Notes to pp. 6–14 493allowed to teach only Jewish children. Following a brief period in the army,
he survived the war as assistant to a lawyer, partly in hiding. He sent his
children to Britain in 1939 as part of the so-called Kindertransportprogramme
that was set up after the pogroms of November 1938. They were aged twelve
and thirteen at the time. After the war, Elisabeth Adorno studied economics
and sociology in Britain. In the 1950s she married and went to live in the
German Federal Republic, settling finally in Oberstedten and Oberursel
on the outskirts of Frankfurt am Main. Mrs Reinhuber-Adorno and her
husband conducted quite extensive research on the life of her grandfather
Jean François, and made notes on their findings which she has generously
made available to the present writer.
4 Taken from documents supplied by Elisabeth Reinhuber-Adorno.
5 Heinrich Heine, Schriften über Deutschland, p. 20f.
6 The country estate of Della Piana is situated above Bocognano, close to the
River Gravona.
7 I have obtained a copy of the two letters to M. Conti and Napoleon III from
Elisabeth Reinhuber-Adorno. It is an open question whether either reached
its destination. Whether they did or not, they are illuminating since they
shed light on the precarious economic situation of Adorno’s grandfather, as
well as giving us an idea of the importance that the committed Bonapartist
attached to his family origins.
8 His letter ends with the words: ‘I have followed the example of my parents
[that is to say, I have never asked for reimbursement of the advances and
loans provided by my family], but because of my marriage in a foreign
country, the persistent and costly illness of my wife and child and the
unemployment in which I find myself, I see myself obliged in this painful
situation to call to mind the services rendered by my family. I do so mindful
of your gracious benevolence and your sense of justice, and in the hope that
you will be pleased to listen to my request and grant me compensation in the
light of that wise judgement that guides all your actions. This compensation,
the need for which arises above all from those loans, would do much to
alleviate the unfortunate situation of a family whose descendants will be as
devoted to Your Majesty as were their forefathers. In this hope, I remain
Your Majesty’s most respectful, obedient and loyal subject.’
9 W. Benjamin and T. W. Adorno, The Complete Correspondence 1928–1940,
p. 150.
Chapter 2 Wiesengrund: The Jewish Heritage1 Konrad Reinfelder has significantly enlarged our knowledge of the history
of the Wiesengrund family through his research on the history of the Jews
of Dettelbach. I am indebted to his work here. See K. Reinfelder, ‘Zur
Geschichte der Juden in Dettelbach’.
2 A list drawn up by the government of the electoral prince in 1803 includes
the entry: ‘Beritz David, 39, his wife, 36. Children: 2 sons, 6 and 2,
1 daughter, 1; house number 230... cattle-dealer.’ Ibid.
3 See Günther Vogt, Frankfurter Bürgerhäuser des 19. Jahrhunderts, p. 124.
4 Johann Jakob Hässlin (ed.), Frankfurt, p. 186. The street name ‘Schöne
Aussicht’ means ‘lovely view’ [trans.].