#elsevonstritzky

One section that jumped out at me – from 3 February 1921 of Bloch’s ‘Gedenkbuch für Else Bloch-von Stritzki’. He evokes the doctrine of the cabalist who believes that the Messiah will not bring a pre-established new world but rather transform it through the displacement of a number of details of this world. Bloch then writes: “I do not believe in this; for evil volition, pain and death are not merely errors of place [Raimfehler], and paradise cannot be the product of a slight modification of hell”

Tendenz – Latenz – Utopie, which appeared posthumously in 1978, contains a diary written by Ernst Bloch in the aftermath of the death of his first wife Elsa von Stritzky on 2 January 1921 at the age of 37. It has been translated into French by Lucien Pelletier. It is a really tragic account, of grief, loss, care, abandon, ghosts, sorrow. 

Early in the year, Benjamin writes to Adorno. In the letter he seeks "clarification on our relationship with E Bloch". This then comes down to a judgement of his relationships: from Else von Stritzky, Linda Oppenheimer and finally Karola Piotrkowska, whom married Bloch in 1934 after meeting in 1927, about whom he is most scathing.