Legend contends that in 1947, Heller bumped into Helene Thimig on a subway train in New York. The widow of theater producer Max Reinhardt had been friends with Heller's parents before the war and had a summer home in Salzburg named Schloss Leopoldskron.[http://www.salzburgglobal.org/fileadmin/user_upload/Documents/SalzburgGlobalChronicle_2015.pdf][http://www.salzburgglobal.org/news-publications/presidents-reports.html] Heller explained his plans and Thimig said she would rent Max’s Schloss at a low rate for the purpose of a summer school. Dick Campbell is quoted as saying "We hope to create at least one small center in which young Europeans from all countries, and of all political convictions, could meet for a month in concrete work under favorable living conditions, and to lay the foundation for a possible permanent center of intellectual discussion in Europe."