Theodor W. Adorno: One Last Genius

465 Pages·2008·1.57 MB·English

by  Detlev Claussen

Theodor W. Adorno

THEODOR W. ADORNO
One Last Genius
DETLEV CLAUSSEN
Translated by Rodney Livingstone
TheBelknapPressof
HarvardUniversityPress
Cambridge,Massachusetts
London,England
2008
Formymother-in-law,ErnaLeszczy§ska,andmymother,CarlaClaussen,
bothofwhomhavehelpedmetounderstandthetwentiethcenturythrough
experience.
Copyright©2008byRodneyLivingstone
Allrightsreserved
PrintedintheUnitedStatesofAmerica
OriginallypublishedasTheodorW.Adorno:EinletztesGenie,©S.FischerVerlag
GmbH,FrankfurtamMain,2003.
LibraryofCongressCataloging-in-PublicationData
Claussen,Detlev.
[TheodorW.Adorno.English]
TheodorW.Adorno:onelastgenius/DetlevClaussen;translatedbyRodney
Livingstone.
p. cm.
Includesbibliographicalreferencesandindex.
ISBN-13:978-0-674-02618-6(hardcover:alk.paper)
1.Adorno,TheodorW.,1903–1969. 2.Philosophers—Germany—Biography.
3.Philosophy,Modern—20thcentury. I.Title.
B3199.A34C58132008
193—dc22 2007039108
Contents
ListofIllustrations vi
HowtoReadThisBook vii
1 InsteadofanOverture:NoHeirs 1
2 TheHouseinSchöneAussicht:
AFrankfurtChildhoodaround1910 13
3 FromTeddieWiesengrundtoDr.Wiesengrund-Adorno 65
4 Adornoas“Non-identical”Man 115
5 Transitions 145
BertoltBrecht:“ToThoseWhoComeafterUs” 145
TheodorW.Adorno:“OutoftheFiring-Line” 147
HannsEisler,theNon-identicalBrother 149
FritzLang,theAmericanFriend 162
6 FrankfurtTransfer 176
7 Adornoas“Identical”Man 220
8 ThePalimpsestofLife 261
Appendix:Letters 341
TheodorW.AdornotoErnstBloch,26July1962 341
MaxHorkheimertoTheodorW.Adorno,27September1958 343
TheodorW.AdornotoMaxHorkheimer,14February1965 354
TheodorW.AdornotoClausBehncke,21February1964 363
MaxHorkheimertoOttoO.Herz,1September1969 365
Notes 367
Sources 417
Acknowledgments 419
Index 427
Illustrations
Followingpage144
SchöneAussicht,1901
Adorno’sparentsontheirhoneymoon
Teddieasachild
WithAuntAgatheandmother,Maria
Dr.Wiesengrund-Adorno,latterhalfofthe1920s
B.F.Dolbin,cartoon,1931
InLosAngelesinthe1940s
WithGretelAdorno,1954
ThereestablishedInstituteforSocialResearchinFrankfurt
WithEduardSteuermanninKranichstein,ca.1960
Atthepiano,1967
WithGretelinSilsMaria,1964
SilsMaria,summer1963
WithMaxHorkheimerandtheFrankfurtSDS,1967
WithHans-JürgenKrahl,September1968
IntheinstituteoccupiedbytheSDS,1969
RevisingamanuscriptatKettenhofweg123
LectureHallVIintheJohannWolfgangGoetheUniversity,Frankfurt
Adornoin1962
How to Read This Book
The aim of this book is to help Adorno’s texts speak for themselves and
emerge in their original form from behind the secondary literature that
has proliferated endlessly. Each chapter is designed so that it can also be
readonitsown.Adorno’sworksareinterpretedasapalimpsest,worksfull
of overlapping ideas. References to all sources cited in the text can be
foundbythosewhowishtoinspectthemcritically,orextendtheirreading,
intheendnotesorattheendofthebookundertheheading“Sources.”
Likemostso-calledchildprodigies,IamaverylatedeveloperandIstillfeel
todaythatwhateverItrulyexistforstillliesbeforeme.
THEODOR W. ADORNO TO ERNST BLOCH, 26 JULY 1962
Ifeelverystronglythatinmycaseworkisadrugthathelpsmetoovercome
whatwouldotherwisebeanalmostunbearablemelancholyandloneliness.I
fearthatthisisthesecretofmyso-calledproductivity.
31 MARCH 1960, NOTEBOOK F
...andconceivethebetterstateasoneinwhichpeoplecouldbedifferent
withoutfear.
1945
1. | Instead of an Overture: No Heirs
The news of his death came suddenly and quite unexpectedly. People
hadjuststartedtobreathefreelyagaininFrankfurtafteraturbulentsum-
mer semester. In mid-July 1969 Theodor Adorno and his wife, Gretel,
had escaped from the usual sultry Frankfurt summer heat and,as he had
done for the previous two decades, withdrawn to the Swiss mountains
“likeoldmountaincattlechangingtheirpasture.”1Evenatthisdistancehe
wasabletodealwithessentialadministrativemattersandcorrespondence.
OnWednesday,6August,alettertoHerbertMarcusewasbeingtypedup
in the office of the Institute for Social Research.The secretarial staff were
waiting for alterations and a final approval from Zermatt. After a phone
call to the Hotel Bristol, Adorno’s secretary in Frankfurt, Hertha Georg,
was told that “Herr Professor” had “gone to the hospital.” It sounded to
herasif thiswasnothingmorethananexcursiontotheMagicMountain.
Buttowardnoon,definitivewordarrivedinFrankfurtfromGretelAdorno.
By Saturday a death notice signed by her appeared in the Frankfurter
Rundschau, stating simply, “Theodor W. Adorno, born on 11 September
1903,diedquietlyinhissleepon6August1969.”
The German public was quite unprepared for the news of Adorno’s
deathinSwitzerland.Theobituarieslyinginthefiledrawersofnewspaper
editors had not been updated. Most of the people who might have been
entrustedwiththetaskofwritingafreshonewereonvacation.Unusually,
noonerushedtotheforetomakeapubliccomment.Thestormypolitical
quarrels with his students that Adorno had endured in 1969 seemed ob-
scureandhadneverbeenclarified.Thepublic,whichwasnotparticularly
well informed, appeared to expect disturbances during the funeral. Al-
thoughitwasthemiddleofthesummerholidayseason,almosttwothou-
sandmournersturnedoutforthefuneralintheFrankfurtCentralCeme-
tery.Famousfacescouldbeseenfollowingthecoffin,accompanyingGretel
Adorno. Not just Max Horkheimer, the man who had given a name to
the Critical Theory that Adorno had made world-famous. Other old ac-
quaintances were present, too: Ernst Bloch, aged but still very alert, and
also Alfred Sohn-Rethel. Adorno had been exchanging ideas with them
sincethe1920s.Theradicalstudents,whomsomepeopleregardedasbeing
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