 While Günther was working on his "Habilitationsschrift", Arendt had abandoned the original subject of German Romanticism for her thesis in 1930, and turned instead to Rahel Varnhagen and the question of assimilation.Anne Mendelssohn had accidentally acquired a copy of Varhagen's correspondence and excitedly introduced her to Arendt, donating her collection to her.A little later, Arendt's own work on romanticism led her to a study of Jewish salons and eventually to those of Varnhagen.