From Philosophy Lecturer to Advanced Student 197that presupposes genuine solidarity on both sides, it simply will not do
for one side to leave the other in the dark about vital matters of con-
cern.’^40 Adorno had reason to suspect that the institute had something
like a ‘secret policy’ in its dealings with him. He was right to feel dis-
concerted at having been the only person associated with the institute
not to have received an offer of assistance in leaving Germany. He knew,
he said, that this grudging attitude came not from Horkheimer, but
from other members, particularly Pollock and Löwenthal. He criticized
the failure to offer him the directorship of the London branch. In order
to preserve the collaboration with himself, Horkheimer should not have
hesitated ‘to throw others out, no matter who, in order to retain him’.^41
Confronted with Adorno’s unreasonable request to be given a firm
position in the European organization, Horkheimer simply declared that
he had a mistaken idea of the financial resources of the institute. The
London branch, for example, was limited to the relatively unattractive
position of an assistant lecturer, which had been given to Jay Rumney,
a sociologist who helped out with distributing questionnaires and other
minor tasks. Horkheimer went on to explain: ‘Much of what you com-
plain about, like your ideas about the London office, seems to go back
to your rather exaggerated picture of the scale of the institute’s opera-
tions. We are a group of people striving with our very limited resources
to advance theory. The public face of the organization plays no more
than a very minor part. You have always overestimated the question of
formal inclusion.’^42 Not unreasonably, Horkheimer reproached Adorno
with his political blindness. He had cherished illusions about ‘your future
life in Germany or an academic career elsewhere and so you expected
guarantees from the institute in exchange for giving up those prospects.
But we could not possibly give any such guarantee.’^43 Nevertheless, he
held the door open for Adorno. He suggested that Adorno should once
again start to exchange ideas with the institute so as to be better able
to form an idea of its current activities. Furthermore, he invited him
to come to New York as soon as possible for detailed discussions on
research projects and the future of the journal.
For a variety of reasons, this trip to America was put off from one
month to the next and then from year to year. Adorno had to return to
Germany to sort out the currency problem, and then he had to undergo
a complicated piece of surgery of the urinary tract in Frankfurt. Finally,
of course, he had his academic obligations in Oxford to attend to. On
the other hand, there was a meeting in London in mid-May 1935 with
Fritz Pollock which succeeded in clearing the air. Then, early in Decem-
ber, Adorno met Horkheimer briefly in Paris in the Hotel Lutétia, a
famous rendezvous for exiles, and then again in Amsterdam for a whole
day, when they finally had a lengthy discussion.^44 The last vestiges of
disagreement were removed in the course of their talks, with the con-
sequence that they were followed by a lively correspondence about the
affairs of the institute, newspaper articles and potential contributors.