Eberhard Arnold

Correspondence, October 1925 (1)

[Arnold, Eberhard and Emmy papers - L]

[Draft Translations by Bruderhof Historical Archive]

October 1, 1925

Mrs. Wernecke

Office of Pastor Wernecke

Langenöls near Laubau

Esteemed, dear Mrs. Wernecke,

We thank you most warmly for the trust you showed by turning to us with the request for accommodations for that acquaintance of yours. [TN: In a letter of September 18, 1925] However our house is already full of occupants right up to the roof.

We also think that with fifteen children here in our house an old gentleman would not find sufficient quiet. Unfortunately, we are also at the moment unable to supply you with another address.

With cordial greetings!

- - - - -

Sannerz, 1925

Dear Marthel [Lange],

It was a great joy to hear from you [TN: in a letter from September 25, 1925]! We are very much looking forward to your paying us a visit soon. From Frankfurt you will surely find the way to us quite often. We are greatly concerned to always remain faithfully linked with you. With the same mail we are sending you some numbers of our Wegwarte magazine, the editorship of which has now been taken over by our agricultural coworker Adolf Braun.

With cordial greetings from the whole House Community,

- - - - -

Munich

Türkenstrasse 98.

October 1, 1925

Dear Eberhard Arnold,

That is indeed a bad business with that Spamer! Ever since the St. Johns’ fire (summer solstice) he has been about to jump over to you Sannerz people and now he has completely missed his mark and landed as far away as Munich!

The summer term was excessively full of work, and the final printing of Buchmann’s art book for meditation obliged me to be in Munich where alone we have at our disposal the required books and collections.

Your letter reached me only after lengthy wanderings. I sincerely hope that Miss von Hollander did not once again have to search for me in vain.

On November 1st I shall be back in Frankfurt, and I herewith solemnly pledge to turn up among you in full reality in November and bravely recite my “Peccavi” (“I have sinned”) lines.

But as regards my cooperation with your fine work, you can definitely reckon on it. I am going to put together a little volume of “sermons and tracts from German mysticism”. They are not to be just castoffs. Instead, as much as possible I will come up with texts and wordings unknown till now, provided they are really valuable and strong pieces. We could of course still talk about all this in greater detail. Above all I would like to know approximately the page size.

I see the whole plan as very enticing and I believe that it will exert an effect on larger circles of people before too long.

A hearty greeting to you and your circle,

Adolf [Spamer] (who will presently cease to be “mystically flighty.”)

- - - - -

Sannerz, October 3, 1925

Greatly esteemed, dear Mrs. Schünemann,

We already wrote to Hedwig Beck that it is unfortunately quite impossible for us to have your son Hans with us this winter. Our house is completely full of people right up to the roof nor do we have any occupation available for him during the winter. You can be certain, though, that we will let you know just as soon as we can find something suitable for him.

With friendly greetings,

- - - - -

[Letter from Max Bertram]

Hannover, October 2, 1925

Dear Eberhard,

I have now succeeded in finding a property suitable for you. It is located in Esebeck near Göttingen: house number 40. Esebeck. It is 6-7 km from Göttingen. About sixteen acres come with the property and circa twelve acres can be rented (for 450 marks). True, there are but seven rooms plus a kitchen and a new stable and barn.

The rent would come to 600 marks a year. Additional land could ve rented for 450 marks a year making 1,050 marks annually. The proprietor is ready to also sell the inventory comprising of:

•Two pigs

•Two cows

•Two horses

•Ten chickens

•Ten geese

as well as furnishings for the rooms, kitchen, etc. for only six-thousand marks.

I myself have not set eyes on the property but would be ready to do so, if you are interested. You will have to decide quickly as the owner also has other possibly interested tenants.

For today, very cordial greetings to you at Sannerz,

Your Max,

I am still going to look around for other properties.

Dear Eberhard,

You must surely have been waiting for news from us in connection with the monthly subsidy that we are trying to obtain for you people. We have not succeeded. You know well that most people are short of money and even shorter of a joyful willingness to give. I feel sorry that all I can tell you is so unpleasant.

With very cordial greetings,

Wilhelmine [Bertram]

A moment ago Karl managed to get a hold of this letter and that is why the dirty marks; please don’t take it amiss.

- - - - -

Sannerz, October 2, 1925

Dear Kurt [Breitfeld],

We have been very happy about your letter [of September 24] and we often think of you.

Unfortunately, we have not received any reply to our announcement in the Börsenblatt (bookseller’s trade journal), nor did we receive any reply from the other firms to which we had turned in southern Germany.

At the booksellers’ convention in Stollberg Eberhard and Emmy had got to know Mr. Schrader of the Evangelical Society (Evangelischen Gesellschaft) in Stuttgart, and he was going to try to find you a job in one of his various departments. By himself alone, though, he was not able to decide about that. As soon as we get some positive news we will let you know.

We thank you and your dear parents very much for the loom. We are still going to express our whole house community’s gratitude to your parents.

Here with us there is now a lot of work with harvesting, house painting and so on. Roland and Irmgard are now living in the house and we have made a new room for them in the hallway of the first floor. At present Buddensieg is here, or rather he has just now left us again. In the last days we have experienced together with him and Ulrich, something like a continuation of our Whitsun conference. You will be quite aware what that means for us.

With loyal greetings from the whole house community,

- - - -

Sannerz, October 2, 1925

Franz Stassen

Hanau

Dear Franz Stassen.

Cordial thanks for your letter of September 29. The two of you will be very welcome in Sannerz on October 11. You could arrive here with the morning train at 8:30 and leave again at 7:30 in the evening from Vollmerz so that we can experience the whole day together with you.

Cordial thanks to you for sending us the clipping from the Hanau newspaper about the Youth Day at the Ronneburg.

With heartfelt greetings,

- - - - -

Charlottenburg

Herderstrasse 15

October 7, 1925

Dear Eberhard,

I have heard through Lotte Lange that you intend to come here around the 19th of this month, possibly with Buddensieg. We, of course, look forward joyfully to a personal meeting with you, and see it as very important for the Confederation that we members here can get together with you—not just the few who manage to come to Sannerz.

Alfred Schär was in Berlin for a few days and I have spoken with him at length about our Confederation and the different persons in it. Now it is also my wish to once speak with you about all these matters—that is if you have any time at all for personal talks with people.

By the way, if you have not yet found a place to stay, I can provide accommodation for you in my apartment here. Please remember my Adler Books!

With cordial greetings to you and yours,

Eva Sachs

- - - - -

Alt-Rahlstedt near Hamburg

October 7, 1925

Dear Eberhard Arnold,

It is with a request that I come to you today. You know that I have taken little Franz Eggers a bit under my wings. I had already asked you once before to sometime welcome him there among you for a week or so. Now the boy (16 years old) has been hospitalized for some weeks with an inflammation of his back muscles. He has now been discharged in good health, but at the doctor’s request should still spend a quarter of a year out in the countryside. To begin with the doctor wanted to send him to a rehibilitation home. However, it’s not all that good a place, and now Franz has had the wish to come to me at Lauenburg. Unfortunately that is not a possibility as my wife is unwell and has no help. For the time being Franz is in Ahrensberg but only for a very short time. Now Lotte and I have the question whether he might possibly come to you.

I don’t know what to do otherwise. I would like to ask you to accept the boy for at least one or two months. His foster mother pays a subsidy of 20 marks a month. Whatever else you might still require is something I will have to come up with myself. Franz will of course be contented with what you generally eat. The main thing is that he gets out of the big city and can enjoy good country air.

Now as regards how he would pass the time. That is something we would have to write about. At any rate he ought to have an opportunity to complete his education. At the moment he can only do light physical work and not for too long, but he can certainly help with work in the household and will do it gladly. He would also have to lie down a bit especially before and after a meal. There is nothing to be apprehensive about—it is nothing infectious, hence, nothing dangerous for your children. I would be very grateful to you for doing this. At the moment my economic situation is so bad that I could not possibly send him to friends.

Now still something else: not only do I send Franz to you but I would also like to entrust to you my little daughter Helga. She badly needs a change of air; she looks ever so pale and transparent. She would have to come to you folks for at least half a year and would also attend school. She is nearly seven years old and since Easter attends the Citizen’s School in Lauenburg. She does well in school and is first in her class.

Please do write to me, especially as regards the expenses of Franz—that’s quite urgent—and Helga. I do, in any case, hope that he will go since I would otherwise not know what to do.

Please send your hopefully prompt reply to the above address and I hope I can later repay you with a corresponding service of some kind.

Heartfelt greetings to you, to Trudi, to your eldest daughter, to your wife, though I did not get to know her personally, and to the other Sannerz folk.

From Hermann Kölln.

Please excuse my writing with pencil; I am doing it in the main railway station.

- - - - -

Neckargemünd

October 8, 1925

Highly esteemed Doctor,

Together with these lines I send you the first number of our periodical “Settlement Labor Union” (Siedlungs-Gewerkschaft), which you may be interested to read.

For a long time already I have had the intention of calling on you in order to profit from your rich experience with settlement issues. I hope that my financial situation, somewhat strained since losing my property, will allow me nevertheless to take up a few hours of your time.

Can you perhaps spare a printed report about your undertakings? I would be very grateful to you for sending it to me.

With respectful greetings,

T. Wangemann

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Sannerz, October 8, 1925

Dear Ludwig Stassen,

We are very much looking forward you and yours coming to us in Sannerz on Sunday. Karl Justus Obenauer, who has written about Hölderlin, Novalis and Goethe for the Diederichs publishing house, will also be among us. He is also planning to do some work for our own publishing house.

With cordial greetings from the whole House Community.

- - - - -

Münchberg, October 8, 1925

Dear Else,

Many thanks for your dear letter [of October 2]! It was enormously kind of Emmy and Eberhard to take up the cudgels for me at the booksellers’ convention [in Stollberg]—I hope with success. I would be extremely happy if the Stuttgart prospects would materialize. My parents are trying to hide their own feelings but by telling me I should not worry they are betraying what they really feel, for this cannot possibly be what they actually think. I know how they would greet the day—and the earlier the better—when I once again have a definite prospect of work. I have to confess, though, that I, too, long for independent vigorous work.

It would have been wonderful for me to be among you in the days when Buddensieg and Ulrich once again took an opposing stand. Eberhard will have a hard time appeasing them especially when each of the two once again declares the other one to be excessively nervous. It will probably not have come to a synthesis in any way. On the contrary, the three directions they represent are sure to have, at times, clashed with each other. It would make me very happy if one of you could tell me something about this.¬¬¬¬

I simply cannot fathom how you managed to install a room in the first floor hallway. After all you can only install a room where light and space are available. I simply cannot imagine how you all did it.

How is good Ilse [von Seckendorf] getting on who got stung [by a bee?]? And how is Junior who got squeezed? I, too, have been rather sick and suddenly came up with a frighteningly high temperature (39-40 degrees C). To top it all they even did some cutting on my neck. Now I am feeling somewhat better, but must really watch out and shield myself from the biting air. If I stay for an hour in an unheated room I get such a swollen neck that I can scarcely breathe. I simply have to gradually get used to the severe climate of this “Bavarian Siberia”. Hopefully though I will soon be able to sail away and seek a somewhat more southerly nest.

Many greetings to all children especially to Emi-Ma and Hardy and with many greetings to all of you,

Your Curt

I hope, Else, you are not yet all by yourself in the publishing for, you could not possibly cope with the work without coming to the end of your tether. I hope you can get to Switzerland in September! What sort of a reply have you got from Peters?

- - - - -

Alt-Rahlstedt

October 10, 1925

Dear Eberhard, dear Trudi Dalgas,

Many thanks for Trudi’s letter! By that time Franz was already on his way and nothing could be changed. Yesterday he wrote to me from Weiperz, or whatever that hole is called, letting me know that he is in the inn there for one mark per day and that he had done quite a bit of work. He does not write where—whether with you or at the inn.

since he leaves us in uncertainty Please be good enough to inform me whether for one mark plus work he will get is keep at the inn. While the weather remains nice the stay there will be good for him in any case. In the enclosed letter I have advised him to come back home by November 15 at the latest and I would like to ask you folks to also lay this on his heart. Above all I must find out how much the stay there will cost per day. I enclose 25 marks and ask you to use this for the paying his upkeep there respectively let him have what he needs for his eventual return journey.

Is he often with you people? If you have no kind of influence on him he would of course have to come home quickly, but I do hope that he is with you Sannerz people a great deal. I also hope to receive an answer quite soon.

With hearty thanks and greetings,

Hermann Kölln

please bill me any expenses for Franz

- - - - -

Lauenburg on Elbe

October 10, 1925

Dear Trudi Dalgas,

Last week I wrote a letter to Eberhard with Lotte’s and my request that you accept, there in Sannerz, our little friend Franz. There has been no reply so far nor can one already be expected.

At the moment Franz is in Lauenburg with my family, but as my wife is sick and our domestic help is leaving, Franz can no longer stay with us. Under no circumstances should he—nor does he want to—go back to Magdeburg (the reason for which he will tell you personally). He will travel to Sannerz on Monday or Tuesday. I will let you know by telegraph when he will arrive in Schlüchtern. As a 16 year old Wandervogel and not having much luggage, he can probably find his way to you all by himself. As Eberhard once personally invited him to Sannerz, Franz thinks he can drop in so suddenly. If a more lengthy stay is impossible please keep him there for at least eight to fourteen days. He will surely recuperate a little bit even in so short a time. Eberhard and I will see to the financial side.

I address this letter to you, Trudi, because I suspect Eberhard to be away on a journey and may not even have received my letter. Sorry to say I have not yet made the acquaintance of Mrs. Arnold otherwise I would have written to her. In case Eberhard is not there at present, I would like to ask her through you to please welcome Franz there for the time being.

With hearty greetings and many thanks to all at Sannerz,

Yours truly, Hermann Kölln

Alt-Rahlstedt near Hamburg

[Response:]

[TELEGRAM]

October 1925

To Kölln, Rahlstedt near Hamburg

Ahrenberger Chaussee 2

Space and recuperation for Franz impossible. Letter follows.

Arnold

- - - - -

Deufstetten

October 11, 1925

You dear ones at home,

I am sitting cozily and comfortably here in the [Seckendorf’s?] castle while by you everything will be in full swing.

It is really touching the way Ilse [von Seckendorf] is looking after me and we keep talking about Sannerz. The weather is so wonderful that we spend a lot of time outside and it’s very beautiful around here.

Do the children still have colds? How are little Heini and Luise doing? I shall be back home on Wednesday evening. I wonder if my room might already be occupied.

Always with you in my thoughts!

Moni [von Hollander]

[added by Ilse:]

If possible, let Moni stay on a bit, and write. Otherwise I’m all alone Thursday and Friday

- - - - -

October 12, 1925

Dear Sannerzers,

It is too nice altogether to have Moni here. It just saddens me that it is such a brief visit. Trudi, why on earth must you travel to the wedding?

We are thinking of you and feel always bound together with you.

With greetings to all, all of you,

Your, Ilse [von Seckendorf]

Heartfelt greetings and friendly remembrance from Mother Seckendorf and Mia Seckendorf

- - - - -

Sannerz, October 12, 1925

Edward Hauk

Leipzig

Dear Edward Hauk,

Through Irmgard, who, as you know, is now back with us in Sannerz with Roland and Roland Jr., we hear that you too might be keen to once work together with us in Sannerz. In our publishing house we are now looking forward to a lot of new work and could very well make use of a new coworker there.

We are sending you an article by Eberhard: “Why We Live in Community” so that you might gather from it how we understand our living together. We would be very grateful to you for letting us know when you might possibly free yourself for working with us and what you already know about publishing and book selling. Eberhard has long been intending to write to you at length but as he has constantly been away on journeys this has not yet been possible. At any rate we would be very grateful to you for letting us have an answer before long.

With cordial greetings from us all,

- - - - -

Wegwarte and Sannerz—letter

For the second time, and as a greeting from Sannerz, you are now receiving the Wegwarte—a paper originating from a freedom movement of a certain Christian youth group and presently under the editorship of Adolf Braun. We also greet the work circles close and friendly to us whose service we do not want to disturb but rather support and supplement.

We see quite clearly that the witness entrusted to us is not apt to meet with general agreement or wider support. Those we are calling are the few who continue, out of tune with the present mood, to believe in a working brotherhood in the way of joint poverty, in nonviolent love that claims no rights, in the inward light, in Christ’s inward presents and his coming kingdom. This faith is the certainty that God himself gives men the strength to so become, act, speak, and work that his work within them corresponds to Christ’s being and his way, to the spirit of his future; hence is opposed to everything in the present state of affairs. This voice must never go silent. Whoever, together with us, desires that it be heard, also as regards the questions of today and all human matters, should write to us that he wants to receive the Wegwarte and the Sannerz letters enclosed in it. While in the Wegwarte the general human affairs are to be discussed, in the Sannerz letters the small human tasks and experiences of the Sannerz circle and of its friends will be shared. In the next issue of the Wegwarte we shall express once again why we live in community and in the Sannerz letter are going to report about the present stand of our work departments as winter approaches. We are waiting for your reply and cooperation—for a standing together in the great struggle.

Sannerz in September 1925

Eberhard Arnold, Emmy Arnold, Adolf Braun, Martha Braun,

Suse Hungar, Gertrud Dalgas, Else von Hollander,

Emi-Margret Arnold, Monika von Hollander,

Roland Keiderling, Irmgard Keiderling,

Alfred Gneiting, Lotte Henze,

Rose Meyer, Georg Barth

- - - - -

Sachsenberg, October 12, 1925

My dear niece Moni [von Hollander],

We have heard nothing from each other for a long time. We always hoped to see one or the other of you with us in the course of the summer, but something would always get in between and prevent us from inviting you.

In June we expected Uncle Bernhard; however his arrival got more and more delayed so that it was only in July that he was with us—something we enjoyed very much, of course. For August Else’s cousin Agatha Mercelin [?] from Berlin had announced her coming for a few weeks. After losing her property, she has a hard time earning her daily bread as a seamstress working in customer’s houses in Berlin, and was in urgent need of recuperation. For September 7 we changed our domestic help and the new girl we took on is wholly unqualified, but by now we are very satisfied with her.

As you know, we can only take in one guest at a time, so we have not been able to issue further invitations until now.

In the mean time the season has advanced so far that the stay in our unheated guest room has become rather uncomfortable. That is why we must now set our hopes on next spring when we hopefully may look forward to seeing some of you once again. Above all we would like to know how Else is getting on. I hope she has benefitted from the summer which had been so beautiful right up until September so that with new strength she can take up her work once again. Sad to say my own state of health has always been less than might be desired. Frequent attacks of dizziness keep me confined to my room so that I actually do not get a lot of fresh air. Otherwise, though, things went well during the summer.

On our children’s urgent request, we, at our advanced age, have let ourselves once more be photographed in Corbach. Enclosed we are sending you a print as a way of friendly remembrance.

Heartfelt greetings to Emmy and Eberhard as well as Else and the children from the two of us.

Your old faithful Uncle Eduard Hollander.

- - - - -

Sannerz, October 12, 1925

Dear Ludwig Treutler,

You have made us very happy indeed by your shipment of rice and friendly support for our children’s work.

Now we would like to ask you to let us know if, for our social work, you could let us have, at especially favorable conditions, the following:

•Unpolished rice

•Dried bananas

•Sugar, preferably brown natural sugar

•Peanuts

•Soda

Please let us know, if possible right away, what, how much, and under what conditions you could deliver this to us.

With heartfelt greetings from the whole House Community,

[Emmy]

[Ludwig Treutler was the brother of Aunt Käthe Arnold]

- - - - -

Sannerz, October 12, 1925

To Mr. Heinrich Dreher

Butzbach-Hesse

Dear Mr. Dreher,

It is a great joy for us to hear that from now on you want to regularly supply, for our 11 year old Sophie Schwing, seven marks per month needed for her nourishment and education.

Sophie is the child of a factory worker in Hanau who was killed in the war. The regular contribution amounts to 33 marks. Sophie is a very dear child; during the two years she has been here in Sannerz we have all come to feel very close to her. She is quite gifted and accepts with liveliest interest any suggestions she receives in particular also from the school. In the handling of smaller children she shows herself understanding and sensible beyond her years. The Hanau authority caring for dependent survivors of the war has asked us to take on Sophie’s education so that her mental gifts can be developed and she is saved from the fate of being sent to a factory already as a 14 year old girl. Before long Sophie is going to write to you personally since she is already quite well acquainted with “Uncle Dreher” from who she received a pair of shoes at Christmas. Please do visit us before long so that you also personally get to know your “foster child.”

With cordial thanks for receiving your contribution for October,

We all send you our greetings,

At the same time we are sending you today the books you had asked for:

- From State Churchianity to a Religion of Mankind by Bürck

- Legends

- A German Saint in Russia

- - - - -

Sannerz, October 12, 1925

Dear Brother Möbius,

Today we come to you with the cordial and urgent query whether it would be a joy for you together with the brothers Liedel and Überreich to take on the care of a child in our children’s community and in such a way that for the child’s care and nourishment, you regularly send to us a payment of 40 marks per month. We thought 12 year old Ruth von Hollander would be a child you and your friends would like to care for.

Ruth von Hollander is the adopted child of the deceased Olga von Hollander—the sister of Dr. Arnold’s wife. Olga von Hollander died here in Sannerz in the winter of 1922. It would really be as Olga would have wanted it; she had served as a deaconess in Diemitz near Halle. If particularly your circle could do this service for little Ruth. Dr Arnold wife, Emmy, has taken on the guardianship.

Since her mother’s death Ruth has lived with us and is a very lively member of our children’s community. She is intelligent and seems to have a special gift for all sorts of arts and crafts. We would be ever so glad to let her have a good education here in our house and would be very thankful if you and your friends could muster 120 marks for the quarter year comprising October, November, and December and could let us have it as soon as possible. We would then regularly report to you about Ruth and she will also soon write to you herself.

With cordial thankfulness,

[Möbius—a bookseller—carried out a “sponsorship” by way of regular monetary contributions for Ruth von Hollander.]

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Sannerz, PO Sterbfritz

October 12, 1925

[Max and Wilhelmine Bertram]

Hannover

Grasweg 1

Dear Max Bertram, dear Wilhelmine,

We have it on our hearts to once tell you about our work with children. At present 15 children are living at our house, eight of whom are children of our own 3 families and 7 from all kinds of big city situations. As you know they are being brought up and schooled in our house by Monika von Hollander who has taken on a motherly care for the children and Trude Dalgas for the school instruction. Beginning this winter our Georg Barth is going to instruct particularly the boys in various crafts. To our great joy our little school is gradually expanding and building itself up more and more. What is of particular importance to us is instruction in doing any practical work in the house, farm, and fields. During the years of development that they among us, we would like to offer our children an education which is as many sided as possible. We have been authorized to educate the seven children till they come of age.

We have not yet succeeded in finding, for all the children, friends capable of providing the monthly contribution of forty marks that we need for their feeding and care. Several children are being provided for by friends and circles of friends.

So today we approach you with a request that you bear the cost of one of the seven children. We thought that you might like to care for 14 year old Hans Grimm who has now been with us for already three years. During the course of these years we have come to feel very close to him. As his family situation is an extremely sad one, we would like to make his path in life smooth for some years to come. He is very gifted in practical matters and extraordinarily conscientious and most precise in carrying out the duties he has taken on, so that one can really hope that he will someday become a capable gardener or apply his practical gifts in some other way. If it is not possible for you to provide the full amount for Hans Grimm, we ask you cordially to get together with our other Free-German friends then the required amount will come together.

In that way, for example, eight persons have banded together and regularly come up with 120 marks for a quarter year to support another child. We rely on and trust in your love for our work. We are so very grateful when other people back us up and enable us to do this social work for children, which has become so dear to us. We have the great desire to develop and expand it because there is still so much misery among children in towns. Quite apart from the actual outer need endangering many children’s lives, there is the inner need of many families which so cries to heaven that all of us who believe in the spirit of love feel the deep obligation to help in this need and to lead the children to a true and new life. We have the heartfelt request to you: help us anew in the way you did earlier on to our great joy. Let us know straight away in writing whether you want to take on Hans Grimm and with what contribution you want to support us in our work for him. If unable to bring together, even jointly with others, the required amount, let us know in writing for then we shall solicit the missing amount among other friends. You will then be precisely informed whether enough money is coming together, but, of course, we have to ask you to take the financial obligation of such a child very seriously and if possible for years to come. You do know that this is not a personal matter of our house in Sannerz, but of the need for which we are all responsible.

Eberhard Arnold

[Similar letters to Heinrich Eggert, Dr. Wendriner, Friedrich W. Cordes, Dr. Lesser, Walter Zöller, Wilhelm Baumgarte, Arthur Vogt].

- - - - -

October 14, 1925

Neuwerk Sannerz

near Schlüchtern

PO Sterbfritz

District of Kassel

Please send me the address of Buber right away.

Ludwig [Wedel]

(Letter to follow tomorrow)

- - - - -

POSTCARD

October 14, 1925

Mrs. Emmy Arnold

Sterbfritz, Sannerz

Hesse

Dear Emsi,

I am waiting, waiting, waiting! Help! [I need] money! Has Trudi postponed her journey? Ilse, too, is waiting for money; hence cannot give me any.

I sleep, eat, drink, go for walks, and it does me a lot of good, but I look forward to seeing you again.

Greetings to all,

Moni

- - - - -

October 14, 1925

Dear Emmy,

We are still waiting for a letter or telegram! Moni is already quite worried. I keep comforting her by reminding her that after all you are still there, Emmy, or that Trudi has not yet departed.

So unless you urgently call for her before that, I will send Moni back to you on Friday. Tomorrow would be too inconvenient for me. If you can manage without her, though, she is still welcome to stay here for a long time. She says it does her a lot of good.

Cordially,

Your Ilse [von Seckendorf]

- - - - -

[Letter from Arnold Tolles written in English]

Students' International Union

10 Rue St. Leger, Genf, Schweiz.

October 14. 1925

My dear Eberhard,

I hope you have received my letter, explaining why we could not all come to visit you and why I could not come sooner. Your invitation was very hearty and all of us wanted to see you and know you and your family better.

Would it be convenient for you if I should come to Sterbfritz on Saturday, November 7? I am planning to be on my way from here to Berlin at that time. If this agrees with your plans, I could then spend Sunday and Monday with you and still meet my other engagements. Please write me whether this is perfectly convenient. By the time I hear from you I will be able to write you again just what time my train will arrive.

I shall be very happy to see you all, for you are not only my dear cousins, but also your good work interests me greatly. I only wish I could come earlier and stay longer. But 10 months is a very, very short time to be able to spend in Europe and already nearly three of them have gone. When I see you I can explain more about what I am trying to do.

Thank you again for your very nice letter, and send my love also to Emmy and your whole family. I would like to write this in German, aber ich denke mein Deutsch ist zum lachen.

Much love

Arnold Tolles.

Mother sailed for America on October 13, so now I am all alone.

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[A letter to (teacher) Mr. Temme from Adolf Braun]

Sannerz, August 15, 1925

Dear friend,

What I approach you about today is a peculiar matter which I request to be treated confidentially with respect to the persons involved. You are acquainted with Rosel Meyer, the valued coworker there in Nordhausen of our Sannerz house. Her parents live at 1Hardenberg Street. Her mother suffers from a leg ailment which keeps breaking out afresh and at times makes her bedridden. One of Rosel’s brothers, Willi, suffers from tuberculosis. With him, too, it would be important to find ways of support maybe with the aid of the available social services. On account of recurring lung bleeding he has been unable to work for several months already. I talked to him and urged him to seek you out and let you know about the previous steps he has taken and the prospects given by the youth office. If he has not yet come to see you I will again encourage him to do so.

From personal knowledge gained in my former surveyor’s position I know that at the “Leimbacher,” town building center on Karoline Street lots of beer and brandy were being consumed. The town building foreman Teichmüller was often drunk. Also one of the supervisors, Mr. Marx, would often imbibe considerable quantities with the foreman. For a long time he would not come home at midday (he lived at the aerodrome) and in the evening would often continue drinking in town. I also know that this landed him and others in monetary difficulties. The bad example set, particularly by foreman, has surely contributed to the development of a time that I am aware of when the wives of the bricklayers and workers would go to the town’s surveyor of works, complain to him, and some would actually collect their husband’s wages. Mr. Dürre from the surface engineering department and Mr. Püschel who is responsible for wage matters know the situation still better. Already at that time I ought to have undertaken more against it.

Now, though, this bad state of things is suddenly brought very close to us; Rosels father, who since about Whitsun has been employed by the building department, and as Rosel testifies, has never been a drunkard, has now also become a victim of this temptation. I know him to some extent myself. Now the mother has, in an intimate letter, revealed the whole extent of this need to her daughter: the father’s not coming home in the evening, beer bashes, frequenting the Gesundbrunnen [“mineral or health springs”—probably a pub], party after party, standing drinks to others, as well as strongly reduced wages—the usual sad picture.

I am confident that you will find ways and take action that could at least lead to the evil spring at the building site getting plugged. I beseech you to try and do that in the interest of all the workers there, exposed as they are to the same danger, and simultaneously in the name of Rosel. In addition it might well be possible to gain insight and entry into the family and perhaps a little influence through visits and by making use of the social services dealing with pulmonary illnesses.

With cordial greetings,

[Adolf Braun]

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Münchberg, October 15, 1925

Dear Eberhard,

I would especially like to thank you and Emmy for going to bat for me during the bookseller’s conference. I daily wait for a favorable reply, which is certain to come as a result of your intervention. After recuperating somewhat from two weeks of fasting because of the neck ailment I briefly mention in my last letter, the hints my parents drop are already getting more explicit. [They want to know] what is the situation with my job which I should have already begun on October 1. That, in brief, is the question which is often put to me and not without reason. It is also impossible for me—with no income of my own—to be a financial burden on my parents for a longer time. That’s why it is urgently required by November 1, that I am in a position to live independent of the restricted means of my parents. I also do not see any moral justification for living as I am compelled to by circumstances. That, of course, depresses me quite a bit.

For the time being I keep looking around for some auxiliary way of earning money so through what little I may earn there, I can, at least, gain a certain justification for further waiting. At the urging of my father I also want to dare to tackle an educational prize paper in order to, if possible, win the lower money award. I would be so very grateful to you, Eberhard, if you could send me the Wettermann [possibly an encyclopedia for use in such contests?] which I left behind and is probably still there with you, as I could make good use of it for this purpose.

You can probably imagine how hard I find it to write this letter, but I believe that you people will understand and can forgive me. Please let these lines be read only in the closest circle. With cordial greetings to you and the whole house there,

Your Curt

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