Hanne Trautwein and Hermann Lenz met in 1937 at the Art History Institute of the University of Munich, both in their early twenties: he was an aspiring writer, and she was a student of art history, half-Jewish. They initially wrote to each other during the semester breaks, then regularly when Hermann Lenz was drafted and remained a soldier in the Wehrmacht until the end of the war. He, who had firmly resolved not to shoot anyone during the war, was at the front lines in the campaign in Russia. Hanne Trautwein escaped persecution thanks to a position as an expert in looted art with an influential art dealer. They enabled each other's survival by creating a counter-world of utopian life designs in contrast to the real horrors surrounding them. Their correspondence continued until 1946, when Hermann Lenz returned from American captivity.