Thomas Mann
German
Hans Castorp, a young man from Hamburg, travels to the sanatorium 'Berghof' in Davos-Platz, Switzerland, to visit his cousin Joachim Ziemßen for three weeks. The journey itself is long and arduous, winding through various landscapes and requiring a change of trains to a narrow-gauge mountain railway. The increasing altitude and the remoteness from his everyday life begin to affect Hans Castorp, shifting his perspective from his planned return to his engineering studies and impending career to a sense of unease and curiosity about the unfamiliar, rarefied atmosphere of the high mountains. Upon arrival at Davos-Dorf, he is met by Joachim, who has been at the sanatorium for five months and is recovering from a lung ailment. Joachim informs Hans that his stay will likely need to be longer than three weeks, as acclimatization and the strange conditions of the sanatorium require time. Hans is initially bewildered by Joachim's resigned tone and the descriptions of life at Berghof, including the
