228 Part III: Emigration Years
whether she killed herself... or whether she was murdered.’ Other
former students were also arrested or went into hiding.^73
The anti-Semitic campaign was growing in ferocity, with only one
temporary lull, during the Olympic Games in Berlin in the summer of
- At the same time, Germans of Jewish descent found that their
lives were being systematically destroyed. Both Adorno’s father and his
fiancée Gretel were directly affected by the discriminatory legislation,
social stigmatization and economic exploitation to which Jews were
subjected during the years in which National Socialism consolidated its
power. Adorno could scarcely maintain any illusions about the humilia-
tions that awaited him and those closest to him in the immediate future.
Once he had begun to assess the situation more realistically, he made
efforts to persuade Gretel Karplus to leave Berlin and come to Oxford
so that they could marry in Britain.^74 Their relationship had now lasted
well over ten years, and it was evident that they both wished to marry.
In May 1936 Gretel’s father had died in Berlin. Since then she had been
trying to sell her stake in Tengler & Co. in order to leave Germany as
soon as possible. Her sister Liselotte had been living in America for
some time.
However, their wedding plans only began to take concrete shape
early in 1937 when the difficult sale of the factory could finally be con-
cluded. In the spring of that year, Adorno and Gretel went on tour
through the towns of Franconia. The pressure of fascism seemed to be
less marked there than in the big cities. In a letter to Horkheimer, he
reported that they had seen the arena for the Nazi party rallies, the
place where in September 1935 the ‘Nuremberg race laws’ had been
promulgated.^75 ‘There was no one there... ; the whole thing looks
somewhat decayed and wretched, by no means aere perennius. Strangely,
the buildings all suggest the imago of prison.’^76
Once a wedding had been decided on, Adorno wrote to Horkheimer
that Gretel had begun to learn about housekeeping – a clear indication
that there would be a traditional division of labour in their marriage.^77
And in fact, it did not occur to Adorno to play any part in the
organization and conduct of the household or to take any interest in
buying furniture, etc. Everyday practical things were left entirely to
Gretel. This even included ordering his suits from the tailor. At the
same time, he asked Horkheimer to act as a witness at the marriage
ceremony in Britain.
This very personal request also had a symbolic meaning. For at
the same time as he formalized his relationship with Gretel, his inten-
tion now hardened of throwing in his lot with Horkheimer even more
decisively than hitherto and hence also with the Institute of Social
Research in New York. Adorno’s status as the established represent-
ative of the institute in Europe had been assured since 1935 and
confirmed in writing. In view of this first step towards integration in the
institute, he had increasingly made up his mind to seek his professional