[Eric Oberle]

>pproved: teeth
>Date: Sat, 7 Mar 1998 22:19:46 -0800
>From: Russell Jacoby <rjacoby@ucla.edu>
>Subject: Adorno--Name
>
>Query: Adorno dropped the Wiesengrund in California, yes? Do we know why?
>Was it to reduce the German profile, his and that of others?  Explanations
>and references would be much appreciated.
>
>Russell Jacoby
>rjacoby@ucla.edu

Unfortunately, I do not have the relevant citation at hand, but I know that
Jay comments somewhere, I believe in Dialectical Imagination, that
Lowenthal had told him [Jay] that back in Germany, prior to the emigration,
Horkheimer had requested Adorno change his nom de plume, in order to
minimize the perception that the Institut was entirely 'Jewish' in
character.  (Looking in Jay's index under 'Lowenthal' should resolve this;
otherwise, the reference is in Jay's biography of Lowenthal--look under
entries to Adorno).  I do not have the sense, however, that Adorno ever
'dropped' the Wiesengrund--for a long while he was 'Theodor
Wiesengrund-Adorno' and he remains in later publications 'Theodor W.
Adorno'.  I would be reluctant to give too strong of a psychological
reading to this decision to 'rid himself of the father's name' as some have
expressed it--see for example Heinz Steinert's book, _Adorno in Wien_--,
for though there is no doubt that Adorno's much of Adorno's strongest
expressions of familial belonging are with the Calvelli-Adorno side of the
family (his mother and his aunt), one can hardly deny that the wisdom in
emphasizing one's non-Jewishness in the Germany of the 1920s and 30s, nor
for that matter in the America of the 40s.  One can well imagine that
changing his name back to 'Wiesengrund' upon return to Germany in the 50s
would have been a lot more trouble than it was worth.



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Eric Oberle
Department of History,                 Friedberger Landstrasse 81
Stanford University                      D-60318 Frankfurt/Main    Germany

eoberle@leland.stanford.edu        011 (49) (69) 59 73 01 5
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