 Jaspers had tried to persuade her to consider herself as a German first, a position she distanced herself from, pointing out that she was a Jew and that ""Für mich ist Deutschland die Muttersprache, die Philosophie und die Dichtung"" (For me, Germany is the mother tongue, philosophy and poetry), rather than her identity.This position puzzled Jaspers, replying "It is strange to me that as a Jew you want to be different from the Germans".By 1933, life for the Jewish population in Germany was becoming precarious.