368 Part IV: Thinking the Unconditional
and Adorno. Hauser’s first letter was full of enthusiasm: ‘If I say that
knowing you personally confirmed everything that I could have prom-
ised myself after coming to know your writings, you will be able to
judge my feelings by the enthusiasm you know I feel for your achieve-
ments as a writer.’^7 For his part, Adorno did what he could to find
an appropriate position for him at a German university. He used his
contacts in Frankfurt, but also appealed to Karl Löwith in Heidelberg,
Helmuth Plessner in Göttingen and Wilhelm Weischedel in Berlin.
Wilhelm Weischedel, who had been born in 1905, had already asked
Adorno in the summer of 1954 whether he would be willing to accept
an offer for the second chair in philosophy at the Free University of
Berlin. This was very flattering for Adorno and he told Hauser about
it in a letter on 18 July 1954, trying at the same time to encourage him
with the thought that this inquiry proved that ‘people like us have not
been completely forgotten in the world’.^8 This episode is of some im-
portance, since the biographical literature about Adorno is unanimous
in its belief that the Frankfurt outsider never in his entire life received
an offer of a post at another German university. This is quite true, but
there were informal inquiries like this one.^9 Adorno’s respect for Hauser
was not confined to his efforts to find him a job, as is evident from his
comments on the German version of his Social History of Art. ‘I was
completely immersed in your boo k... I felt so enthusiastic that I can
scarcely find words for it, and I shall try to express that fact. That such
a book is still possible in the present situation is almost miraculous and
you have set a standard here that no responsible thinker with a respect
for truth will be able to ignore.’^10
Adorno also attempted to help Jean Gebser, an unconventional phi-
losopher ignored by the academic establishment. He assured him in a
number of letters that he and Horkheimer would do everything in their
power to procure an honorary doctorate for him.^11
Adorno’s dual activity as sociologist and philosopher resulted from
the fact that as from July 1957 he had been made a full professor for
the two disciplines.^12 This definitive material settlement and the formal
recognition of his academic achievement in Frankfurt was a great satis-
faction to Adorno. As he wrote to Friedrich Hacker: ‘You will know
that I have in the meantime become a full professor. These things
remind me of Anatole France’s wonderful comment about Bergeret.
He despised the cross of the Legion of Honour, but it would have been
even better to receive it and then to despise it.’^13 This change of status
was anything but smooth, however. In a lengthy report the education
expert Heinrich Weinstock pointed out that Adorno’s appointment was
essentially just a doubling of the chair occupied by Horkheimer. Even
taking the ‘reparations’ aspect into account, such an increase conflicted
with all university procedures. The historian and orientalist Helmut Ritter
was even more scathing in discussion of the appointment in the meeting
of the faculty. He said that this was an instance of favouritism. To make