Dear Dr. Muhlschlegel,
Your letter dated May 1st with the enclosed message from the Annual Convention of the German friends have all duly arrived and been read with deepest interest and satisfaction by our beloved Guardian.
He is indeed pleased to learn of the results of your national elections, and wishes me to ask you to kindly convey to the members of the new N.S.A. his hearty congratulations, as well as the assurance of his fervent supplications on their behalf at the Holy Shrines.
The Guardian very much regrets, however, that the Convention has not been quite representative of the centers in Germany, and particularly deplores the fact that the Vienna community has been unable to send any delegate to the meeting. He feels the necessity of urging you to bring this matter before the N.S.A. at its next session, in order that they may strongly recommend all the local communities having an assembly to send every year at least one representative to the Convention. The Convention meeting is indeed a very important gathering, and the friends should be strongly impressed with its importance and significance. With some effort and sacrifice it is always possible for the delegates to be present at the Convention-sessions....
In the Guardian's own handwriting:
My very dear co-worker:
I am so glad to receive such a splendid message from the Convention. To you, no doubt, must, in a very great measure, be attributed the success that has been achieved. The days of your pilgrimage will long be remembered, and I trust and pray that both you and your dear wife will as a result be assisted to lend a fresh impetus to the onward march of the Cause in Germany. Upon you rests a high responsibility, and I am sure you will rise to the height of the occasion.
Affectionately,
Shoghi 10 May 1936 (Convention) Dear Friends and co-workers,
Dr. Muhlschlegel has kindly transmitted to the Guardian your very warm message, and he has read it with greatest pleasure and satisfaction, and felt deeply touched at the assurances of devotion and loyalty which you have been moved in conveying to him. He highly appreciates the sentiments you have expressed, and fully reciprocates your greetings and good wishes. He has been very much impressed indeed at the large number of the attendants of this year's Convention, and hopes that in the years to come that number will continue increasing.
The Annual Convention is indeed a very important gathering at which both delegates and visitors should try their very best to be present. It is a splendid and unique opportunity for the believers to come together and deliberate on the vital and pressing issues facing the Cause. It is for this reason, and also because the Convention is the sole body entrusted with the election of the N.S.A., that the friends, and particularly the delegates, should make every effort to take part in the deliberations and discussions of that annual gathering.
With most loving greetings, and sincere good wishes from the Guardian to you all....
In the Guardian's own handwriting:
Dearly beloved friends:
The Convention of the German believers marks another milestone in the notable progress achieved in recent years by the German Bahá'í Community. My heart is filled with gratitude for the manifold evidences of the tenacity of faith, the collective efforts, the consolidated unity, the administrative accomplishments and the spiritual fervour so strikingly displayed by its members. `Abdu'l-Bahá, whose special care, love and solicitude for the followers of Bahá'u'lláh in that promising country, most of you have recognized and no doubt still remember, is truly proud of your accomplishments and is well-pleased with the spirit that so powerfully animates you in His service. His spirit will continue to overshadow you in your labours and to sustain and guide you in your exertions. Persevere and be confident.
Affectionately
Shoghi 10 September 1936 (Summer School) Beloved Bahá'í Friends,
Our dear friend Miss Kostlin has kindly transmitted to the Guardian the beautiful message which you have addressed to him on the occasion of the holding of the fifth German Bahá'í Summer School at Esslingen, and I wish to hasten in thanking you on his behalf for the expressions of loving devotion and the assurances of loyalty which you have been moved in conveying to him. He profoundly values the warm sentiments you have expressed, and fully reciprocates your greetings and good wishes.
What has particularly rejoiced and cheered his heart is the realisation that the Esslingen Summer School is steadily developing and is speedily attaining the character of an international meeting place for all Bahá'í residents as well as travellers throughout Europe. The success that has attended your school this year, as evidenced by both the wide range and number of the attendants, is truly encouraging and augurs well for the future of that institution which, we have every reason to hope, is destined to develop into a leading Bahá'í University throughout the West.
The Guardian's hope is that the German N.S.A. will, as in the last few years, continue extending to that school the moral as well as the financial assistance which it needs for its further expansion, and for a still wider and more effective penetration of its influence in every Bahá'í center throughout Europe.
He also hopes, and indeed would urge each and every one of the believers in Germany to extend full and continued support to the N.S.A. in its highly-meritorious efforts for the extension and development of the Summer School at Esslingen. He is confident that through such a close and whole-hearted collaboration between the individual believers and the N.S.A. that school will succeed in gradually fulfilling its unique and truly noble mission, both with regard to Germany and to Europe as a whole.
With the loving greetings and best wishes of the Guardian to you all,...
In the Guardian's own handwriting:
Dear and valued friends:
I am thrilled by the tone and character of the joint message you sent me. The splendid achievements that have signalized the proceedings of this year's summer school are a source of abiding inspiration to me in my work, and will as a powerful magnet attract future blessings upon the great and noble work which its organizers are labouring to promote. I will continue to pray for you and for your work in such a promising field and for so meritorious a purpose.
Gratefully and affectionately,
Shoghi