Frankfurt appears briefly but at two consequential moments: as the destination of Stephan Labude’s failed political excursion, and as the absent friend’s location when Jakob Fabian longs to hear a familiar voice. The city connects public disappointment with private loneliness, without becoming a refuge for either man.

Political Disillusionment

In a letter to Fabian, Labude looks back on his political trip to Frankfurt as another humiliation. The excursion ended in a beating, and he places it within a larger sense that he no longer belongs among the political groups that might have claimed him. Frankfurt is not described in detail; its significance lies in what Labude says happened there and how the experience reinforces his rejection of the political direction around him.

Distance and Friendship

Elsewhere, Fabian considers telephoning Labude, but Labude is in Frankfurt. Fabian does not want to burden his friend with his own worries, knowing Labude has troubles of his own. He wants only to hear the familiar voice: even a conversation about the weather, he reflects, can work wonders between friends. The city therefore figures as a practical distance separating Fabian from the companionship he needs but hesitates to seek.

Narrative Significance

These brief references give Frankfurt contrasting emotional functions. For Labude, it is attached to a failed political venture and physical violence; for Fabian, it is where an absent friend happens to be while loneliness presses in. Neither episode makes the city itself a cause or cure. Instead, Frankfurt helps locate the men within overlapping forms of disconnection: Labude’s estrangement from political life and Fabian’s reluctance to ask friendship for comfort.