A Letter from the New Germany
ReunionKonradin’s farewell letter exposes the distance between the boy who shared Hans’s private world and the young man who endorses a political future built on exclusion.
increasing
Bearing strength in each event
decreasing
Bearing strength in each eventdecreasingThe Departure Announced
The Departure Announced
A friendship facing separation
Hans’s planned departure forces Konradin to respond in writing to a loss he cannot prevent.
The letter’s occasion
Their final exchange arrives alongside a cruel verse from Hans’s school enemies, placing affection and persecution side by side.
A Conflicted Farewell
A Conflicted Farewell
Regret and approval
Konradin says he is sorry Hans must leave but calls the departure wise under the circumstances.
Affection retained
He remembers their friendship as formative. His tenderness makes the political content of the letter more disturbing, not less.
Choosing Hitler
Choosing Hitler
A political confession
Konradin says he believes Hitler can restore Germany and describes a choice between Hitler and Stalin.
Exclusion normalized
He imagines a future in which acceptable Jews might be selected for inclusion. Hans is left outside that vision.
Faith Through Doubt
Faith Through Doubt
A spiritual acknowledgment
Konradin credits Hans with teaching him to think and doubt, and says that doubt led him back to Christian faith.
An unresolved contradiction
The claim of intellectual growth sits beside his support for an exclusionary leader. The letter preserves both the friendship’s influence and its failure.
The Letter Reopened
The Letter Reopened
A past reconsidered
The memorial’s news gives new weight to Konradin’s final words and political choice.
No easy absolution
His later involvement in a plot against Hitler complicates the earlier letter without undoing its harm. Hans’s memory must hold these incompatible facts together.
December 1932, after Hans’s parents decide to send him abroad
Two days before Hans leaves Germany
In the same farewell letter
Near the letter’s conclusion
Decades later, after Hans learns Konradin’s fate
