1946
147 LOS ANGELES, 7.1.1946
7 January 1946
My dears,
a thousand thanks for the newspaper cuttings with the Low caricatures and the little animals. We are living an even more solitary life than usual, as Archie has not been feeling at all well. The radiocardiogram showed that the coronary vessels are not in good condition, so for the next while he must be very careful that nothing chronic develops, but the current business can be entirely cured. It is good that Archie’s medication took immediate effect and his overall condition is also much better already. We shall keep you informed
A kiss
Your old Giraffe
My dears, do not worry, I will be back to normal soon enough. Hearty kisses from your old child
Teddie
Original: handwritten letter.
148 LOS ANGELES, 13.1.1946
13 January 1946
My dears,
today I have good news for you: Teddie is feeling much better, he still has to take it easy, but he is out of danger and the cardiogram is almost normal, not quite as good as it was in May. I wanted to telegraph you via Julie to avoid your getting a shock while still informing you right away, but sadly it is impossible on account of the strikes. – Thomas Mann is here at the moment, and Teddie is giving him musical advice for his new novel (about a musician). – My cousin Gertrud1 received word directly from Melly, and we will try to correspond normally, as the post office has just opened – I do not know whether the committee and Vatican embassies ever reached her. She writes that it is much worse than 1918, and that the Gestapo interrogated her a number of times about Teddie. My cousin Kurt2 (who was negotiating with Oscar’s brother3 back then) fell in France.
Many hugs and kisses from your
lanky Giraffe
My dears, Robert just called from S.F. – the new cardiogram is much better, I am out of danger, must still lie down a great deal for another few weeks (and can therefore not go to Berkeley on the 19th) to recover completely, and definitely did not have thrombosis. I am naturally in very good spirits, and know that you will also be reassured. A few days in S.F. and here were rather disconcerting; many things came together. I can still feel something I never knew: that I have a heart; but my basic feeling is that of the convalescent. Max is also better; the parallels between our respective illnesses really are too peculiar. Thomas Mann just left here. Heartiest kisses
from your son
Teddie, who is still very much alive.
Original: handwritten letter.
1 Gertrud Bohm.
2 No further information.
3 The engineer and manufacturer Bernhard Robert Wiesengrund (1872– 1935), who changed his name to Bernard Wingfield after acquiring British citizenship.
149 LOS ANGELES, 30.1.1946
30.I.46.
My dears,
I am feeling much better, so much better that I will be going to Berkeley next week, which also has the advantage that Robert can have a look at me.
I received the sweet Hippo Cow Christmas present and it made me infinitely happy, especially the passages about Louische, which were like balsam for me – and that, after all, is why you wrote them. The fact that he outlived poor Helene, to top it all, is something I could have made up. I feel very sorry for her – everyone always derided her because of her somewhat unpleasant nature, but actually she never did any of us any harm, in fact did many people some good, and this end erases her faults once and for all. I do not want to change places with Louis. I have no sympathy at all for Helenchen Mommsen1 – she belongs to the Nazi mob, and her brother is one, so let him help her. Do you think Franz is still convinced that the world is just?
Rudi2 was here, to our greatest joy; unfortunately he was staying with the Schönbergs, who more or less held him prisoner.
I am working in bed a great deal, which very much agrees with me. Now too I am writing while lying down, hence my scrawl. But – I am over the worst. Look after yourselves my two dear old animals – thank God you are sitting peacefully in N.Y. The Germans will now have to pay terribly. Do you have anyone looking after our interests at home?
Heartiest kisses from your old Teddie
Original: handwritten letter.
1 Franz Calvelli-Adorno’s wife. Nothing is known about her brother Helmut.
2 Rudolf Kolisch.
150 LOS ANGELES, 30.1.1946
30 January 1946
My dears,
so, our dear animal (Archie) is feeling much better. He is still taking things easy, but one really cannot compare his current condition to before, and you would be as happy as I am about it. – My cousin Gertrud Bohm, née Pie, was brought up by Frau Seele.1 She told you about it herself once, as she is very attached to her two surviving children Gertrud and Hans. We have not yet received any direct response from her. Melly did not even know our California address. – We received word from Egon Wissing yesterday that he is on the direct journey home eastwards via the Panama Canal. The date of his release is not yet fixed. I assume he will turn up here somehow during the summer. – We are awaiting the start of our house-building with the greatest suspense; it is supposed to happen by 10 February. Until then we shall still have to take Ali Baba for walks on the empty property. It really is especially lovely there. And the name of the street will also appeal to you: Via de la Paz. – We enclose a cheque and are very grateful to you for taking the recovery and forwarding of the Adornos’ things off our hands.*
In opposition to your reports, Norah Andreae has been receiving – to our horror – letters from Frankfurt saying that things are very well there, that people are having parties until 5 in the morning and that the two Heymanns2 (Pussy’s first husband) have founded a private bank again. It all seems completely incomprehensible to us. We had a very sweet letter from Luli, who will probably be coming here in April. My only fear is that little Baba (Affo Schwanzo)3 will no longer be around to see the new house.
Many hugs from
Your old Giraffe
Gretel
Original: handwritten letter.
1 See letter no. 11, note 4.
2 Unknown.
3 Translator’s note: this nickname is presumably based on Affe (monkey) and Schwanz (tail).
151 LOS ANGELES, 22.2.1946
22 February 1946
My dears,
our patient is feeling much better again, he returned from San Francisco in good spirits, and the doctor here, Dr Friedgood,1 believes that Archie will get entirely back to normal, especially if he avoids excitement as far as possible. – Yesterday he received a letter from Benjamin’s sister Dora,2 reporting that Benjamin’s notes for the Arcades project have been saved in the Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris. – A thousand thanks for the lovely box, which will make it much easier for us to keep the desk tidy. – Many hugs from
Your old Giraffe
My dears, Berkeley proved fine, despite piles of work and difficult negotiations. Overall much better; today my heart played up properly again for the first time. It needs time; but Max and I are both very careful and are taking things slowly; have not started the big piece yet, as we should both be fully in shape again first. Thomas Mann just left here, and has been most charming – he visited me every Sunday during the worst time. I wish I no longer had to tell you about my stupid health and could only ask after you. Just think of all the Louische atrocities I could write with impunity now, as I must not get worked up, after all. But I shall refrain, for I am noble, helpful and good. Heartiest kisses from your
old child Teddie.
Original: handwritten letter.
1 There is no further information on the doctor Harry Friedgood.
2 Dora Benjamin (1901–46) [translator’s note: not to be confused with his wife of the same name], who had studied national economics and psychology and worked as a psychologist in the field of social welfare following her studies, and then emigrated to Paris, like her brother. She was incarcerated in the camp in Gurs in 1940, but was soon able to escape and meet with Walter Benjamin in Lourdes. She was to be deported in August 1942, but was saved by a medical officer’s report stating that she was unfit for transport, and in December 1942 managed to flee to Switzerland, where she died in July 1946. Her letter dates from 13 February 1946. * [Marginal note by Adorno:] (NB Giraffe – not the bad old Hippo!)
152 LOS ANGELES, 25.2.1946
25 February 1946
My dears,
a thousand thanks for your sweet letter. I am sending you a small package with a few old things: a pair of trousers, a skirt, 2 blouses, 2 sports shirts. – Naturally our little house has steps, doors and windows, but I merely wanted to give you a general idea of the matter. – On the other hand: no, we do not know the new Frau Pollock,1 and would like to know exactly what you thought of her. – How was it with Lottchen? We have not heard from E since his return. Archie will write to Louis; you can no doubt imagine the sort of letters he is always dreaming up, but which are of course never sent.
Look after yourselves
with hugs from your old
Giraffe
All my fondest regards! Did you see E too? We would all very much like to know in detail about your impression of the new Frau Pollock!
Do not always speak so badly of Luli, she brings us more joy than all the Louischers and Villingers put together, she behaves delightfully towards us in every respect – e.g. by guessing one of my secret Christmas wishes – and it is understandable that her heart clings to the angelic dog as much as ours do.
Heartiest kisses from your child Teddie
Original: handwritten letter.
1 Pollock had married Carlota Bernecker (1905–83) at the start of the year.
153 LOS ANGELES, 11.3.1946
11 March 1946
My dears,
a thousand thanks to you both for such sweet and lengthy letters. I laughed myself silly about the Hippo Cow’s tale of E’s visit – je vois ça d’ici. This silence of his is by no means new to me; it probably just means that he simply has nothing more to say (seriously, it probably stems from a neurosis, but it is not meant personally at all, and he is especially fond of you). Hopefully things will remain fine with Lottchen.
I am glad that Frau Pollock made a good impression on you; it was only your emphasis on how ‘natural’ she is that startled me somewhat, as those people who are known as natural generally have nothing more to offer than dressing sloppily and behaving unpleasantly. But that is not what you meant in the case of Lotte, or Carlota, whatever she is called. We had long known that Fritz was on the lookout, of course, only not quite in which direction, and he does not seem to have been entirely sure about it himself. But that is a different matter.
As far as my own precious health is concerned, the tonsil operation has indeed rid me entirely of my neuralgia (fingers crossed), but my heart is still playing up, albeit much less. I cannot easily say to what extent – as Robert thinks – it is really to be attributed to coronary insufficiency,1 or to what extent it is rather neurotic – probably, as always in such cases, the neurosis combines with something organic. I have now also found a genuinely sensible doctor here, and will be going to San Francisco again on the 20th, so Robert can give me a check then.
It is a mistake to think that I am fundamentally unwilling to engage with our good WK’s political ideas, and on many points, alas, we are of the same opinion. Only I am reluctant to correspond with you about the Jews,2 as that is not good for both our more or less broken hearts. After 6 million have been murdered, it goes against my instincts to dwell on the manners of those few who survived, whom I incidentally do not need to like. In addition to that, the 50% goy in me feels somehow responsible for the Jewish persecution, so I am therefore quite especially allergic to everything that is said against the chosen people, e.g. also by Max, whose anti-Semitism more or less matches that of WK, though he has the excuse of having spent a year working for the American Jewish Committee. Commentary, the journal of ‘our’ (anti-Zionist) committee, is a revolting, lying gutter-rag, and I only sent you the issue because of the passage about Bavaria.3
What WK wrote about the measures regarding our German property is extremely interesting. He will no doubt do the right thing; only I think that, in this case, too patient and careful an approach is not unproblematic either, for I suspect that the little there still is in Germany will go to those who are already there and make energetic efforts. (Giraffe’s theory is that old 87-year-old Hahn will get everything.) It would really be best if one of us could go there. But at the moment this is barely possible because of the aforementioned hearts. Please keep me up to date with your measures, which we shall naturally keep entirely to ourselves. I am only fairly positive about one thing, namely that one should somehow get a reliable man to take care of the matter (and perhaps give Franz a hint that there would be something in it for him). Incidentally, similar problems should also be coming up in the foreseeable future regarding Melly – from whom we have still not heard anything – and I would then ask you for your wise advice. I too am convinced that Alois is reliable, but this would only have a bearing in the case of witness testimonies etc., and he has no right of disposal whatsoever.
It is indescribably beautiful here at the moment, and we did not do any work on Saturday, but simply warmed ourselves and enjoyed the southern ocean. The business of our house is entirely within the realm of theology at present.
I enclose a delightful and touching letter to Louische.
Heartiest hugs and kisses
from your old child
Teddie
Original: typewritten letter.
1 coronary insufficiency: EO.
2 In his letter of 9 February, Oscar Wiesengrund had written: ‘Is your work on the Jewish project making any progress? There is a man dining at the Fischers’ who has been reporting disturbing things lately from the camp of the truly “religious” Jewry in Brooklyn. Practically mediaeval. These people are openly hostile to those outside of their own circles. They are mostly eastern Jews. [Paragraph] Knowledge of these things in gentile circles might well be contributing to the clearly growing tide of anti-Semitism. The number of public houses etc. who do not admit Jews is apparently increasing throughout America. That shows a much greater hostility than in pre-Hitler Germany.’
3 This was presumably important to Adorno on account of the property in Seeheim: ‘The Bavarian government announced that property seized from Bavarian Jews under the Nazis would be returned to them, and where the property had been destroyed the government would pay compensation to the former Jewish owners. It has also announced that persons in Bavaria who had been fined by the Nazi administration under the Nuremberg laws would have the money refunded to them, and 500,000 marks were to be available for long-term loans to Jews who resided in Bavaria before March 1933, when the Nazis came to power, and who wished to resettle there’ (‘The Month in History’, Commentary, February 1946, p. 49).
154 LOS ANGELES, 29.3.1946
29 March 1946
My dears,
a thousand thanks for your sweet letter and the little picture. – Has our little package of clothes arrived in the meantime? – According to Helenchen’s letter it must be ghastly in Germany, compared to that we really are in paradise, as incredible as that may seem.
Archie will probably be admitted to the Catholic Hospital tomorrow (or early next week at the latest) to be put on a tailor-made diet. Because his heart business seems to be no more than a consequence of his diabetes. Now that he has stopped eating carbohydrates and sweets, his heart is much better. I hope that after 10 days, once everything has been determined, Archie will go back to being the old wart-hippo again. I shall be working with Archie tomorrow morning, and in the afternoon he is to receive guests; the hospital is only a few minutes’ drive from here.
Many hugs and kisses from your
Giraffe Gazelle
Gretel
The next time you write to the Adornos, please tell Helenchen that we would very much like to see an issue of Sternberger’s magazine ‘Wandlung’.1
I still have a stable full of work to take care of, and I am dreading the clinic – am generally rather down, although the possibility that it could be the diabetes rather than any serious heart trouble is also comforting. Hopefully I will soon no longer have to bore you with this pitiful stuff. Forgive the brevity today with heartiest kisses from your old child Teddie
Original: handwritten letter.
1 From 1945 to 1949, Dolf Sternberger (1907–89) was editor of the monthly journal Die Wandlung [Change], published in Heidelberg; its contributors included Karl Jaspers, Marie Luise Kaschnitz and Alfred Weber.
155 SANTA MONICA, 5.4.1946
The Santa Monica Hospital
Owned and Operated by Lutheran Hospital Society of So. Calif.
1250 sixteenth street
Santa Monica, California
5 April 1946
My faithful old Hippo Cow,
the letter from Julie with the dreadful news reached me here in the clinic, where I am receiving treatment for my diabetes and having my diet ‘set up’. At present I am unable to tell you more than that all my love and hope, even against reason, are with you. Perhaps there will be a miracle and he will pull through – and be back to his old self again. Otherwise we can do nothing from here – I cabled Leo Löwenthal that he should contact Julie.
And you will show all your unfathomable courage once more – I wish I were like you.
Give Julie a thousand thanks
with heartiest kisses
from your old
Teddie
Dear Hippo Cow,
if only I could be with you in these terrible days. Poor Oscar! Teddie is in good hands here, and I hope that, aside from the diet, he will soon no longer notice that he was ever unwell.
Hugs and kisses from
Your old Gretel
Original: handwritten letter with printed letterhead.
156 SANTA MONICA, 9.4.1946
The Santa Monica Hospital
Owned and Operated by Lutheran Hospital Society of So. Calif.
1250 sixteenth street
Santa Monica, California
9 April 1946
My dears faithful old Hippo Cow,
this is just a small sign – we are sitting, waiting and hoping, that is all we can do at the moment. Naturally we are clinging to any hope of the slightest improvement, but I know all too well from 19351 how serious it is – especially at this age, and 2 years after such a heart attack. It is infinitely comforting to know that you and dear Julie are with him at a time when I myself am tied down.
I have good news regarding myself, incidentally. My diabetes is ‘under control’2 following the most careful of diets, and without requiring any insulin. Now the dietician3 and Gretel have to calculate precisely and organize my long-term diet, and then I can go home – tomorrow or the day after. The most important thing is that the heart complaints and other neuritic symptoms have reduced noticeably, and the cardiogram is also good – so there is every reason to assume that I do not have a serious heart condition and that the heart business is indeed only secondary, so that there is a good chance that I will soon be in full possession of my faculties again.
Max just called; he has made a very abrupt decision to go to N.Y. regarding Jewish affairs – he is leaving now. Will only stay a few days, will naturally get in touch with you. I would like to have gone in his place, but I am simply not yet in shape for it, and it is also business that can only be seen to by Max.
Give my father the heartiest possible greetings from his child – I am sure he will understand, and wish him all the very best. Warm regards and a thousand thanks to Julie, without whom we would be lost, and no one knows that better than I do – and do tell her that.
Heartiest kisses
from your old child
Teddie
Dear Hippo Cow,
I shall now diligently do some sums – the trick with Archie’s diet is that he has to take in more or less the same amount of nutrients at breakfast, lunch and dinner. Not only sugar and starch (the carbohydrates) but also fat and protein are being precisely monitored, so that he does not lose his strength and feel constant hunger. But we will no doubt have found out a routine soon.
Hugs and kisses from your old Giraffe
Gretel
Tell Oscar how much we are thinking of him.
Original: handwritten letter with printed letterhead.
1 Adorno’s aunt Agathe had died that year following a stroke.
2 ‘under control’: EO.
3 dietician: EO.
157 LOS ANGELES, 12.4.1946
12 April 1946
My dears Wondrous Hippo Cow,
a thousand thanks for your lengthy letter. It is not only touching, but indeed heroic that you can manage to give us so composed a report under the circumstances. Can Oscar see at all, or does he only recognize you by your voices? Is he in full possession of his mental faculties, or is it the same as it was with Agathe when I returned from England? I assume from your mention of glucose etc. that he is receiving artificial nourishment, a terrible drudgery. We really have little choice but to hope for a miracle and stand by you with all our love and thoughts.
The letter from Louis1 is extraordinary in every respect, and made a great impression on both of us. I would like to reply to him. Would you be able to forward a letter of mine to him? Do please let me know.
My health is continuing to improve. I already went home on Wednesday. I am taking to the diet very well, and it is after all a mental relief to know that the heart symptoms are not signs of a severe heart condition, but neuritic in nature. Today I have to go to the doctor once again, after which this sector will at least hopefully be taken care of.
It is as if the full force of the emigrant’s fate had struck us only now, after the end of the Nazi regime, and in every respect. And yet, reading the letter from Louis, one has the feeling that we ourselves are still fortunate in our misfortune compared to those who were caught in the hell of Germany. It is a comfort to know that my poor, dear father at least had a few peaceful and relatively untroubled years – seven years; for I think it was in April 1939 that you went to Cuba.
Heartiest kisses, my faithful old mother-animal
from your old child
Teddie
and from Giraffe Gazelle, who is diligently feeding the hippo with fruit and vegetables and studying diabetic cookbooks.
Original: typewritten letter.
1 Not preserved.
158 LOS ANGELES, 20.4.1946
DR. T.W. ADORNO
316 So. Kenter Avenue
Los Angeles 24, Calif.
20 April 1946
My dearest faithful old Wondrous Hippo Cow,
thank you for your letter – it is all indescribably sad, and yet, under the circumstances, one still has to be grateful that it is not getting any worse – and that subjectively – as your letter seems to state – he is not suffering. Perhaps, in the face of this awful helplessness, his half-conscious state is actually a blessing. And as, after all, he has held out for almost 3 weeks now, one can still hope for a miracle. I know that your nerves have never failed you when it mattered, and this is the hardest test of endurance they have ever been subjected to. There is nothing I desire more than to be able to help you, but I am ultimately just as helpless as you and Julie.
My health is improving all the time. On Wednesday I have to go to Berkeley regarding my research projects and then attend the psychoanalysts’ meeting1 in San Francisco over the weekend,2 where I shall be giving a lecture.
I can be cabled:
on the 24th in the evening, all day on the 25th & 26th, on the 27th in the morning:
Hotel Shattuck, Berkeley, Calif.
on the 27th from noon onwards and on the 28th: Palace Hotel, San Francisco, Calif.
On the 29th (Monday) I return home.
Thomas Mann is seriously ill: is having an operation on Monday in Chicago because of a lung tumour. Hopefully it is nothing malignant and he will pull through. He has become especially attached to me these last six months, and I am also very fond of him.
Give W.K. my thousandfold best wishes – perhaps they will reach him! And heartiest greetings to dear Julie.
Kisses to you, my Marinumba
from your old child
Teddie
Dear Maria,
it is Easter tomorrow. If only I could be with you and sit at Oscar’s bedside with you. – Archie is taking to the diet exceedingly well; he is feeling better than he has in months.
Kisses, dear Hippo Cow, from the
old Giraffe
Original: handwritten letter.
1 At the ‘meeting’ on 27–8 April, Adorno gave a lecture entitled ‘Social Science and Sociological Tendencies in Psychoanalysis’, which initially remained unpublished. A German translation by Rainer Koehne appeared in 1962 in Sociologica II under the title ‘Die revidierte Psychoanalyse’ [The Revised Psychoanalysis] (see GS 8, pp. 20–41).
2 weekend: EO.
159 LOS ANGELES, 6.6.1946
6 June 1946
My dears faithful old Wondrous Hippo Cow,
I returned from San Francisco fresh in body and mind, and was overjoyed to learn that you had fun with the pictures.
I hardly dare ask after WK anymore, only to request that you extend him my greetings, which will perhaps reach him in a lucid moment. What is the situation with your holidays? Will you and Julie see to it that you can at least go away for two weeks in the summer? The New York heat, which seems already to have set in at the end of May, is surely nothing for an 81-year-old hippo. I am sure you and Julie will solve the problem together.
We have been seeing an incredible number of people in the last few days, including some very peculiar ones: on Sunday afternoon I had a long conversation with Chaplin and yesterday we went to have tea with Thomas Mann,1 who survived the operation miraculously well and is in amazingly good shape. He incorporated all my suggestions into his new novel.
Anita Lothar, who accompanied us to Norah’s place on Sunday (together with Luli and a load of other people), also flew to New York yesterday and intends to get in touch with you.
I would ask that you or Julie forward the letter I have enclosed to Franz Adorno. Please read it and discuss with Julie what detailed information you can and wish to give him about our German claims. (If he is to represent our claims, we cannot keep them from him, and he may be a bureaucrat, but still a decent person.) As far as I know, you had a large balance under your name at the Dresdner Bank that may possibly have escaped confiscation. I have the feeling that you, as you are now an American, could get it released relatively easily. In the light of WK’s illness that would naturally be extremely important. Therefore, please give Franz instructions and authorization if necessary.
Alibaba is supposed to go back up to Luli’s castle during the summer months and try to produce offspring, though we all doubt that he will be willing. We will receive him back in the autumn. Luli, who is more delightful than ever, was in Europe and brought her mother2 to Switzerland. The old Hahns, incidentally, plan to return to their property in Ascona in September – he is 88 years old.
Fare thee well, my animal – I shall keep my fingers crossed for you.
A thousand kisses
your old
Archibald, Hippo King
m.p.
My dearest Wondrous Hippo Cow,
the day before yesterday we received our first direct letter from Melly by completely ordinary mail, as if nothing had happened. She seems to be well enough; she did not write anything about food, and even seems to be looking for an apartment in Vienna. – We found your description of Hermann Grab and Leo very amusing, especially as Archie is now very slim and does not look middle-aged3 at all. I enclose all the letters from Germany you sent us, and hopefully Franz will genuinely do something about the matter. Can you think of some way to get him properly moving?
Many hugs and kisses
from your lanky Giraffe
Gazelle
Original: typewritten letter.
1 In his diary, Thomas Mann noted down the date of the visit as 4 June.
2 Baroness Dorothea von Bodenhausen, née Countess von Degenfeld-Schonburg (1877–1969).
3 middle-aged: EO.
160 LOS ANGELES, 18.6.1946
18 June 1946
My dears good Hippo Cow,
a thousand thanks for your letter and for copying out the lines from Franz. Hopefully he will undertake something sooner rather than later. – The pictures of Archie were genuinely taken by Franz Roehn,1 and naturally only for our dear mother-animal. – The newspaper cutting2 I enclose today shows two very important scholars being interviewed in San Francisco. The two pachyderms look incredibly funny together. Max still seems to be in Chicago, but is expected to return within the next few days. – Pollock spent a week at Lake Arrowhead with his wife. – I used your $5 to buy myself some magnificent yellow pyjamas with little coloured flowers, a thousand thanks. – Give dear WK our heartiest regards, perhaps he will understand after all. Is he suffering a great deal under the heat? We are now seeing quite a lot of Lily Latté, with whom we share – shared – many friends in Berlin. It has meanwhile turned out that she even went to the same school as I did for a few years, except that back then she was black as night (and now blonde). She is an oasis for me – a real piece of the best Kurfürstendamm3 (with a mild air of North Berlin) in all-too-beautiful California.
Many hugs and kisses from
Your lanky Giraffe
Gretel
My dears Wondrous Hippo Cow animal, today just the heartiest regards! What can one say about poor WK! The only comfort is that you and Julie are with him. Naturally I understand that you do not want to leave now. Hopefully the heat is not getting to you so much. It seems already to have been very severe around the end of May.
Have you seen Anita?
On Sunday we were up at Luli’s place – I cannot describe Ali Baba’s behaviour there – like a child. I am working a great deal – at the moment only my own things.
I send you all my wishes – perhaps the miracle will still occur after all. At least it seems that he does not have to suffer.
Kisses from your old
Hippo King Archibald, m.p.
Original: handwritten letter.
1 The actor and voice teacher Franz Roehn (1896–1989).
2 Not preserved.
3 Translator’s note: one of Berlin’s largest (and best-known) streets.
161 LOS ANGELES, 30.6.1946
L.A., 30 June 1946
My dears faithful old Wondrous Hippo Cow,
a thousand thanks for your letter – what can I say about it, my animal. As far as anyone can tell there is no hope – according to your letter, his condition has not only not improved but in fact deteriorated – Liefmann’s statement tends in the same direction – so there is nothing to be done except stand by him and inwardly prepare to cope with the worst.
You asked me about my voice a few weeks ago, and in so doing gave me an idea. An acquaintance of ours, Thora d’Oporto1 (formerly Countess Boxberg), owns a machine with which one can make recordings, and yesterday I made a record of myself speaking for you, which I enclose here. It contains (on both sides) a series of German and French poems, the latter from memory.
On the one side are:
| Ilse |  | by |
| Erdgeist | Wedekind | |
| Green, by Verlaine | ||
On the other side:
| Les Ingénues, by Verlaine | ||
| Im Windes-Weben |  | |
| Im Morgen-Taun by | by | |
| Es lacht in dem steigenden Jahr George | George | |
I think ‘Erdgeist’ and ‘Les Ingénues’ came out well, the George poems not very well, curiously enough, but perhaps the whole thing will bring you some joy – at least that is its sole purpose; the record makes no artistic claims. Have it played on a decent gramophone, best of all with an amplifier (electric) ‘the better to hear me with’.2
Otherwise we are very well, apart from fearing once more that we shall be driven out of our little house due to the dissolution of the OPA.3 On verra.
Hopefully the heat is still not bothering you too much.
We paid another visit to Thomas Mann,4 who gave me a further large portion of his novel. One of the new chapters was worked out entirely according to my suggestions. I told him you had recently read Buddenbrooks, which made him very happy.
Ali Baba almost bit his fellow Afghan, Syrian, to death; the poor victim’s jaw is in a plaster cast. The wedding plans for Ali Baba have been abandoned, as his bride, Ulila, – has breast cancer. One learns something new every day.
Keep your chin up, my great Hippo Cow, as we shall too – that is all we can do in the situation.
Heartiest kisses from your old child
Teddie
Is everything being done to ensure that WK definitely feels no pain? It is terrible that the last remnant of a human being is their pain.
Original: handwritten letter.
1 Theodora Elisabeth von Boxberg, born in 1907 in Rehnsdorf, near Kamenz, probably emigrated to the United States with her first – Jewish – husband in 1936. Following her divorce, she married the Vienna-born visual artist Dario Rappa d’Oporto in 1940. She died in Hawaii in 1976.
2 An allusion to the fairytale Snow White, transcribed by the Brothers Grimm.
3 Office of Price Administration.
4 On 27 June Mann noted down: ‘Had a lively conversation. Gave him the chapter-complex from the outbreak of war until the apocalypse’ (Thomas Mann, Tagebücher 28.5.1946–31.12.1948, ed. Inge Jens [Frankfurt am Main: Fischer, 1989], p. 14).
162 LOS ANGELES, 9.7.1946
L.A., 9 July 1946
My dears faithful good Maria animal,
it was around 7 o’clock yesterday evening, Max had just left and Gretel and I were playing our evening round of sixty-six when the telegram came – unexpectedly, for when one has been expecting the worst for a considerable time, and gradually become familiar with the idea, then that same readiness has deprived it of a part of its reality, and the blow ultimately comes from out of the blue, as it were. I can hardly describe to you how I am feeling. There are two thoughts that I cannot shake off. The first: that I find a death in exile, even though it was certainly a blessing compared to an existence over there, particularly dreadful – that the continuity of a person’s life is senselessly broken in two, that he cannot live his own life to its natural conclusion, as it were, but instead ultimately has the entirely external identity of the ‘emigrant’ forced upon him, a representative of a category rather than an individual. Even though he never once complained about it, any more than you have, I know how it must have eaten away at him, especially with his profound sense of personal independence; and it is genuinely almost the only consolation that his foresight enabled him to remain at least materially independent, his own master, to the end. – The other thought: that when one’s father dies, one’s own life feels like theft, an outrage, something that has been taken away from the older person – the injustice of continuing to live, as if one were cheating the dead man of his light and breath. The sense of this guilt is ineffably strong in me. Perhaps it sounds confused and high-flown to you – it indeed has nothing to do with genuine guilt, for how could I have changed anything! – and yet I cannot escape it. Do you think he would even have recognized me if I had been there? What was his state of consciousness (which does not entirely correspond to the capacity for verbal expression)? And: was he at least free of pain at the end? Write me as much about it as your inner feelings permit – there is something therapeutic in knowing how things really were.
I think of him with infinite love, and with him also of you. I know that you will also bear up in the face of this extreme situation, that you will not surrender, and am proud of you for it. But I do think that you should soon travel somewhere cool where you are well looked after and can relax a little. Do not relinquish your will to live, and think of me as you persevere. Naturally I plan to come, perhaps in August or September, but I cannot make any firm promises yet, as it does not depend on me alone, but also e.g. the American Jewish Committee. And then we shall discuss the whole situation. Fortunately you are free of external worries as far as possible, and so your own problems can essentially be overcome – except for the decisive one, that of irretrievability. And that is as present for me as it is for you.
Yesterday evening Norah was there, this morning Max and in the afternoon Eduard, who flew here yesterday. He extends his sincere apologies to you for not visiting during the illness. But he was genuinely unable. He had to admit his daughter to a mental home a few days ago. I cannot describe what he has been through.
I had drafted the obituary notice,1 and also suggested music – hopefully these external matters will take a dignified form.
No one knows better than I do how you are feeling, and I would rather say nothing about it except that all my love and all my thoughts are with you, more than ever, and that I am already looking forward to seeing you, quand même!
Heartiest kisses from your old child
Teddie
My dears Hippo Cow, Teddie has expressed everything we are feeling so well that all I can do now is to embrace you. I am comforting him as best I can.
Kisses from the old Giraffe Gretel
Original: typewritten letter with additional handwritten note by Gretel Adorno.
1 It appeared in Aufbau as follows: ‘Our faithful Oscar A. Wiesengrund died at the age of 76 from the consequences of a stroke. We will keep him in loving memory. The bereaved/Maria Wiesengrund, née Calvelli-Adorno/Dr. Theodore W. Adorno/Dr. Margarete Adorno, née Karplus/Julie Rautenberg/ New York – Los Angeles, 8 July 1946’.
163 LOS ANGELES, 15.7.1946
15 July 1946
My dears faithful old Wondrous Hippo Cow,
your express letter came on Saturday evening, and I cannot tell you how much we both admire you for your truly unprecedented composure and bearing, which Leo has meanwhile also written to me about.1 I understand every emotion expressed in your letter, and I also know how comforting it must have been for you that you were alone with him at the end, even if he barely realized it anymore.
Even after all your reports, I can still not quite assess to what extent he was conscious during the last few months, i.e. whether the speech disorder genuinely related only to the vocal cords, or also the mental functions of speech; the latter seems more likely, as he would otherwise have found other forms of expression besides the vocal. Evidently he only had sporadic flashes of consciousness in which he became aware of his condition, and it must have been in such moments that he then made those terribly sad utterances. I did not know that the tumour caused him such unbearable pains, and hope that at least the doctors did not delay for a second before administering the morphine. Was the tumour the cause or an effect of the stroke? All our friends attempted to comfort me in the most touching fashion, Luli even with her spiritism, to which she unfortunately seems entirely devoted. When I told Thomas Mann – who just escaped death narrowly himself, and of whom nobody knows whether his recovery will really last – about the last weeks on morphine, he said with an indescribable expression that he hopes that, when his own time comes, he too will not be denied the relief of morphine, and in the same context he spoke of his grandmother, who suffocated through an affliction of the lungs, and in whom he sees the image of his own illness. But he is working on the novel once more, and we have resumed our meetings relating to that.
I hope I will soon be able to tell you more about my plan to come to New York. Will you not take a little trip somewhere? I have to go to San Francisco again on Wednesday. Has Anita been to see you, by the way?
Did they play the Schubert piece*2 at the funeral in the end, or was it replaced with ‘Es ist bestimmt in Gottes Rat’?3 Where did the ceremony take place, and where was he buried? Did you think of having the ashes transferred to the grave in Frankfurt? The thought of it would have something extraordinarily comforting about it, but I do not wish to force it upon you.
I am profoundly sad, and think of you constantly.
Heartiest kisses from
your old child
Teddie
Many hugs and kisses from the lanky Giraffe Gazelle
Original: typewritten letter with additional handwritten note by Gretel Adorno.
1 On 10 July, Leo Löwenthal had written the following to Adorno: ‘I have just returned from your father’s funeral. Your mother bore up wonderfully. [Paragraph] I have the impression that the few words I spoke were quite good for her. […] It should interest you to know that I began my speech with Hölderlin’s late poem ‘Höhere Menschheit’ [Higher Humanity] and closed with his poem ‘Die Entschlafenen’ [Those Who Have Passed Away]. [Paragraph] The wreath was hung on the coffin and looked wonderful.’
2 The second – Allegretto – of the Four Impromptus from 1827 (D 935).
3 The first verse of the poem ‘Auf Wiedersehen – Gottes Rath und Scheiden’ [Farewell – God’s Council and Parting] by Ernst von Feuchtersleben (1806–49), which was set by Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy.
164 LOS ANGELES, 26.7.1946
DR. T.W. ADORNO
316 So. Kenter Avenue
Los Angeles 24, Calif.
26 July 1946
Mumma, my dearest animal,
back from San Francisco safe and sound.
If everything goes smoothly, I will be in New York during the first days of September and stay for 8–10 days. Then we shall take our break in the mountains, which we are both in considerable need of, Gretel no less than myself.
I cannot tell you how much I look forward to seeing you – the Hippo Cow with the Hippo King she spawned. In the meantime you can go on holiday with full peace of mind, and I ask that you do – alone out of egotism, so that my Giant Cow is healthy and in good shape when I come.
In S.F. the young Baron Bissing,1 who was still in Frankfurt 5 weeks ago and got out with the help of a Jewish relief organization, told me the agency where one can already register property claims. Its name is:
Civilian Property Control Agency
Frankfurt Main, Germany.
As the house in Schöne Aussicht was only sold after your escape, it can be written down in the land register under our name without any complications and managed for you, or rather for us, and the property is still there. Please tell dear Julie. (The management of the institute building’s remains has already been taken over by the American authorities.)
One small request: please keep the little razorblade-sharpener for me as a keepsake. It is the last thing of his that I know made him happy!
Everyone is full of admiration for you, from Anita to Golde, and I am more proud of you than ever.
So: have a good and proper rest!
Heartiest kisses from your old child
Teddie
Fond regards from Giraffe, who has to finish something urgent just now.
Original: handwritten letter with printed letterhead.
1 Uncertain; possibly Hans-Ulrich von Bissing (b. 1910). * [Marginal note:] (he was especially fond of it!!)
165 LOS ANGELES, 14.9.1946
DR. T.W. ADORNO
316 So. Kenter Avenue
Los Angeles 24, Calif.
14 September 1946
Mumma my Wondrous Hippo Cow, this is just to tell you that I arrived here in good shape after a smooth and entirely uneventful journey, except for having terrible hay fever. I was so tired that I slept through from half past nine in the evening until quarter to nine in the morning.
I cannot tell you just how happy our 10 days together made me. I called Max last night at his holiday retreat, told him about the conversation with Slawson and the plan1 to go to N.Y. with him again, and he was very enthusiastic. So, the chances are good. You just carry on like that, my animal, and you could still go far in life, and think of your child. Heartiest kisses from your old
Teddie
Warmest regards to Julie
Of the suits you sent, is 1 or 2 from Iwens, and what is the second one? The two small suitcases from you arrived safely, a thousand thanks once again!!!
My dears Hippo Cow, I am in a frightful hurry, so just very quickly a thousand thanks, I was incredibly happy about the brooch. I shall write properly this evening.
Giraffe
Original: postcard with printed letterhead; stamp: Los Angeles, SEP 15, 1946. Manuscript with additional note by Gretel Adorno.
1 The social psychologist John Slawson (1896–?) had been vice-president of the American Jewish Committee since 1943.
166 ARROWHEAD, 16.9.1946
Arrowhead Alpine Club (Calif) Twin Peaks, P.O.B. 24
16 September 1946
My dearest Wondrous Hippo Cow, we arrived here safely – although Baldchen found it somewhat difficult to climb to a height of 2000 metres – find it very beautiful and infinitely peaceful after N.Y., and are thinking of Mumma.
A thousand kisses your child Teddie
Dear Hippo Cow,
our pale Archie already gained some colour today – we are taking walks eagerly, sleeping a great deal and letting Baldchen work now and again. I am happy that Teddie has such good news to report about you. Just carry on like that, my animal.
Hugs and kisses from your old Giraffe Gazelle.
Original: picture postcard: Lake Arrowhead California; stamp: illegible. Manuscript.
167 ARROWHEAD, 25.9.1946
Arrowhead Alpine Club
Alpine Glens Park near Lake Arrowhead
25 September 1946
My dears old veritable Wondrous Hippo Cow,
on the occasion of your 81st birthday – what an impressive date! – I send you the very heartiest congratulations, in the very largest letters that my micrological script can offer, so that your good round, golden Hippo Cow eyes do not have to wear themselves out – and the typewriter is at home. I know that this birthday will not be easy for you; it is probably the saddest you have ever had, and at your mythical age doubly hard. On the other hand, I found you so admirably composed and, now that you are responsible only for yourself, in a certain sense so much younger and more mobile that I am certain you will overcome the feeling of loneliness that must take hold of you, and draw as much enjoyment from this festive occasion as you are able. And after all, as long as I, the other hippo, am still here, you are in fact not alone, and there is nothing I yearn for more than to warm you with all my love, just as you have warmed me with yours all my life. So think of us as we shall think of you when you go to Luchow1 with Julie to eat Haspelchen2 (or do they already have rabbit now?) and drink some decent beer with it.
I need hardly add that I shall do everything in my power to visit you again as soon as possible.
We have had a superbly refreshing time in the mountain air; sometimes going for a drive, sometimes for long walks. My heart stands the altitude effortlessly. We are both tanned and rosy-cheeked. Lily Latté stayed here for 4 days (it is only 3 hours’ drive from Los Angeles), most delightful. We return on Monday; the hotel – charmingly built as a log cabin – will be closing that same day. We are almost the only guests. Even though it is late in the year to be high up in the mountains, we are having beautiful weather, not a cloud in sight, very hot around noon, with a fresher undertone from 4 onwards. Darkness falls at 6; I am now sitting in the giant hall (like Hunding’s hut in Die Walküre) under an appropriately large black bear, and write to the even bigger Hippo King Mother Marinumba von Bauchschleifer.
A thousand of the heartiest kisses my Mumma
from your faithful child
Teddie
Original: handwritten letter with printed letterhead.
1 Luchow’s Restaurant, 110 East 14th Street, between Third and Fourth Avenue, had been established by Guido August Luchow in 1882; this famous German restaurant did not survive the decline of Union Square in the 1970s, and the building was pulled down in 1995.
2 Translator’s note: this is a Frankfurt speciality. It consists of a cured leg of pork that is roasted in the oven and eaten off the bone (also referred to as Haxe or Schweinshaxe).
168 LOS ANGELES, 12.10.1946
12 October 1946
My dears Wondrous Hippo Cow,
your pictures arrived here a few days ago. Archie and I have decided unanimously that II is by far the best of them. They made us very happy, and it made me yearn to see you again, hopefully we can arrange that next year. – I have now made good friends with WK’s typewriter, so Julie does not need to send me her instructions. – Annachen’s letter is actually very touching; should we send her a food package too? Last night at the Horkheimers we met Pollock’s new mother-in-law, Frau Bernekker, the epitome of all mothersin-law. We are still having splendid summer weather here, though the nights are already very cool. When we are finished with our daily workload we regularly take a walk in memory of Ali Baba. Of the two books I would read the Granach1 first, if only because it is shorter. The first part is much more interesting than what comes later; it was naturally best of all when he read it aloud himself with his warm voice. – In a certain corner of my heart I envy Else for going to Europe soon; despite the conditions, which are surely still ghastly, we simply yearn for it with all our heart. But I am not very optimistic that my wish will be fulfilled in the foreseeable future.
Eat good things at Luchow’s, my animal, and once you have eaten your fill, go to sleep.
Your old
Giraffe
My dears Wondrous Hippo Cow, naturally your previous letter arrived here without incident, but at that point we had already sent off the books we had chosen to help you through the long, lonely winter hours when you cannot sit down by the river and stare at the Nile, and also because books really are something for you – both very specific – and cannot be converted into sacrifices to any characters in Europe. I would have liked for Thomas Mann to write something in a copy of Der Zauberberg, but he was somewhat unwell – plagued by itching –, and I did not want to pester him, but did not want any useless delay in the delivery. That is why!
I found the idiotess’s letter entirely humane, alone because it contains something about us instead of scrounging, unlike the pronouncements of soit-disant educated persons. Even if it were calculated, it would at least show an element of thinking of other people. I know well enough that Annachen behaved terribly in the end, but still find myself unable to become genuinely angry about it – such a one-off change of character cannot simply erase the pleasant recollection of many years, and, after all, she is my Françoise2 (the name of the old maidservant in Proust, about whom Gabi already said that she was very similar to Annachen).
I find Else’s letter artificial, not sympathetic. Conspicuous that she does not even mention me. How much she must resent me.
We shall write to Julie within the next few days.
Max and I have finally resumed work on our big dialectics study. The editing of the film book is complete, and it will go to press as soon as I have looked through it again for corrections.
I am glad that you are still well. Just be careful, my animal, during this transitional weather.
Heartiest kisses
from your child
Teddie
Original: type-and handwritten letter.
1 Alexander Granach’s autobiographical novel Da geht ein Mensch (see letter no. 75, note 3).
2 The cook of the narrator’s parents in A la recherche du temps perdu.
169 LOS ANGELES, 28.10.1946
My Hippo Cow,
this election announcement, which was sent to me by an acquaintance from here, an American professor who happens to be staying in Middletown, will perhaps amuse you.
On Wednesday I have to go to Berkeley/San Francisco, but hope to be back by Sunday. Max will also be there for 2 days.
I am well, though Giraffe unfortunately had a migraine attack. I am working a great deal.
I completed the final manuscript of the film book yesterday; it is going to press now.
Your long letter was particularly sweet; and the unspoken reservations about the book of our poor Alex Granach are right.
He was a thousand times more than he wrote down; and yet it does seem worth the effort of reading it.
You can imagine how I am looking forward to Louis’s offspring. What a rabble!
But you are the best, kindest and cleverest of all Hippo Cows.
Lily Latté gave me a splendid red hippo with wide-open mouth (the hippo, not Lily!).
I wish I were already back from S.F. –
Heartiest kisses
from your child Teddie
L.A., 28 October 1946
A thousand thanks for the typewriter instructions. The horse is dictating at such a lively pace that I would normally be unable to keep up, and will now be using the days of his absence to copy everything with the typewriter. Ali Baba (with Luli) paid us a visit, we even saw the husband again. She is as lonely as ever, and we are both giving her jester’s licence – that way things work out fine.
Many hugs and kisses from your
lanky Giraffe
Original: handwritten letter on the back of Joseph Adorno’s election announcement (see fig. 5).
170 LOS ANGELES, 20.11.1946
DR. T.W. ADORNO
316 So. Kenter Avenue
Los Angeles 24, Calif.
20 November 1946
My Hippo Cow animal,
I have a very guilty conscience for remaining silent. But I had an incredible amount to do, and besides that also a block, as I must disappoint you: I now cannot come to N.Y. Max has to go because of the committee, and the Jews would not pay my travel expenses too; so we must be patient; but not for too long, I hope.
You were very right to think that I went to San Francisco reluctantly; that does not prevent me from already having to go there again in 2 weeks to see to it that the book is finished; another reason for being unable to go to N.Y., which would be a thousand times more to my taste. I am at least as sorry about my not coming as you are, if not even more.
I am entirely free of diabetes, but I had a few days of neuritic pains moving about through my entire upper torso (as in February 1945 at your place); since today nothing more. We are receiving more invitations than we would like. Tomorrow Thomas Mann here, on Saturday we shall visit him. Did you finish Der Zauberberg? Incidentally, the book is not identified with Settembrini; he is only one aspect – the (human, not philosophical) model for Naphta is Georg Lukács.
Main news: Ali Baba has fathered 11 little Afghans. Luli as proud as if she had produced the big litter herself. One of them belongs to us, but unfortunately we cannot take it at the moment because our house-owners do not tolerate any dogs.
I am very glad that you can stay in your apartment.1 Be very careful not to catch cold. The weather in N.Y. apparently leaps from one extreme to the next.
Giraffe had a lot of headaches, but we are both now having vitamin injections, which are doing us a lot of good.
Milton Seligmann will also turn 80 at the start of December. Wrote to Louis at length.
It should interest you to know that the institute has received an official invitation2 to return to Frankfurt University. We are negotiating for the long term; it is still undecided whether anything will come of it; but we certainly did enjoy it.
I expect you know that the name Eisler has been all over the newspapers.3 It is a problem for me; coming at the very moment when a book that I wrote with Hanns E 2 years ago is finally being printed. But it will still be a few months before it appears, and then we shall see. Do not mention it.
Heartiest kisses, my animal, from your old
Hippo King
Archibald
Original: handwritten letter with printed letterhead.
1 Adorno’s mother and Julie Rautenberg, who had been staying with her since Oscar Wiesengrund’s death.
2 The letter from the president of Frankfurt University, Walter Hallstein, dates from 17 October 1946; see Horkheimer, Briefwechsel 1941–48, pp. 765f.
3 Hanns Eisler’s brother Gerhart Eisler (1897–1968), who, as a communist, had been forced to flee Germany in 1933, arrived in the USA in 1940. He was targeted by the senate committee set up to investigate ‘un-American activities’. Eisler’s sister Ruth Fischer (1895–1961), who, like her brother, had belonged to the KPD and Komintern in the 1920s but was expelled for her radical leftism, had published a series of six articles in mid-November – ‘The Komintern’s American Agent’ – in Journal America, in which she denounced Gerhart Eisler as a spy, also mentioning Hanns Eisler and warning of his influence in Hollywood.
171 LOS ANGELES, 17.12.1946
17 Dec. 1946
My dears Wondrous Hippo Cow,
a thousand thanks for your sweet letter and the cheque. I hope you have meanwhile received my package and eaten the stollen1 – it is at least a small reminder of the old days. I even wanted to get you a pair of warm fur-lined gloves, but I could not find them anywhere here.
I enclose a cheque, and perhaps Julie will be so kind as to get them for you. But if you would prefer something else, that would naturally also be fine. I am constantly sending Frau Seele packages, and, as she no doubt also receives some from my relatives in the East, I would ask you not to send her anything. – On the evening of the 23rd we shall celebrate Christmas at the Horkheimers, and we have been invited by Fritz Lang and Lily Latté for the 24th. Aside from that we do not have any plans.
Many hugs and kisses from the old
Giraffe
Have an enjoyable Christmas – we shall be thinking of you. We have not heard from Franz Adorno and family in such a long time – have you? I have already accumulated a few clothes for them too.
My dears faithful old Wondrous Hippo Cow,
a thousand thanks for the letter and the cheque – which is much too munificent and aristocratic. Hopefully our little present will also bring you a little joy.
I returned from S.F. in good health and spirits, in a much better mood than the previous times. The work there is progressing well. Max had to go there the Tuesday after I did; is also back; with him and Lix today.
I had a truly astonishing thank-you card from Lujche. Amazing how he is keeping himself together. Also news from Pfeiffer Belli2 and Juliette Rumpf.3 I probably wrote that I had a letter from Margot.4
We shall be at Norah’s place for a truffle supper on Christmas Day.
This Christmas will be hard for you. One is completely overwhelmed by memories on such days, and the happier things used to be, the more painful it is now. I hope so very much that you will get through it, that you will have a lovely time with dear Julie in spite of everything and turn your remembrance of the past into a source of consolation. We send you all our love and concern. How dearly I hope we shall soon see each other.
Max also thought you were in admirable form. Just carry on like that, said the mother to her hopeful offspring – and head bravely for the year 1947, my best and only Mumma.
Heartiest kisses from your old child
Teddie
Original: handwritten letter.
1 Translator’s note: also known as Christstollen, this is a variety of Christmas cake made with raisins and almonds and coated with icing sugar. Though eaten throughout Germany, it is associated most strongly with Dresden, where it is customarily sold at Christmas markets.
2 The writer and journalist Erich Pfeiffer-Belli (1901–89) was feature editor of the Berliner Tageblatt in 1933, and in 1938 switched to the Frankfurter Zeitung. After liberation he moved to the Süddeutsche Zeitung. In 1986 he published his memoirs, entitled Junge Jahre im alten Frankfurt und eines langen Lebens Reise [Early Years in Old Frankfurt and a Long Life’s Travels].
3 Josefine Rumpf (1901–83), who called herself Juliette, worked at the Freies Deutsches Hochstift [translator’s note: a cultural institute in Frankfurt that owns the Goethe-Haus and the Goethe Museum] from 1928 to 1974, and was director of the library there. She had studied together with Adorno, who was a friend of hers. Her 1925 dissertation bore the title ‘Die Beziehungen der auf Goethe, Kant, Fichte folgenden Generation zu Italien’ [The Relationship of the Generation Following Goethe, Kant and Fichte to Italy]. Juliette Rumpf had written to Adorno on 7 October 1946.
4 Margot Rocholl, the daughter of Bernhard Salomon, general director of the former Lahmeyer works (which had built electrical machines and power stations). Margot, whose mother was murdered by the Nazis, was a friend from Adorno’s youth.
172 LOS ANGELES, 26.12.1946
26 Dec. 1946
My dearest Wondrous Hippo Cow,
thank you so much for your sweet letter. I hope that you not only had peaceful holidays, but will also begin the new year well. – We were at the Horkheimers on the 23rd, at Norah’s on the 25th, and on Christmas Eve proper Lily Latté (the child from my school) had us over for a quite lovely evening up at Fritz Lang’s place. – Otherwise, I am afraid I do not have such good news today: Teddie suddenly had the severest stomach pains, had an x-ray and was found to have stomach ulcers. Now he first of all has to stay in bed for 2 weeks and eat even more carefully, and then we shall see. I am telling you immediately so that you know how things are here. There is no cause for concern, and Archie is quite comfortable in bed and is working. I hope we shall soon have everything ‘under control’1 again, as one says here.
many hugs and kisses from your
Giraffe Gazelle
My dears faithful wondrous animal,
your letter was so sweet, it made me incredibly happy. You should not worry on my account; I am recovering well and enjoying having a rest. No pains at all at the moment.
Christmas Eve with Lily Latté and Lang was especially nice; less exciting at Norah’s place.
What Liefmann said is all stuff and nonsense; I had a charming evening with Milton in S.F.
My stomach business is ulcers,2 i.e. harmless, but rather unpleasant. We are doing everything to get rid of them. Working in bed is quite pleasant.
Meanwhile a book on anti-Semitism3 has come out with the first of our pieces on the subject.
Enjoy your New Year’s festivities, and you should really not fret on my account.
And heartiest kisses
from your old child
Teddie
Original: handwritten letter.
1 ‘under control’: EO.
2 ulcers: EO.
3 This is Anti-Semitism: A Social Disease, ed. Ernst Simmel (New York: International Universities Press, 1946), with contributions from Theodor W. Adorno, Bernhard Berliner, Otto Fenichel, Else Frenkel-Brunswik and R. Nevitt Sanford, Max Horkheimer, Douglass W. Orr and Simmel himself.