Adorno

Change of Scene: Surveying the Ruins 335

had been discussed as a possible first president of the Federal Republic.
Adorno, who was still in Santa Monica, did his best to make a good
impression.^31 In Frankfurt he took steps to succeed to Hans-Georg
Gadamer’s chair, since Gadamer had decided to accept the offer of a
chair in Heidelberg.^32 While still in Pacific Palisades, Horkheimer at-
tempted to make use of his already considerable influence. He wrote to
Adorno on 9 November, ‘If we could acquire this professorial chair, it
would be the fulfilment of a dream that only a few years ago would have
seemed like a pure mirage. It would bring about a wholly new situation,
one in which two people who stand at right-angles to reality and for that
reason seem predestined to impotence would suddenly acquire incalcul-
able influence. For if we had two chairs instead of just the one, quantity
really would be transformed into quality; we really would be in a posi-
tion of power.’^33 This letter proved to be prescient as far as the two
chairs were concerned, since they brought him and Adorno long-term
success, and also with regard to his prediction of influence, which would
shortly come true with the emergence of the ‘Frankfurt School’.
In 1950, however, there seemed to be no such future in prospect.
Adorno was making no headway within the university, even though he
was placed third in the competition for the chair. Instead, he was given
a supernumerary professorship (außerplanmäßige Professur), not least
thanks to a reference from Horkheimer. This appointment was the first
step to an act of ‘reparation’ of a sort on the part of the university
towards someone who had been hounded out of his post over a decade
previously.^34 Adorno’s salary was paid from central university funds. For
his activities as deputy director of the institute he received compensation
for expenses from the foundation Gesellschaft für Sozialforschung.
The outlook for Horkheimer was much more favourable. In the
winter semester of 1950–1, he was officially reinstated in his own former
chair in social philosophy or philosophy and sociology, and as early as
the autumn of 1951 he was elected dean of the Arts Faculty. This was very
much a lightning career, since it was not until early 1950 that Horkheimer
had set out for Frankfurt from Pacific Palisades in order to take up his
new position. Despite the favourable career prospects, he embarked on
his journey with mixed feelings – he feared a resurgence of anti-Semitism
and nationalism in Germany. Nevertheless, he wrote to Gretel during
the journey: ‘Teddie is looking forward to our reunion. I am too.’^35
Having arrived in Frankfurt, he put up first of all in the Hotel Carlton,
but then moved to his own apartment in Westendstrasse 79, after Maidon
and then Gretel had followed on, encouraged by the reports in his
letters: ‘Life in Germany is European despite everything. Even though
the destroyed cities sometimes seem quite spooky, I find it hard to resist
the charms of the atmosphere which is horrific politically, but culturally
still highly attractive. Whatever has to do with enjoyment – art, poetry,
theatre, philosophy, the language and landscape, human intercourse,
drinking and eating – it is all of a standard that compels respect.’^36