H. Adler - Panorama

Josef took the position as tutor, Frau Director having definitely wanted a philosophy student, since she always says that she is interested in philosophy, one needing to be a philosopher these days if one wants to survive the struggle of life, as the crisis is great, making it hard to know what to teach the boys. Frau Director loves Spinoza more than anyone, as it’s solid philosophical work, his Ethics remaining always next to her bed in a leather-bound edition, though in between Frau Director also reads English and French, since one always has to stay in practice. It’s so important for one to learn languages, it being terrible that these days in the schools languages are not taught in any practical manner, but Madame Forbette from Lausanne is in the house, a really charming person who helps raise Robert, Frau Director having taken her oldest son on summer trips to France and England, to the Riviera and the Isle of Wight, so that the boy could learn the right accent. Josef is told that naturally Frau Director hopes that despite his high intelligence he will also be willing to come along with them this year to Brittany, from which she also wants to make a couple of side trips with Josef and the boys, at least to Rouen to see the marvelous cathedral, Frau Director having received for her birthday a fantastic guide to the cathedrals of northern France, which she wondered if Josef knew. She’d love to show it to him, it’s on the bookshelf, it needing to always remain closed and put away, she always saying that the boys are always getting into things such as Fuchs’s book of morals, and Magnus Hirschfeld and so on, which are really not for boys. They are in the middle of puberty, so they like to look at the pictures, though Frau Director is no prude, no, not at all, but sexual precociousness can harm one, which is why the boys also do gymnastics, they needing to do sports, riding, and fencing. One has to keep them occupied so that they don’t get lost in sultry daydreams, which is another argument against free schools.

Since the rise of psychology, everyone knows that the tiniest thing can lead to trauma, which is what she always says, and then a perversion follows. Frau Director of course has nothing against sex education, she herself has explained everything to the boys, as well as invited Dr. Brendel, a doctor friend, to explain all the biology to them, but only the scientific approach devoid of anything erotic. Even the concerns of venereal disease were explained as a diversion, but it also had a negative effect. As Frau Director wants to protect her boys from going astray, the only answer is to marry young, since one needs to be pure to enter into marriage. She wouldn’t have any problem if at twenty her boys were to meet a proper girl, who is not rich and beautiful but homely and uncomplicated, though some possibilities are out of the question, Frau Director making it clear to the boys that they should quietly and quickly get married if these occur, there being today working students who live on their own, though Frau Director is in the fortunate position to be able to provide the boys with modest means, and they could continue to live in the villa, which is large enough, even taking over Josef’s room. There is of course a room for Josef, so that he can stay overnight at the house, thus making it easier to mix with the family, for family life is everything, though unfortunately a blessing that hardly exists anymore, which is why Frau Director on this point is against socialism, which has a lot to say for itself, but it breaks up the family, and that is the beginning of the end for humankind, though the boys will be able to live with their wives upstairs in the guest rooms and remain under inconspicuous supervision, the daughters-in-law also then becoming a part of the family and thereby conquering any conflict between the generations, which is the cancer on the soul of today’s society.

Frau Director will make an ideal mother-in-law and will instruct her daughters-in-law in all the secrets of being a good wife, since a man needs a thousand little things that too many women don’t know about, which leads to a lot of marriages breaking up. Frau Director herself had to lay out a lot of money for instruction, since her mother died young, her mother-in-law was so nasty, and the Director was such a distinguished son, but to such a degree that he was perhaps too good for her. Frau Director didn’t want to say anything to his mother, but the latter stirred up bad blood and agitated her son, which meant that Frau Director needed the patience of a saint in accommodating and adjusting, while her husband said nothing about any of what his mother said, as her word was sacred. Frau Director wept bitter tears, for she had no one who could defend her against the old lady, and naturally she doesn’t want to complain after having been married so long, he being the most wonderful husband, as she always says, full of tenderness and tact, though indeed he has no higher intellectual interests, he is always absorbed in his work and reads only newspapers or something about the economy, he always surrounded by stacks of papers to get through and thinking of himself as an expert on it all. Otherwise he wouldn’t have been made director, for he paid nothing to get the title, extra money being better spent on charitable causes, such as a servant girl’s trousseau, none ever leaving without being completely fitted out by Frau Director.

It’s of course difficult to be director of the Stock Exchange, he having to calculate the rise and fall of stocks ahead of time, which requires a good nose, otherwise you can end up just wringing your hands, Frau Director meanwhile wanting to know if Josef understood anything about the market and the national economy. Of course he had no idea, how would he? But Josef should not think that just because he’s a philosopher he knows everything, only a novice believes that, which is why it’s good that he’s here in this house, where the Director can explain it all to him precisely, as well as advise him what to do if he ever had the chance to buy a stock at a good price or dump it, all of their relatives approaching the Director for free tips, though he gets no thanks at all for it. Frau Director has often warned him that he’s too good-natured, as she always says, but he gives them tips nonetheless, which in the end is an incredible responsibility, for it’s easy to ruin oneself, never mind one’s family, especially now during the worldwide economic crisis, international uncertainty, millions of unemployed, and the general panic. The first years after the war saw the market climb, especially once German inflation was brought under control, followed by a nice boom, but since 1929 everything has gone to the dogs, and the signs of improvement are comparable to the single bluebird that doesn’t make for an entire summer. Now taxes eat up everything, and if Frau Director didn’t slow her husband down a bit and keep him from throwing all his money away at charities it would be nearly impossible for her to hold this house together.

The Director has a wonderful temperament and makes sure that she never goes hungry, the dear Lord having always taken care of them, though it’s hard to feed a family on such pious thoughts alone. Frau Director doesn’t approve when someone says “Prayer and work are what sustains,” since work is a fine thing, but prayer is archaic. Frau Director believes in the goodness of the world, and has nothing against it when someone uses the word “God,” but to think of the dear Lord as some bearded grandpa in the way that religion always wants to teach, that is nothing more than a crude father complex, which doesn’t fit well with our times. One should apply oneself to an atheistic or abstract ethic, and since Spinoza stands on the threshold of modern times, as far as Frau Director can see, Spinoza is indeed an atheist who made certain concessions to his superstitious times, in much the same way one must always make concessions, there being nothing absolute, as can be seen through Einstein. Frau Director would love it if Josef could explain to her sometime what Einstein is really saying, she having read two truly excellent articles about it, as well as having attended lectures, the one that showed a film being very instructive, she only regretting that her husband wasn’t with her, though he is always so tired at night, going to bed at nine, then reading for another hour before turning off the light, since he has to be up early in order to be at work in the garden soon after six. It’s all healthy, certainly, but nonetheless a little too simple for a director, though he has something of the biblical peasant about him, Frau Director indeed recalling what she had been saying about God, which can in fact be seen in Michelangelo’s painting in the Sistine Chapel, an august image or ideal, though there is no one today who would call it God. Frau Director doesn’t want to give her children any religious instruction, it’s too easy to end up with conflicting morals, which she wants to prevent, and which cause the children to have conflicting ideas that they ask the parents about, such as how the world really was created, and if it was really created out of nothing, causing one to lie to the children in almost nihilistic fashion, since they learn completely different things in physics and biology. That’s why Frau Director explains to her boys that all that about God is a fable, though she doesn’t rail directly against religion in order to guard against the children coming into conflict with other children at school, for one must be tolerant and respect the superstitious, as long as it doesn’t go too far, though the story of Adam and Eve is lovely, other stories from the Bible being certainly of good moral use, though too much is Middle Eastern, while certainly much is obsolete. For example, it’s terrible to lecture children, as part of the Ten Commandments, that “thou shalt not commit adultery!” for no child can understand the idea of coveting someone else’s wife, which only leads to confusion. Indeed, psychology has begun a much more healing process and will prevail against any hostility directed at it.