Chapter 2 Summary

This chapter tells Hans' "back story." Both Hans Castorp's parents die between Han's fifth and seventh years of life, his mother from an embolism and his father from pneumonia. For a year and a half, Hans is raised by his grandfather, Hans Lorenz Castorp, a stern, impressive Calvinist businessman whom Hans watches intently. Sometimes after dinner, Hans follows his grandfather into the den, where he asks to be shown the family baptismal bowl, engraved with the names of the family patriarchs for the last few hundred years. Listening to his grandfather recite the names of his ancestors fills Hans with a dreamy, reverential feeling. Hans Lorenz is a strict traditionalist who believes only the aristocracy should govern and who deplores most signs of "progress." He also has a head tremor that he conceals by burying his chin in his old-fashioned collar. Young Hans...