To this day, the "Reflections of a Non-Political Man," written between 1915 and 1918, remains one of Mann's most controversial works, not only because it eludes a categorical classification within his overall oeuvre but also because its language, through the use of stereotypical attributions such as "German," "French," or "Russian," closely resembles the nationalistic tone of the wartime period. The work reconstructs the contemporary images of France, Russia, and Germany, resulting in the finding that Mann's nationalist rhetoric always contained a supranational impetus, which becomes particularly evident in the comparative perspective with the leading intellectuals of France. This illustrates that nationalism and cosmopolitanism were often not contradictions in the views of the World War era, but rather intertwined and complex.