A Brief Overview of the History of

the Frankfurt School:

Addressing modern calls for rebirth and
advancement

Lecture notes
R.C.Smith
 Notable figures
Some of the most prominent figures of the first
generation of Critical Theorists are Max Horkheimer
(1895-1973), Theodor Adorno (1903-1969), Herbert
Marcuse (1898-1979), Walter Benjamin (1892-1940),
Friedrich Pollock (1894-1970), Leo Lowenthal (1900-
1993), and Eric Fromm (1900-1980)

There were also many other contributors, especially in

the earliest stages of the Institute when it still had
orthodox Marxist affiliations
 Its earliest conception
The Frankfurt School was and continues to be a
philosophical and sociological movement, which was
originally founded in 1923

During its earliest years, the Frankfurt School was

associated with the Institut fr Sozialforschung
(Institute for Social Research) within Frankfurt
University
 Its earliest conception
The initial idea behind the institute consisted around
the need for an independently founded school, which
aimed to provide studies on the labor movement and
the origins of fascism and anti-Semitism

At the time of its inception, the problems of fascism

and anti-Semitism were being ignored in German
intellectual and academic life
 Felix Weil
The birth of the institute was largely thanks to Felix
Weil, who had been interested in the possibility of
financing an institute devoted to the study of society in
the light of the Marxist tradition
 Felix Weil & the birth of the Institute
for Social Research
As Martin Jay notes (Creation of the Institut fr
Sozialforschung, 1973): Weil was a young Marxist who had
written his PhD on the practical problems of implementing
socialism (published by Karl Korsch).
Weil wanted to bring different trends of Marxism together,
and organised a week-long symposium (the Erste
Marxistische Arbeitswoche) in 1922 attended by Georg
Lukacs, Karl Korsch, Karl August Wittfogel, Friedrich Pollock
and others.
The event was so successful that Weil set about erecting a
building and funding salaries for a permanent institute. Weil
negotiated with the Ministry of Education that the Director of
the Institute would be a full professor from the state system,
so that the Institute would have the status of a University.
 Official recognition by German
Ministry of Education
Not long after its inception, the Institute for Social
Research was formally recognized by the Ministry of
Education as a legitimate organisation attached to
Frankfurt University
 First director Carl Grnberg
The first official appointed director was Carl Grnberg,
who was a Marxist legal and political professor at the
University of Vienna
 Carl Grnberg
Grnbergs time as director spanned between 1923-
1929) and is noted most for contributing to the
creation of an historical archive (also known as the
Grnberg Archiv)

This archive mainly oriented to the study of the labor

movement
 Friedrich Pollock & Max Horkheimer

Martin Jay notes that Friedrich Pollock had been

involved with the Institute from the beginning, and
originally took over the role of Director after the death
of Carl Grnberg.
Pollock was also a life-long friend and associate of Max
Horkheimer, who is the figure many people identify as
a leading representative of the Frankfurt School.
In 1930, Max Horkheimer became director of the
Frankfurt School and is widely credited for playing a
significant role in the conception of what later came to
be known as Frankfurt School critical theory
 Max Horkheimer
Horkheimer was an early voice of the school.
During his first spell as director in 1930s, Horkheimer
expounded the critical theory of the school in its
journal, Zeitschrift fr Sozialforschung (1968; Critical
Theory: Selected Essays, 1972)
 Horkheimers influence
Horkheimer believed that it was important to address
a wide variety of economic, social, political and
aesthetic topics, ranging from empirical analysis to
philosophical theorisation
It was under Horkheimers leadership that members of
the Institute were encouraged to expand their work
beyond the theories of Karl Marx
While the school was inspired by Marxism, it was also
sympathetic to other forms of liberation such as
psychoanalysis
Marxism, it was argued, is like any other one-sided
doctrine and it must be open to criticism
 Horkheimers influence
Later when discussing the origins of critical theory,
Horkheimer explained that the sociology of the
Frankfurt School went beyond the critical theory of
society conceived by Marx in order to reflect reality
more adequately

As Martin Jay notes: from the very beginning there was

an aim at the institute to conceive of a
multidisciplinary form of research, which increasingly
pointed beyond orthodox Marxism
 Aims of critical theory
According to Horkheimer, the general normative
principles of critical theory are as follows:
- Develop a multidimensional understanding of society
that is dominated at every turn by a concern for
reasonable conditions of life
- Develop a multidisciplinary theory which reveals the
inherent antagonisms and negative social conditions of
contemporary society, and condemn existing social
institutions and practises as inhumane
- Develop a fundamental critique of society, which
contemplates the need for an alteration of society as
a whole
 Building from and advancing Marx
There were many notable confrontations on economic
themes within the Institute

These confrontations were mainly driven by the

perceived need to build from and advance Marxist
theory, which, at the time, was quite a radical idea
 Building from and advancing Marx
Friedrich Pollock criticised Henryk Grossmans standard
view on the pauperization of capitalism. As a result,
Grossman left the Institute

But Pollocks critical reinterpretation of Marx received a

lot support from other members of the School

These members, who went on to further develop the

Institute, include Leo Lowenthal, Theodor
Wiesengrund-Adorno and Erich Fromm
 Eric Fromm
Eric Fromms development of a psychoanalytic trend at
the Institute was arguably a crucial moment in the
history of the Frankfurt School
 Eric Fromm & Max Horkheimer
Eric Fromm was heavily influenced by the philosophical
teachings of Horkheimer

One could argue that it was the main research patters

of Horkheimer and Fromm that defined largely the
academic context from out of which the earliest works
of the Frankfurt School would emerge
 Psychoanalysis
With the assistance of Fromm, some of the Frankfurt
Schools earliest aims were to provide a coherent
reinterpretation of Freud and Marx

Fromm and Horkheimer played a key role in starting

this movement, emphasising among other things the
need to be more attentive toward the subject (this
emphasis on the subject is very important)
 Fromms departure
After Fromms departure in the late 1930s, the School
published a few notable works that continued to retain
an interest in psychoanalysis

Some notable works include Adornos later paper

Social Science and Sociological Tendencies in
Psychoanalysis (1946) & The Authoritarian
Personality (1950), as well as Marcuses book Eros
and Civilization (1955)
 Walter Benjamin
In 1928 Walter Benjamin wrote The Origin of German
Tragic Drama, which was a critical study of German
baroque drama, as well as the political and cultural
climate of Germany during the Counter-Reformation
(15451648).

Benjamin originally presented the work to the

University of Frankfurt in 1925 as a (post-doctoral)
dissertation
 The Arcades Project
During 192740 Walter Benjamin was working on his
final, incomplete book about Parisian city life in the
19th century (known as The Arcades Project)

In its current form, The Arcades Project is a massive

collection of notes which Benjamin filed together over
the course of thirteen years

The Arcades Project was published for the first time in

1982, and is over a thousand pages long.
 Nazi takeover of Germany
In 1933, the Institute temporarily transferred first to
Geneva due to the Nazi takeover of Germany

In 1935 the Institute then moved to New York and

Columbia University.

Not long after, Horkheimer published the seminal

manifesto of the School: Traditional and Critical
Theory ([1937] 1976)
 Theodor W. Adorno
In 1938 Adorno joined the Institute after spending time
at Merton College, Oxford.
 Benjamins death
Walter Benjamin, whose work in aesthetics offered a
deeply significant contribution to the Institute, refused
to leave Europe during Nazi occupation

While attempting to cross the border between France

and Spain at Port Bou in 1940, Benjamin committed
suicide

Some months later Hannah Arendt also crossed the

same border. Arendt passed on to Adorno Benjamins
last writing: Theses on the Philosophy of History
 Dialectic of Enlightenment (1947)
After being invited to join the School by Horkheimer,
Adorno immediately assumed a significant role

This culminated in the co-publication, with

Horkheimer, of one of the key publications of Frankfurt
School Critical Theory: Dialectic of Enlightenment
(1947)

Dialectic of Enlightenment continues to be a highly

significant publication today, with some of its basic
points still being considered and advanced
 Dialectic of Enlightenment (1947)
Though Dialectic of Enlightenment presents several key
arguments, some basic points easily identifiable with many
include:
Enlightenment thought originally intended to emancipate humanity
from its dependence on nature
Enlightenment thought set out to accomplish this through science and
technology
In the process , the Enlightenment coincided with the advent of
instrumental reason, which, in turn, entailed the domination of
(internal and external) nature
Rather than freeing humanity from its most basic existential
dependence on nature, instrumental reason (scienticism &
technicisim) has been used to dominate both nature and humanity
Horkheimer and Adorno also introduce other key concepts such as the
Culture Industry, historical domination and the genesis of the
bourgeois subject
 America in the 1940s
Friedrich Pollock remained on the east coast of the
United States, writing mostly around anti-Semitism:
Studies in Anti-Semitism
Horkheimer and Adorno resided on the West coast of
the U.S., also engaging in studies of anti-Semitism: The
Authoritarian Personality and Studies in Prejudice
During this time Horkheimer and Adorno also
collaborated with other German theorists, such as
Bertold Brecht and Thomas Mann
 Re-invitation to join Frankfurt
University
In 1946, the Institute was officially invited to rejoin
Frankfurt University
On 14 November 1951, Horkheimer presented his
inaugural speech for the reopening of the institute
One week later he was inaugurated as a new rector of
Frankfurt University.
 1940-1950
Herbert Marcuse remained in the United States and
was offered a full position by Brandeis University. At
this time Marcuse was preparing some of his greatest
works
Adorno returned to Germany in August 1953. He took
over Horkheimers position as director of the Institute
for Social Research in 1955
 Jrgen Habermas
In 1956, Habermas joined the Institute as Adornos
assistant, and was soon involved in an empirical and
cooperative study under the title of Students and
Politics.
 Horkheimers retirement &
significant works by Marcuse
As several important publications emerged or were
beginning to emerge in 1956, Horkheimer retired

Some of the works to created around the time of

Horkheimers retirement included Marcuses Eros and
Civilization and his essay collection Sociologica
 Negative Dialectics and One-
dimensional man
In the 1960s, with the now famous student protests
rippling throughout Europe, Marcuse published One-
Dimensional Man (1964).
In this work Marcuse introduced several new concepts,
including the notion of educational dictatorship
Shortly after, in 1966, Adornos fundamental work
Negative Dialectics was published. Adorno also
introduced several new concepts, including an open
and non systemic notion of dialectics as well as
further development of his epistemology and
philosophy of the subject
 1940-1950
1 July 1957 Adorno was appointed full professor in
philosophy and sociology. It was thought that Adornos
most innovative contribution was his music theory and
aesthetics, including Philosophy of Modern Music
(1949)

Adornos critique of popular culture and music remains

extremely relevant, although controversial in certain
respects
 Second and Third Generations
After the Institute re-established itself in Germany after
the War, Jrgen Habermas became the main figure of
the younger generation
He continued to develop critical theory in the
Hegelian tradition of Adorno and Marcuse.
In the 1960s Habermas developed the theory of
networks, but in his later years focused mostly on
communicative ethics in the tradition of Immanuel
Kant
Habermas eventually departed both from the Marxist
and Hegelian traditions, and debate still continues
whether he should be credited as formally part of the
second generation of the Frankfurt School
 Second and Third Generations
Axel Honneth is widely credited as representative of the
third generation, continuing the work of Jrgen Habermas

Honneth is noted for making at least a partial return to

Hegel, although he still remains quite distant from Marx

Other forms of critical theory have also emerged in recent

years. Arguably, the most common form of critical theory
practised in sociological departments today is a post-
modern strand which is known to have roots in positivist
logic. This movement also often lacks a substantive
critique of capitalism and seems over-reliant on its
emphasis on the designations of race, class, gender.
 An alternative generation?
Today there is another significant movement
establishing itself almost as a counter to the
predominate form of critical theory in early 21st
Century society. This movement is highly critical of the
increasing authoritarian development of academic
positivism in the form of scientism and its logic of
instrumental reason that are becoming more and more
entrenched in academia
This movement, although young, seems to call not
only for a return to the Frankfurt School in its original
form, but most importantly for its retrieval and
advancement
 An alternative generation?
Young scholars like David Sherman are noted as
offering significant contributions to this movement,
while others ranging broadly from Lambert Zuidervaart
and Michael Ott to Hauke Brunkhorst also offer key
texts
Heathwood Institute and Press formed in late 2011
inspired by this recent wave of literature. It began as a
small collective of authors and researchers and has
continued to grow around the idea of offering an
alternative generation of critical theory one which
points explicitly toward the retrieval, reworking and
the advancement of Frankfurt School
 An alternative generation?
Along with a return to Hegel and a commitment to
building off Marxist theory, this potential alternative
generation suggests working through the sociology of
the first generation of the Frankfurt School in order to
retrieve, advance and ultimately progress it in the 21st
Century (what does this mean? What concepts remain
in tact and what is left to the scrap bin of history?)

But this alternative generation also faces many

challenges, and exists within an extremely hostile
context: neo-liberalism, advanced capitalism,
imperialistic and authoritarian forces
 An alternative generation?
There is a problem, as David Sherman puts it, which is
reflected in certain variants of postmodernism about
whether there is any concept of philosophy left that has not
been completely assimilated by the totally administered
society, such that philosophy has been abolished by virtue
of the very fact that it has ultimately not realised itself.
(Sherman, 2007)
As Sherman writes: [o]f course, theory lives on but the
issue is whether it lives on as critical theory.(Ibid.)
As Heathwood states: This possible alternative generation
will need to contend with the challenge of realising and
establishing new standpoints of critique, and ultimately
ground calls for new norms of critique according to a
foundational critical theory of 21st Century society.
 Notes and references
International Encyclopedia of Philosophy, The Frankfurt School
and Critical Theory: http://www.iep.utm.edu/frankfur/
Martin Jay, The Dialectical Imagination. A history of the Frankfurt
School and the Institute of Social Research 1923-1950 (1973)
Heathwood Institute and Press, Advancing Frankfurt School
critical theory (2011): www.heathwoodpress.com
Max Horkheimer, Traditional and Critical Theory (1972), tr.
Jeremy J. Shapiro, in Max Horkheimer, Critical Theory (New York:
Herder & Herder), pp. 198-199, 208, 209, 210.
Lambert Zuidervaart, Social Philosophy after Adorno. Cambridge
University Press, 2007
Smith, R.C., Horkheimer and the Definition of Critical Theory
Today (Holt: Heathwood Press), 2013
Sherman, David. Dialectics of Subjectivity: Sartre and Adorno
(New York: Suny), 2007