328 Part IV: Thinking the Unconditional
16 Change of Scene: Surveying the Ruins
Adorno arrived in Paris at the end of October 1949. However, he could
not stay there long since he had to be in Frankfurt as soon as possible
in order to take up his teaching duties in the Arts Faculty at the start
of the winter semester. He had made the journey without Gretel,
who wanted to remain in Santa Monica until the questions about her
husband’s professional future had been resolved, to say nothing of the
difficulties of finding somewhere to live in war-torn Frankfurt.
If Adorno had arrived a few weeks earlier, he might have witnessed
the ceremonies, radio speeches and debates associated with the founda-
tion of the two German states in May and October of that year. The
first elections to the Bundestag had been held shortly before his return
and had resulted in the close victory of the conservative parties, which
had in turn led to the election of Konrad Adenauer as chancellor of the
Federal Republic. The liberal Theodor Heuss, a man with whom Adorno
later became acquainted, became the first president.^1 In this early phase
of the Federal Republic, the nation’s attitude to its own dark past was
far from unambiguous. It is true that in 1949 Heuss had spoken of
‘the collective shame’ of the Germans, and Paul Löbe, the oldest mem-
ber of the Bundestag, who had been the last democratic president of the
Reichstag, had reminded parliament in his inaugural speech of the in-
herited burden of National Socialism. However, Adenauer, in his first
governmental declaration, did not say a word about German guilt in the
murder of the Jews and the responsibility arising from that.^2 Even worse,
the government had re-employed people who had been active in the
administration, justice system and politics under the Nazis. In addition
to this continuity in terms of personnel, there had been no break in
tradition as far as national values were concerned.^3 This tendency of
West German politics to persist in its old ways and to aim at normaliza-
tion can be seen as having its roots in fear and defiance. It may be
linked with the fact that the German Democratic Republic came into
existence at the same time with the proclamation of its constitution in
the Soviet zone of occupation. This sealed the division of Germany. The