Dream Notes

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THEODOR W. ADORNO

Dream Notes

Edited by CHRISTOPH GÖDDE and HENRI LONITZ

Afterword by JAN PHILIPP REEMTSMA

Translated by

RODNEY LIVINGSTONE

polity

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First published in German as Traumprotokolle and copyright ©Suhrkamp Verlag Frankfurt am Main

This English translation © Polity Press,

Polity Press Bridge Street

Cambridge CB UR, UK.

Polity Press Main Street

Malden, MA , USA

All rights reserved. Except for the quotation of short passages forthe purpose of criticism and review, no part of this publication

may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, inany form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying,

recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of thepublisher.

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Text design by Peter DuckerTypeset in ./pt Fournier by

Servis Filmsetting Ltd, ManchesterPrinted and bound in Malaysia by

Alden Press Ltd

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— Contents —

Editorial Foreword vi

Dream Notes

Afterword by Jan Philipp Reemtsma

Index

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— Editorial Foreword —

Early in January , Adorno noted down two ideas aboutdreams that testify to his particular interest in a centraltheory of dreams and the interconnectedness of his owndreams. ‘Certain dream experiences lead me to believe thatthe individual experiences his own death as a cosmic cata-strophe.’ And, ‘Our dreams are linked with each other notjust because they are “ours”, but because they form a con-tinuum, they belong to a unified world, just as, for example,all Kafka’s stories inhabit “the same world”. The moredreams hang together or are repeated, the greater thedanger that we shall be unable to distinguish between themand reality.’ This second reflection was followed by thedream that he wrote down from memory on January. The idea that dreams are connected by certain motifsis what induced him to select a number of them for publi-cation. This selection did not appear while Adorno was stillalive, but Rolf Tiedemann included it in Volume of theGesammelte Schriften. It is based on a typescript precededby Adorno’s own preliminary comment: ‘These DreamNotes, which have been chosen from a much larger collec-tion, are authentic. I wrote them all down immediately onwaking and in preparing them for publication have onlycorrected the most obvious linguistic lapses.’ ‘A muchlarger collection’ refers not just to the great number ofdreams recorded in the notebooks, but also to a bundleof papers that were then copied by Gretel Adorno with

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diplomatic accuracy. The present volume adds to thedream notes already published by drawing on the copiesexisting in typescript. A comparison between the copiesand original typescripts confirms that Adorno’s alterationswere largely confined to correcting the linguistic mistakesthat arose from the haste with which he recorded thedreams and also from changing the names of people eitherto their initials or to periphrases such as ‘my friend’ or ‘mydoctor’. For example, he replaced Rudolf Kolisch’s nick-name ‘Rudi’ with his surname. On the other hand, heretained the names where he believed the content washarmless. Apart from obvious typing mistakes, GretelAdorno’s copies were not further edited and have beenreproduced in full. A few errors in transcription have beencorrected, as have the dates of the dreams given in theGesammelte Schriften as February and May [which have now been changed to January and May respectively]. A few names were made anonymous inthe copies; in one case Eduard was replaced by his surnameSteuermann. The notes to the dreams have been addedby the translator. The notes to the Afterword are by JanPhilipp Reemtsma except where indicated.

Editorial Foreword

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— Dream Notes —

Frankfurt, January In my dream, I was travelling with G. in a large, verycomfortable bus down from Pontresina to the LowerEngadine. The bus was quite full and there was no lack ofpeople I knew: the much travelled illustrator Miss P. andan old professor in industry and his wife were amongthem. However, the bus did not travel along the Engadineroad, but went somewhere near my home town: betweenKönigstein and Kronberg.1 On a large bend the bus wenttoo far onto the right side of the road and one of its frontwheels became suspended over a ditch for what seemed tome to be a very long time. ‘I have seen this happenbefore ’, said the much travelled illustrator in the tone ofsomeone who knew what she was talking about. ‘The buswill go on like this for a bit and will then turn over and weshall all be dead.’ That same moment the bus plungedover the side. Suddenly, I came to and found myselfstanding up, facing G.; both of us were unharmed. I real-ized I was crying as I said, ‘I would so like to have kept onbeing alive with you.’ Only then did I notice that my bodywas completely smashed up. At the moment of death, Iawoke.

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11 These are small, rather exclusive towns in the Taunus hills to thenorth of Frankfurt.

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Oxford, June Dream: Agathe2 appeared to me and said in a sorrowfulvoice: ‘My child, I always used to say to you that we shallmeet again after our death. Today, I can only tell you: Idon’t know. –’

Oxford, March I found myself in Paris without any money, but wanted tovisit a particularly elegant brothel, the Maison Drouot (inreality, Hôtel Drouot is the best-known auction house forantiques). I asked Friedel to lend me some money: francs. To my great astonishment he gave them to me,saying, however: ‘I only give them you because the food inthe Hôtel Drouot is so outstanding.’ In fact, without evencatching a glimpse of a girl, I did eat in the bar – a beef-steak that made me so happy that I forgot about everythingelse. It was served with a white sauce.

In another dream, earlier the same night, I saw Agathe.She said: ‘My child, you mustn’t be cross with me, but if Iowned two genuine valleys, I would give up all ofSchubert’s music in exchange.’

London, (while he was working on In Search of Wagner)

My dream had a title: ‘Siegfried’s last adventure ’ or‘Siegfried’s last death’. It took place on a vast stage which

Dream Notes

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12 Agathe was Adorno’s aunt. She had lived with the family eversince his parents’ marriage and was a major influence on himboth when he was a child and later on.

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did not just represent a landscape but actually was one:small rocks and a lot of vegetation, rather like in the moun-tains leading up to the Alpine pastures. Siegfried was strid-ing through this theatrical landscape toward the rear,accompanied by someone, I cannot remember who. He wasdressed half in mythological, half in modern clothes, a littlebit like for a rehearsal. Finally, he discovered his adversary,a figure in riding dress: grey-green linen suit, ridingbreeches and brown riding boots. He started to fight withhim, but their struggle was plainly all in fun. It mainly con-sisted of his wrestling with his opponent, who was alreadyon the ground and who seemed happy to let this happen.Siegfried soon succeeded in forcing him onto his back untilhis shoulders touched the ground, and he was eitherdeclared the loser or he admitted as much. Unexpectedly,however, Siegfried drew a small dagger from his jacketpocket, where he kept it on a small clip, as if it were a foun-tain pen. He hurled the knife at his opponent’s chest fromclose to, as if in play. The latter groaned aloud and itbecame clear that it was a woman. She quickly made herescape, saying that she would now have to die alone in herlittle house, that was the hardest thing of all. She disap-peared into a building that looked like the ones belonging tothe Darmstadt artist colony. Siegfried sent his companionafter her with instructions to take possession of her treas-ures. Brünnhilde then appeared in the background in theshape of the Statue of Liberty in New York. Sounding likea nagging wife, she screamed, ‘I want a ring, I want a beau-tiful ring, don’t forget to take her ring from her.’ This washow Siegfried obtained the ring of the Nibelung.

Dream Notes

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New York, November or December I dreamt that Hölderlin was called Hölderlin because hewas always playing a flute made of elder wood [Holunder].

New York, December Just before waking up, I witnessed the scene illustrated byBaudelaire ’s poem Don Juan aux enfers, probably takenfrom a picture by Delacroix. However, instead of stygiannight it was broad daylight and an American public festivalby the waterside. There stood a large white sign – belong-ing to a steamer station – with a garish red inscriptionsaying ‘ALABAMT’. Don Juan’s barque had a long,narrow funnel – a ferry boat (‘Ferry Boat Serenade ’).Unlike in Baudelaire, the hero does not stand in silence. Inhis Spanish costume – black and violet – he speaks inces-santly and vociferously, like a salesman. My thought was:an out-of-work actor. But not content with vehement state-ments and gestures, he began mercilessly to thrashCharon – a figure who remained undefined. He thenannounced that he was an American and that he wouldn’tstand for all this. He wouldn’t let himself be shut up in abox. This statement was greeted with a wave of applause,as if he were a champion. He then strode past the onlook-ers, who were cordoned off from him. I shuddered andfound the entire scene ridiculous, but my main worry wasthat the crowd would take a dislike to us. When he came towhere we were, A. complimented him on his talented per-formance. I have forgotten his reply, but his tone was any-thing but friendly. After that, we started to ask questionsabout the fate of the characters in Carmen in the next

Dream Notes

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