Letter from Malvine Husserl written 12.12.1920

Author Malvine Husserl

Category incoming correspondence

Archive The Library of the Polish Academy of Arts and Sciences

Date of creation 12.12.1920

Related places Freiburg, Paris, Wrocław

Reference code in archive Biblioteka_PAU

Resource type letter

Subject matter academic issues, personal issues, publication issues

Field philosophy

Tags #Alexander Pfänder, #birth of Ingarden's son, #Christmas holidays, #Collège théologique, #critique of reason, #Edith Stein, #Edmund Husserl, #Elisabeth Husserl, #Freiburg, #Fritz Kaufmann, #Gerhart Husserl, #habilitation, #Jean Hering, #lectures, #logic, #Malvine Husserl, #Moritz Geiger, #Munich, #official business, #On essence and essentiality, #Paris, #Phenomenological yearbook, #St. Märgen, #transcendental logic, #Volkshochschule, #work, #Wrocław

Freiburg, December 12, 20

Dear Mr. Ingarden,

n Our congratulations on your little son are arriving quite late. And yet we have been so happy for you and wish you the very best and the most beautiful future for your firstborn. My husband has wanted to write to you in the form of a letter and not just a brief postcard; hence, our congratulations had been postponed. I now take advantage of this quiet Sunday afternoon to make up for the delay on my behalf and, for the time being, also on my husband’s behalf. He has been so overwhelmed with work that his entire correspondence has been left undone or he had to delegate this task to me. This semester, he is reading about logic and conducts two exercises. But this logic is completely different as it is a transcendental logic,8 a critique of reason. The fruit of many years of work is presented, and you can imagine how much work it requires to organize these most difficult of thoughts at the first attempt. It has been quite a success, and despite the complexity of the ideas, the listeners manage to stay engaged with interest.
n In addition to this intense activity, there is the whole mess of official business, a habilitation, etc. In short, I long for the Christmas holidays so my husband can get a break. Fortunately, the long (10.5 weeks) stay in St. Märgen rejuvenated my husband,9 otherwise he would not be able to tolerate the workload.
n Our daughter returned to Munich for this semester. Now, Gerhart is staying with us. He passed his oral doctoral exam this summer and is now assigned to the local district court for six months. The written doctoral thesis will be completed shortly. It is still undecided how he will shape his future, whether he will be habilitating or pursuing a career in civil service.
n The only one of your old friends who is still around is Fritz Kaufmann. Miss Stein is in Wroclaw where she holds lectures at the Volkshochschule (adult education center). A comprehensive work will be published in the next Yearbook. The current volume has already been printed. It contains works of Geiger and Pfänder (logic, a big deal) and a small work by Hering (on essence and essentiality), who, by the way, visited us in the summer in St. Märgen. He is sous-directeur at a Collége théologique in Paris and looks much stronger than before. Your works are also to be included in the next Yearbook. Professor Pfänder is currently reviewing them and he will most likely proofread them, too. I will send this letter to your address in Krakow, as I am sure it will be forwarded to you eventually.
n With warm regards, also to your dear wife,

yours, Malvine Husserl