At first glance, it appears to be a wartime document. Josef Albers dated his letter to Ludwig Grote "II. 9. 1941". However, the address and passages in the letter reveal this to be a mistake. The artist did not write in 1941, rather in the following decade, probably on 2 September 1951. The letter is therefore a document from the post-war period when Albers was still living in the United States.

Josef Albers was one of the artists who emigrated from Germany and who decided not to return on a permanent basis after the demise of the Nazis. Writing to the art historian Ludwig Grote, whom he knew from his time at the Bauhaus in Dessau, Albers identified several points that allowed him to live a satisfied and purposeful life in America after 1945. He believed that the artistic pulse was now beating most strongly in New York and San Francisco. Albers had become an integral part of this art scene. He reported to Grote of his busy life, filled with lectures, exhibitions and - not least - a new professorship at Yale. Proudly, Albers also described how he was designing stained glass windows for a room at the United Nations. After difficulties during his early years in exile, Albers' talent as a glass artist was now once again in demand, it seemed.

Albers now only wanted to travel "over there", i.e. to Europe, for lecture tours. He spent his leisure time with his wife at their holiday home on Cape Cod. "We are still in love with America" is how the exile artist who had come to feel at home in his new country summed up his situation at the end of the letter.