married, in 1929, a fellow student whom he'd met in Heidegger's seminar: Hannah Arendt. Arendt had previously engaged in an affair with their common mentor. They married in Nowawes and at the time lived on Babelsberg's Merkurstraße 3 in Potsdam.

In 1930-31 he unsuccessfully attempted a habilitation under Paul Tillich in sociomusicology, and was advised