The purpose of this paper is to examine Thomas Mann's views on two key issues of the intellectual and political history of early twentieth-century Europe: irrationality and truth. This article focuses on two episodes from two novels from Thomas Mann's "Weimar era', namely "Snow" from Der Zauberberg (1924) and "Journey to Hell" from Joseph und seine Brüder : Die Geschichten Jaakobs (1933). I argue that the episodes "Snow" and "Journey to Hell" provide major insights into Thomas Mann's stance towards the themes of irrationality and truth and thus enable us to better assess his position in the intellectual and political landscape of the Weimar Republic. In analysing the two episodes, I place special emphasis on how Thomas Mann used story-telling as a mediumto probe the questions of irrationality and truth. Finally I compare the views of Thomas Mann to the views of contemporary intellectuals such as Max Weber, Walter Benjamin, Karl Mannheim and Erich Kahler to illumine Thomas Mann's place in the intellectual context of the time.