Hintergrund für Liebe

"Background for Love," the novel of a summer, created in 1932/33, tells the story of the beginning of a great love during a temporary escape from the shifting conditions in Germany: "Here Cointreau, here Pernod call the posters - Hitler and Hindenburg are far away." The twenty years older man, a bon vivant and ladies' man, must first be left by the young woman traveling with him in the car to southern France before he understands what truly matters in this relationship - and in life. She gives him up, retreats to a tiny house in the reeds in Saint-Tropez, lives her own life, finds new friendships, and discovers peace within herself. The man encounters her again by chance and is impressed by her strength and independence. However, she does not make it easy for him to start a shared life. She demands fundamental changes in his attitude towards himself and the world, and a return to simplicity. In the end, the young, impoverished, inexperienced woman has taken the background for love, which the older, wealthy, experienced man wanted to gift her, radically transformed it, and given it back to him. Marion Detjen complements this clearly autobiographical novel by Helen Wolff with an essay that depicts the situation of Kurt and Helen Wolff in the early years of their shared life and work.