[Partial translation:]

Wiesbaden, November 11, 1925

Dear Karl,

We received your dear letter dated October 26 seventeen days later already. Thank you so much. We were happy to read about everything in such detail and to learn that you arrived without any problems. We can well imagine Willy enjoying the journey. Two days after the arrival of the ship we already received news from Hamburg. The message arrived here as quickly as a telegram. The letters from England got here as well, as did the 2 postcards from America. Every day, people asked us whether we had any news. Now we are able to answer everyone’s questions.

Yesterday, Petter from Nordenstadt showed up. It seemed as if he had sensed that we had something. He had also gone to the agent to find out whether the ship on which Lenchen was traveling had arrived. He had received news on the 8th, which means that they probably reached their destination on the 10th. Petter asked that we read him your letter and took it home afterwards, in order to let the others read it as well. He, too, was very happy to hear about everything in such detail. Nordenstadt seems empty now. Nevertheless, he seems happy to have been able to marry Lenchen off. He did not cry over her leaving. When saying good-bye to her, he handled himself much better than we expected. Max, as we know, was glad to be able to leave. The trip did cost him plenty of money, though. His father came to Nordenstadt one more time. Although he is a simple man, he made a very good impression. He liked Nordenstadt very much, and he was very happy about the fact that everyone likes Max so much.

The Frankfurt branch of the family gave Petter 500 marks as a pay-off for the Licher inheritance. After all, they did not want anyone to step on their aunt’s brother’s toes. Petter said he was satisfied and would leave the matter alone now.

Five weeks have passed already since you left. It is very quiet here as well now. Father said that, if you sent us such long letters every time, we would have plenty of entertainment. But you will not be able to do that consistently; you would always need to have enough material to write about. The economic situation is very bad here. For the past 14 days, the chemical industry has been locking out 24,000 workers. Tomorrow, all the metal workers – 15,000 of them – will experience the same fate. All of Wagner’s employees have received notice, too. Here as well as in Mainz, the plumbers went on strike. Supposedly, this is a breach of contract. Consequently, all the employers gave their plumbers their notice. There isn’t any money to be earned anywhere. I just returned from Rheinstrasse. The Franke family, for whom Father had made a cupboard, still owes us 60 marks. They said they were not getting any business whatsoever and that it was impossible for them to pay anything at this time. It is the same situation everywhere.

Thinking about winter, we are glad that you are no longer here, for we do not see any improvement anytime soon. We had the chimneys repaired on the back part of the house. For three days, we had a mason here. Now they are in working order again. The roofer came and checked the roof. He installed new walking boards, which cost over 80 marks. The chimney sweep had requested that we have it done. Of course, we had it taken care of immediately, rather than wait until something happens.

It seems that Schäfer’s successor does not want our shop after all. Father had planned on moving everything out on the 1st, but then the man told him that he did not like the shop at all. We had several classified advertisements for the basements in the newspaper, but nobody showed any interest. Ten days ago, the real estate agent came and suggested that we sell our house. Father said he would do so if he could get 80,000 marks for it. We do have a potential buyer. It is a company based in Berlin that installs heating systems. It already has a local office with 8 – 10 employees, and it seems to have storage facilities as well [?]. However, the rooms do not seem totally suitable. The director of the company has looked at our house and wants to make a 30,000-mark down payment. However, he says 80,000 is too much. What do you think? Should we sell it for 60,000? We will not sell it for less; we are not in that much of a hurry. It is always hard to know what is best. For now, we will just wait and see whether he will come back and make another offer. […] Father is currently finishing up work for the Müller building. His team has been working there for several days already; now they are working in the shop. There won’t be much work otherwise this winter […]

Kindest regards,

Mama