Ingeborg’s tuberculosis

Ingeborg’s tuberculosis is a serious pulmonary illness that interrupts her ordinary life and reorganizes her life with Benno von Archimboldi. First kept quiet and treated irregularly, the disease eventually requires a move to Kempten and culminates in a hospital crisis marked by fever, delirium, and Ingeborg’s fear that she may die.

Diagnosis and Concealment

During a routine medical checkup, Ingeborg is diagnosed with a pulmonary condition. She does not initially tell Archimboldi, and takes the pills prescribed by a doctor only erratically. The illness becomes harder to conceal when she begins coughing up blood. Archimboldi then takes her to an English doctor, who refers her immediately to a German lung specialist; the specialist identifies the disease as tuberculosis, described in the narrative as common in postwar Germany.

The sequence makes the diagnosis a change in their shared circumstances rather than a private medical fact alone. Ingeborg’s silence delays Archimboldi’s involvement, while the worsening symptoms prompt him to seek further medical care. The evidence does not establish why she withheld the diagnosis or why she took the medication irregularly.

Kempten and Daily Life

On the specialist’s instructions, Archimboldi uses the money from his book Rivers of Europe to move them to Kempten, a town in the Bavarian Alps, where the cold, dry climate is expected to help Ingeborg recover. She takes sick leave from work, and Archimboldi gives up his job at a bar. These changes place the practical demands of illness at the center of their lives: both leave their work, and their location is chosen around her treatment and hoped-for recovery.

Ingeborg’s health does not improve much in Kempten, but the days they spend there together are happy. Her illness therefore brings both limitation and a period of shared life. She is not described as afraid of tuberculosis at this stage; she is sure it will not kill her. That confidence contrasts with the later hospital crisis, when she explicitly fears dying there.

Hospital Crisis and Immediate Aftermath

The later emergency is shown through Archimboldi’s actions and Ingeborg’s changing condition. After a night flight from a cabin, Ingeborg cannot get out of bed the following day. Her temperature reaches 104 degrees, and by evening she is delirious. She is taken to the hospital in Kempten that night. During the episode, Archimboldi remains with her, and she pleads with him not to leave her alone or let her die in the hospital. He promises to stay.

Three days later, her fever begins to subside, but recovery is not presented as a simple return to health. Her moods become more pronounced, she speaks to Archimboldi very little, and when she does speak she demands to be taken out of the hospital. The account establishes this immediate easing of the fever, but does not resolve the longer-term course of her tuberculosis or specify a final outcome.