FIRST I WOULD LIKE TO SPEAK of my memories of H. F. Broch de Rothermann. I came to New Haven thanks to his invisible support, like Andreas in Verlorener Sohn (KW5,50–83) or Die Heimkehr (KW6,162–96), who reached the house of Baroness W. led by an invisible current across “Bahnhofsplatz” and the “Gartenanlage mit dem Sförmigen Fußweg und Kiosk” (KW5,50/54). I first wrote to Broch de Rothermann in New York twenty years ago, since I needed his permission to use the Broch manuscripts in the Beinecke Library, at Yale University. His answer came soon, informing me that photocopies of the Ur-Schlafwandler would be very expensive. In 1984 I met him and his wife in the Imperial Hotel in Tokyo. We talked with each other at length. Broch de Rothermann told me stories about his father and suggested that I meet Paul Michael Lützeler. This meeting stimulated me to further Broch studies. After that, Broch de Rothermann sent me many letters from New York, always cordial and friendly. Our second meeting was in 1986 at the Broch symposium in Stuttgart. He sat beside me in the meeting hall and listened to the lectures.

In 1990 I had traveled to Theresienstadt near Prague to visit the place where Broch's mother died. The former concentration camp is a memorial park today. In Prague I briefly visited the Jewish museum near the Moldau, where I found an exhibition of pictures painted by Jewish children with names, dates of birth and death.