Rahel Levin Varnhagen met Pauline Wiesel, née Cesar (1778–1848), in mid-1790. When Wiesel left Berlin in 1808, the two met only rarely. Nonetheless, their intimate correspondence continued until Levin Varnhagen’s death. Wiesel was one of the few non-Jewish women with whom Levin Varnhagen kept up such an intense exchange. She saw the healthy, fun-loving “Pölle” as a woman who complemented her in many ways and had similar views despite all their differences; and she admired her friend’s courage in fulfiling her desire for love outside a loveless marriage despite social ostracism. Nevertheless, the physical distance between the two, as well as the many missed and unanswered letters, posed a communicative challenge to their mutual trust and understanding. Levin Varnhagen compensated for the lack of physical proximity by taking a great interest in her friend’s life, loves and suffering, by emphatically expressing her love to give the relationship an air of exclusivity, and by constantly making plans to meet and talk face to face. She also used rhetorical strategies to make Wiesel part of a shared present despite her physical absence, carefully noting where and when she wrote her letters and describing scenes in which Wiesel was present in spirit if not in body.