Chapter overview
Spring 2020: Agathe has to leave the historic reading room of the University Library in Tübingen because of the Coronavirus pandemic. She meets Franke gardening in front of the Bonatz building and vents her anger, because "studying without a library is like gardening without a spade" - but Franke has an idea.
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Franke and Agathe sneak back into the reading room. In front of a mural, Agathe thinks she is going mad: Franke whispers "Sissy! We need your help!" - and Odysseus, who has just offered a sacrifice to the dead, strolls out of the painting. Franke and Odysseus are friends. He knows Agathe because she often studies there. It turns out that Odysseus has been to Chicago around 1900 - and therefore knows a thing or two about the subjects Agathe is interested in. He suggests to Agathe and Franke that they simply visit Chicago themselves.
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The journey into the past starts at the landing stage at the Hölderlin Tower in Tübingen. From here, Agathe and Franke set sail for Chicago. On the way, Agathe tells Franke what Hull House is all about. Finally, the two arrive in Chicago in the summer of 1893: They unwittingly end up in a sweatshop and witness the exploitation of the seamstresses. The two find their way out and find themselves standing on a littered street in the 19th Ward, Chicago's poorest neighborhood. Just in front of them, Jane Addams, one of the Hull House founders, is making sure that the garbage collectors do their job. Florence Kelley comes out of a house whose residents she is interviewing for the study "Hull House Maps and Papers", which is about the living and working conditions of the people who live in the area surrounding Hull House. After all four have become acquainted with each other, Kelley hires Agathe and Franke for her last interview of the day. As luck would have it, this one is with the Liporellis, - who are related to Odysseus! The two protagonists witness the precarious living conditions that were normal at the time. On the way to Hull House, Florence Kelley tells them about the planned social study: the Hull House Maps & Papers. When they arrive at Hull House, they have tea and biscuits.
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Florence Kelley complains to Jane Addams and Ellen Gates Starr about the hurdles to the publication of the Maps and Papers. What makes the three of them even more upset, however, are the plans that the University of Chicago has in store for Hull House – their settlement as a sociological laboratory? The settlers are appalled by such an arrangement! And what about Agathe and Franke? They are still sailing hopelessly lost and seasick through space and time. It is 1895 and Florence Kelley is jubilant – at last the Hull House Maps and Papers are being published! Agathe and Franke give up trying to find present-day Tübingen and sail back to Chicago. On the way back, Agathe writes an email telling her friend Duygu about her experiences at Hull House.
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1896: A festive dinner is taking place in the dining room of Hull House when Agathe and Franke burst in. Ellen Gates Starr, Jane Addams, Florence Kelley are standing together with John Dewey and George Herbert Mead. They all raise a toast. There are children at the table. One curious child tries to touch a candle flame and gets burnt. John Dewey Franke uses this example to explain his educational philosophy. Jane Addams, George Herbert Mead and Agathe join the conversation, which includes a summary of Chicago pragmatism.
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Agathe and Franke pack their bags and go downstairs to their farewell party, which is already in full swing. At dawn they are taken to their ship.
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