With his Back to the Wall 463the student protest was condemned to failure from the outset. In the
essay on ‘Marginalia to Theory and Praxis’, which reads like a post-
script to the correspondence with Marcuse, he writes that the building
of barricades is ‘ridiculous against those who administer the bomb’.^74 A
practice that refuses to acknowledge its own weakness when confronted
by ‘real power which hardly feels a tickle’ is ‘deluded’, ‘regressive’ or, at
best, ‘pseudo-activity’.
Does this mean that a theory that aspired to ‘becoming practical’, in
the sense of introducing real social change, has become resigned to
failure? Adorno turns this accusation on its head. In reality, it was the
‘uncompromisingly critical thinker’ who initiated the political practice
that could lead to changes in society.^75
Following this discussion at the Frankfurt Book Fair in September
1968, which focused on what was in his eyes the false question of re-
volutionary practice, Adorno was able to pause for breath. He went
to Vienna on 22 October for the publication of his book Alban Berg:
Master of the Smallest Link. Two days later, he was the guest of the
Institute for Evaluation Research in Graz, which had been established
by the culture editor of the Graz daily Neue Zeit. Adorno gave a talk in
the auditorium of the Music Academy in the Nicolaigasse on a burning
cultural topic of the day: the crisis in Vienna, where they had been
unable to fill the post of director of the Vienna State Opera. His talk
was entitled ‘Conception of a Vienna Operatic Theatre’.^76 This was
followed the next day by a three-hour discussion of his talk in the
Institute for Evaluation Research. For once the topic was not theory
and practice, but true and false needs in the world of opera. The press
reports on his lecture were extraordinarily enthusiastic. Harald Kaufmann
wrote to Adorno, saying, ‘I cannot remember ever having read such
detailed and for the most part serious reactions to any lecture in the
Austrian papers. The whole event was a huge success and it looks as if
it will have genuine consequences. For the Viennese papers won’t let
the matter rest and will keep coming back to your proposals.’^77 There
was a further event in Graz in November to celebrate the appearance of
Adorno’s book. This was a reading from the chapter entitled ‘Reminis-
cences’, and it was accompanied by a performance of songs by Gustav
Mahler.
Having returned to Frankfurt, Adorno found himself committed to a
whole series of talks. What he wanted, however, was to spend his time
writing up his book on aesthetics which he had constantly been forced
to postpone. Given the political excitements of the time, however, he
was able to devote only part of his energies to this. There was no ques-
tion of simply retreating to his desk, one of his favourite places. He was
constantly being called away from writing. He was shocked to hear that
Herbert Marcuse had received actual physical threats and was forced
to keep his whereabouts temporarily hidden.^78 Adorno at once wrote to
him expressing his sympathy, and in the middle of December, when