94 Part II: A Change of Scene
Benjamin, his acquaintance with Ernst Bloch, and even mentioned his
Franco-Corsican background, to which he owed the name ‘Adorno’.
Later, when they were both in American exile, Morgenstern re-
proached him bitterly for having ‘shaved off’ (abgemäht) his father’s
Jewish surname ‘Wiesengrund’ in his ‘ruthless ambition’ to be accepted
as a writer in the Anglo-Saxon world.^41 This reproach evidently ex-
presses his resentment towards Adorno. However, the truth is that, if
Adorno published in the United States under the name of Theodor W.
Adorno, this was simply the consequence of the process of naturaliza-
tion in the United States in November 1943. It was not a symbolic act of
emancipation from his Jewish father. He never attempted to distance
himself from his Jewish origins, or to deny his paternal inheritance.
Completely without foundation, moreover, is Morgenstern’s claim that
during the Weimar Republic Adorno belonged to the Communist Party.
There is no evidence to substantiate such an assertion. On the contrary,
throughout his life Adorno had a deep aversion to formal membership
of any party organization.
During Adorno’s first stay in Vienna, however, his relations with
Morgenstern were free from the acrimony of later years. Their dealings
with each other were cordial and characterized by mutual respect.
Morgenstern went out of his way to put Adorno in touch with the
famous Georg Lukács, whom he knew and who was living as an émigré
in Hütteldorf, just outside Vienna, in what Adorno remembered as
difficult circumstances in a frugal apartment. In a letter to Berg,
he wrote that he ‘greatly revered Lukács; from a human point of view
he had a profound effect on me, but in terms of ideas there could be no
meeting of minds, and because it was Lukács, I found this especially
painful, since intellectually he had influenced me more than almost
anyone.’^42 This influence came from the early writings of Lukács, who
was now over forty years of age. They included Soul and Form, The
Theory of the Novel and History and Class Consciousness.^43
During these months in Vienna, towards the end of June, Adorno
was surprised and also delighted to be offered the editorship of the
music journal Pult und Taktstock, in which a number of his reviews had
already appeared. The journal belonged to the respected music publisher
Universal Edition directed by Emil Hertzka, who came originally from
Budapest. The head of the opera section was Hans Heinsheimer, who
was also in charge of the Musikblätter, where Paul Stefan was the editor.
In a letter of 25 June Adorno proudly announced to Berg that he had
been offered Stefan’s post. No sooner had he agreed and proposed a
number of innovations than the journal’s editorial board seemed to go
cold on the idea. Reading between the lines, it is evident that Adorno’s
disappointment is greater than he cares to admit; it was another four
years before he was given the status of an unofficial director, a post he
occupied for only a short time, having become embroiled in constant
disagreements with the management.^44