grandfather as he lectures Hans Castorp on the virtues of work, liberty, and the Mediterranean spirit. His Enlightenment
- [Clavdia Chauchat](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_magic_mountain_se/characters/clavdia_chauchat.md): Clavdia Chauchat drifts through the Berghof dining room with her hair loose, her blouse unbuttoned, and a way of letting doors fall shut behind her that Hans Castorp cannot stop watching. She is neither beautiful in any 
- [Leo Naphta](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_magic_mountain_se/characters/leo_naphta.md): Naphta arrives at the Berghof as Settembrini's housemate and quickly becomes his most formidable antagonist, arguing for God, discipline, and the sword against the Italian's faith in reason and progress. The son of a sch
- [Pieter Peeperkorn](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_magic_mountain_se/characters/pieter_peeperkorn.md): Peeperkorn arrives at the Berghof with Clavdia Chauchat on his arm and a personality so overwhelming that Settembrini and Naphta's finest arguments seem like children's chatter beside him. He speaks in fragments, gesture
- [Hofrat Behrens](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_magic_mountain_se/characters/hofrat_behrens.md): Behrens runs the Davos sanatorium with a surgeon's bluntness and a painter's eye, treating bodies as specimens and guests as long-term investments in his own cure-rate. His gallows humor and habit of calling himself Rhad
- [Dr. Krokowski](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_magic_mountain_se/characters/dr_krokowski.md): Krokowski prowls the corridors of the Berghof as the resident interpreter of dreams, drawing patients into confessional intimacy and delivering drawling lectures that slide from Freudian analysis into hypnotism, telepath
- [Frau Stöhr](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_magic_mountain_se/characters/frau_stohr.md): A vulgar, gossipy, and uneducated patient at the Berghof who is part of Hans Castorp's dining table.
- [Herr Albin](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_magic_mountain_se/characters/herr_albin.md): A young, frivolous patient who flirts with suicide and represents the morbid frivolity of the sanatorium.
- [Fräulein von Mylendonk](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_magic_mountain_se/characters/frau_director_von_mylendonk.md): The head nurse and administrative director of the Berghof sanatorium, known for a facial blemish.
- [Ellen Brand](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_magic_mountain_se/characters/ellen_brand.md): A young, delicate Danish girl at the sanatorium who displays possible telekinetic and mediumistic abilities.
- [James Tienappel](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_magic_mountain_se/characters/james_tienappel.md): Hans Castorp's uncle from Hamburg who visits the Berghof to persuade his nephew to return home.
- [Ferdinand Wehsal](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_magic_mountain_se/characters/ferdinand_wehsal.md): A forlorn, lovesick merchant from Mannheim who is also a patient and admirer of Clavdia Chauchat.
- [Anton Karlowitsch Ferge](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_magic_mountain_se/characters/anton_karlowitsch_ferge.md): A good-natured, simple Russian patient who suffered a traumatic pneumothorax operation.
- [Hermine Kleefeld](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_magic_mountain_se/characters/hermine_kleefeld.md): A lively, sharp-tongued patient at the Berghof who is part of the 'half-lung club'.
- [Marusja](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_magic_mountain_se/characters/marusja.md): A pretty, giggling Russian woman who is the object of Joachim Ziemssen's silent affection.
- [Frau Ziemssen](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_magic_mountain_se/characters/frau_ziemssen.md): Joachim Ziemssen's mother, who visits the Berghof and is a sensible, caring figure.
- [Pribislav Hippe](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_magic_mountain_se/characters/pribislav_hippe.md): A schoolmate of Hans Castorp's youth, remembered for his Slavic features and borrowed pencil.
- [Lawyer Paravant](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_magic_mountain_se/characters/lawyer_paravant.md): A patient obsessed with mathematical problems, representing the intellectual diversions of the sanatorium.
- [Dr. Blumenkohl](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_magic_mountain_se/characters/dr_blumenkohl.md): A silent, morose patient who sits at Hans Castorp's dining table and later dies.
- [Frau Salomon](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_magic_mountain_se/characters/frau_salomon.md): A patient at the Berghof, often mentioned in the context of the dining society.
- [Frau Magnus](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_magic_mountain_se/characters/frau_magnus.md): A patient at the Berghof whose husband, Herr Magnus, also resides there.
- [Herr Magnus](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_magic_mountain_se/characters/herr_magnus.md): The husband of Frau Magnus, a fellow patient at the sanatorium.
- [Frau Iltis](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_magic_mountain_se/characters/frau_iltis.md): A patient at the Berghof sanatorium.
- [Fräulein Engelhart](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_magic_mountain_se/characters/fraulein_engelhart.md): A patient at the Berghof who provides Hans Castorp with information about Clavdia Chauchat.
- [Frau von Mallinckrodt](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_magic_mountain_se/characters/frau_von_mallinckrodt.md): A patient at the Berghof, mother of the sick boy 'Fritz'.
- [Fritz Rotbein](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_magic_mountain_se/characters/fritz_rotbein.md): The sick son of Frau von Mallinckrodt, a patient at the Berghof.
- [Leila Gerngross](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_magic_mountain_se/characters/leila_gerngross.md): A young, flirtatious patient at the Berghof.
- [Fräulein Schildknecht](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_magic_mountain_se/characters/fraulein_schildknecht.md): A nurse at the Berghof sanatorium.
- [Grandfather Castorp](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_magic_mountain_se/characters/grandfather_castorp.md): Hans Castorp's grandfather, a senator, remembered from Hans's childhood.
- [Giuseppe Settembrini](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_magic_mountain_se/characters/giuseppe_settembrini.md): Ludovico Settembrini's grandfather, an Italian patriot and journalist.
- [Dr. Heidekind](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_magic_mountain_se/characters/dr_heidekind.md): The family doctor who examines Hans Castorp in Hamburg before his journey.
- [Kasimir Japoll](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_magic_mountain_se/characters/kasimir_japoll.md): A patient at the Berghof who is involved in a duel.
- [Gänser](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_magic_mountain_se/characters/ganser.md): A young patient at the Berghof, friend of Rasmussen.
- [Emmy Nolting](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_magic_mountain_se/characters/emmy_nolting.md): A patient at the Berghof sanatorium.

HTML index: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_magic_mountain_se/characters