Letters from Mathilde Kelchner, 1929

Halmsee 20.12.29 

Dear Mrs. Baumgarten-Tramer!

I am really deeply ashamed that I have been completely silent towards you, especially since I have every reason to thank you. First of all for your lovely letter of October 9th! I almost can't believe my eyes! A lot of water has flowed down the mountain since then and you and I have been terribly industrious. That's it! The damned work breaks all human bonds. I can imagine how busy you are with your new official duties and I dare not ask you to tell me about the state of things. Hopefully you will be left alone by the tedious Suter. With such intrigues as he spins, a duel would actually be very appropriate, but in our pacifist age people prefer to kill souls rather than bodies. I have not complied with your very friendly request to inform you of the most important points of all my investigations so that you can write about them in the Neue Zürcher Zeitung, because I do not want you to waste time on such things. Moreover, the other two works, which are based on essay material, were published under Lau's and my company. I could send you the report on the investigation into the behavior of young people towards crime literature that I wrote /at the time\ for the Notgemeinschaft, but that is pointless, as it would be laborious to process. I am only enclosing the prospectus for “Kummer u. Trost”[1] without in any way wanting to encourage you to write a paper, however welcome it would be. I am particularly keen to thank you for sending me your essay in the Psychotechnische Zeitschrift.

Your work is very characteristic of you. I read it with interest, of course, and often smiled. You are once again reducing the whole of psychotechnology to absurdity! One would think that you are the greatest enemy of psychotechnology, and yet you dedicate your life to it. I believe that your diligence and devotion are born of hatred. Your own behavior certainly makes a valuable contribution to characterology. You are of course quite right with your skepticism and criticism, but if you only read in this sense, you will drive all the students out of the lecture hall and the industrialists will hold their pockets tightly. Now you are announcing new publications again! I am amazed and congratulate you on this productivity. But now, in the coming Christmas days, you should have a proper rest. How is your health? Has the terrible treatment had lasting success and are your nerves holding up all the excitement? I'm doing OK, my bowels are always bothering me, work is taking up a lot of my time, and I'm getting more and more lonely. I haven't been able to ask Lau about Rupp's trip to America because I don't see him at all. He bought a house in a suburb in the north of Berlin and is now essentially a large-scale farmer and experimenter with his little daughter. Lery-Suhl is about to publish a thick book that he has been brooding over for a long time. I live in constant fear of drowning in printer's ink! I must now close, as it is already midnight. Now we have the solstice and anyone who still expects something from life is filled with hope. May you be one of these select few and accept my minimal contribution to the festive joy. 

Many warm greetings from your old, tired M. Kelchner

Notes:

[1] "Kummer und trost jugendlicher arbeiterinnen eine sozialpsychologische untersuchnung an aufsätzen von schülerinnen der berufsschule" [Sorrow and consolation of young female workers a social-psychological study of essays by female vocational school students} is available on Google Books, published 1929.

Halmsee 12/28/29 

Dear Mrs. Baumgarten-Tramer!

Your lovely letter has just arrived, which tells me a little about your life and activities and which I found very interesting. I am in a hurry to give you the information you are looking for. In your essay you talk about the various sources of character traits and since you work on psychotechnology with such great devotion and develop such a corrosive (completely justified) skepticism, I thought that your diligence was not based on love of the subject but on hatred of it. That was just a joke. In any case, you are under no illusions and are also absolutely honest with your readers. I consider that a great advantage!

I am very grateful to you for wanting to take on my “workers”. I have not seen the review in the Année psychologique. I will look out for it in the library next week, perhaps I will receive it from Barth on January 1st. He sends reviews every quarter.

Now I wish you all the best for the new year and send you my warmest regards, Yours, M. Kelchner

Mrs. Dr. Baumgarten-Tramer Solothurn (Switzerland) Rosegg