For Müller's widow, after 1935 conditions in Berlin became progressively worse. By the time her sons emigrated in 1935 and 1937, relations between the two men had broken down completely: they no longer spoke together. They had both cut off all links with the Jewish community, respectively in 1929 (Max) and 1930 (Ludwig), which may have made it less problematic for them to flee the country when they did. For Thekla it seemed there was no question of leaving Germany. The endless legal and human complexities involving her links with her late husband's businesses and, indeed, the foreign shareholders would have made emigration unthinkable. After the 1938 November pogrom (identified in many English-language sources as "Kristallnacht") the unthinkable had to become thinkable, however. The destructive attacks on Jewish property in Berlin lasted for two days and left approximately 400 Jewish Berliners dead. The arrests and deportations of 26,000 followed immediately afterwards. Jewish Germans whose businesses had been destroyed were required to pay to restore the damage, while their insurance policies were confiscated. Pressure to emigrate increased at the same time as the emigration option became ever more costly and for many individuals impossible, thanks to a succession of arbitrary "exit taxes" and bureaucratic hurdles. Forced aryanization of the Müller business empire began in 1938. Early in 1939 Thekla Müller was forced to leave the comfortable home in Berlin-Charlottenburg in which she had lived with her family since 1916. In August 1939 the new owner, a government Gauleiter, moved in. Between April 1939 and June 1941 Thekla lived in a room at the Hotel Esplanade in the city centre.