 Dürr died suddenly in 1934, and in 1936 the widowed Speyr married Werner Kaegi, an associate professor under Dürr who took over his Chair of History at the University of Basel.During the next few years von Speyr made several unsuccessful attempts to contact Catholic priests to inform them of her desire to convert.In 1940 she was introduced to Father Hans Urs von Balthasar, a Jesuit priest recently appointed as the students' chaplain in Basel.