Theodor Adorno: One Last Genius PDF
Preview Theodor Adorno: One Last Genius
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 1 •
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