242 Part III: Emigration Years
14
Learning by Doing: Adorno’s
Path to Social Research
During the last week of February 1938, the steamer belonging to the
French Line anchored in New York.^1 For Adorno, the sight of Manhattan
was not entirely new, but for Gretel this was the first sight of the Statue
of Liberty and the impressive skyline of the city. Both quickly found
their way around the American metropolis, the symbol of the American
way of life and the epitome of urban modernity.^2 During his three years
in Oxford, Adorno had managed to teach himself English to the point
where he could survive quite well even in academic discussions.^3 Scarcely
had they unpacked than Gretel Adorno announced to Walter Benjamin
how well she liked this city of superlatives. It was ‘by no means so new
and progressive’. She was struck by the contrast of ‘the extremely
modern and the downright shabby’. ‘One does not have to look for
surrealist things here, for one stumbles across them all the time. In the
early evening the high rise blocks are very imposing, but later on, when
the offices are all closed, and the electric lighting is much reduced, they
remind me of badly lit European tenements.’^4 Gretel would also have
been able to captivate Benjamim by telling him about the cast iron used
in the buildings in Lower Manhattan, the beaux arts style of the public
buildings, with the shopping galleries downtown, the Metropolitan
Museum, the Public Library and the bookstores.
Adorno expressed similar views to those of his wife, and declared the
city with its seven million inhabitants to be European. Seventh Avenue,
where he and Gretel lived during their first few weeks there, reminded
him of the Boulevard Montparnasse, and Greenwich Village resembled
Mont St Geneviève. On their arrival, the couple occupied an apartment
that was temporary, but very agreeable. It was in 45 Christopher Street,
from where they had a ‘wonderful view’ of the city.^5 Later on, from
September 1938, Adorno and his wife had a new address, at 290 River-
side Drive, not too far from Columbia University and the Institute of
Social Research. There they had rented an apartment on the thirteenth
floor with a view of the Hudson River, and were at long last able
to unpack the furniture that had arrived from Germany. Adorno even
had his piano again. He and Gretel enjoyed receiving guests, who soon