Debates with Benjamin, Sohn-Rethel and Kracauer 229future in the United States, rather than in Europe. He now had a more
realistic view of his career opportunities in Britain than at the start of
his Oxford studies.
As late as October 1936, at the time when the currency charges against
him were pending, he had still been flirting with the idea of settling
in France. Since his grandfather had been a career officer in the French
army and his mother was of French origin, he had grounds to hope
that, ‘as a university teacher expelled by the Nazis, he might achieve an
accelerated, or perhaps even immediate, naturalization in France.’^78
Accordingly, he asked Benjamin to make inquiries about his likely pro-
spects. He abandoned the idea once Benjamin had informed him about
the actual complications of naturalization. It had anyway only been a
possibility he had been playing with, since he was already making initial
preparations for an extended visit to Horkheimer in order to gain a
better picture of the institute and of what it might be like to live and
work in New York.
This intention was strengthened by the fact that early in 1937 Oscar
Wiesengrund travelled to the United States on family business, but
also to explore the possibility of moving to the New World. He had not
been too drastically affected by Nazi measures to eliminate Jews from
the economy, but he was enough of a realist to see that, as a Jewish
businessman, he would not be able to preserve his independence. He
perceived the danger of becoming a defenceless victim of the arbitrary
measures of the regime. Accordingly, he considered the gradual sale
of property in Frankfurt and Seeheim, as well as of his shares in the
Leipzig firm.^79 His son made sure that during his visit to the United
States he was to establish contact with Horkheimer. Adorno wrote to
the latter: ‘One of the principal reasons for his [Oscar Wiesengrund’s]
journey is to discuss with you questions of concern to Gretel and me,
including financial questions.... I should like to clarify one point: as
you know, my parents still own significant assets in Germany, as does
Gretel’s mother. It would be not unimportant – and this is something
my father has under active consideration – to arrange matters so that,
if this inheritance should come down to us, it should not be snapped
up from under our noses by the Nazis. He is also looking into placing
the assets in a blocked account in the hope that they might somehow be
released without too great a loss.’^80 This frankness towards Horkheimer
shows clearly that Adorno intended to place himself entirely in his
hands as far as his own professional future was concerned. The long-
cherished idea of intensive collaboration with him was now finally to
become a reality.
Horkheimer evidently took due note of this greater forwardness on
the part of Adorno, and adopted a responsible, but in certain respects
also an ambivalent, attitude. He declined, politely, but very firmly, to
offer Adorno or his father any definite practical advice in financial or
inheritance matters. This may have been partly perhaps because he had