26 Part I: Origins
subjunctive, which he wrote during his years in America. But, in
addition, the specific urban culture of Frankfurt acted as a stimulus to
intellectual autonomy and independence of thought.
Adorno’s childhood years were spent in the period up to the out-
break of the First World War in a big-city environment rich in contrasts.
On the one hand, the age of guards regiments, imperial manoeuvres
and naval parades was not yet a thing of the past. At the same time,
thanks to the sustained period of economic growth from the end of the
Franco-Prussian War up to the turn of the century, a collective aware-
ness that Germany was now a power in the world was becoming more
prevalent. This was self-evident not just to the old and new power elites
- the officers, the large landowners, the bankers and big industrialists. It
was true also of the higher reaches of the civil service and the newly
wealthy middle class. On the other hand, in contrast to the predominant
ethos, a sceptical attitude towards national megalomania began to make
itself felt, above all among the liberally inclined economic and cultural
bourgeoisie that was particularly strong in a town like Frankfurt which
could look back on a tradition of civic republicanism. It was by no
means unusual to encounter a liberal and socially concerned outlook on
the part of men close to the National and Social Association of Friedrich
Naumann, a Frankfurt clergyman,^5 an outlook that outlasted the lost
world war and may have made it easier to identify with the parliament-
ary democracy of the Weimar Republic.^6
In 1928 Siegfried Kracauer published his novel Ginster. Kracauer,
who was now the editor of the culture section of the Frankfurter Zeitung,
had developed ties of friendship with Adorno while the latter was still
in the sixth form at school, ties that had become closer with the passage
of time. Ginster contains a vivid contemporary description of
the metropolis that had grown historically, situated on a river
between low-lying hills. Like other towns, it exploited its past to
encourage the tourist industry. Imperial coronations, international
congresses and a nationwide shooting competition took place
within its walls, walls long since transformed into public parks. A
monument has been erected to the landscape gardener. A number
of Christian and Jewish families trace their origins back to their
ancestors. But even families without a history have created banks
that have connections with Paris, London and New York. Cultural
institutions and the stock exchange are separated only in spatial
terms.^7The process of industrialization was slow to develop in Frankfurt and
the surrounding area in the nineteenth century. Barriers arising from
the traditional economic function of the town and its cultural image
could be overcome only with difficulty. Frankfurt had always been a
centre for services in banking and commerce.^8 This meant that over