[FRA:] Adorno dissing Marcuse

[Doug Kellner]

Unfortunately, Adorno's nasty attack on Marcuse was indeed found in a 
letter. here's the information I unearthed published in my first volume of 
Marcuse's Collected Writings, WAR, TECHNOLOGY AND FASCISM. It's in the 
introduction and note 22:
Horkheimer notoriously played off potential collaborators against each 
other, making the various Institute members think that they would be major 
contributors to the envisaged book on dialectics which turned out to be 
Dialectic of Enlightenment, eventually co-authored with Adorno. See 
Horkheimer's letters in Gesammelte Schriften, Volumes 15-17, which document 
his discussions with various members of the Institute concerning 
collaboration on the book on dialectics. In one of the low points of 
Institute in-fighting and back-stabbing, Adorno, while in Oxford working on 
a book on Husserl, wrote to Horkheimer, describing Marcuse, then one of 
Horkheimer's close collaborators, as a man only "hindered by Judaism from 
being a fascist." Adorno complained that Marcuse "had such illusions of Herr 
Heidegger, whom he thanked all-too-heartily in the forward to his Hegel 
book," and that he published his Hegel book with Klostermann, also 
Heidegger's publisher. Adorno went on to suggest that he should himself 
replace Marcuse! Adorno to Horkheimer, May 13, 1935, in Max Horkheimer, 
Gesammelte Schriften, Volume 15: 347-348. Horkheimer tactfully replied (July 
5, 1935) that he could not engage all of the issues in Adorno's letter in 
written form, glossing over his attack on Marcuse.

Douglas Kellner
Philosophy of Education Chair
Social Sciences and Comparative Education
University of California-Los Angeles
Box 951521, 3022B Moore Hall
Los Angeles, CA 90095-1521

Fax  310 206 6293
Phone 310 825 0977
http://www.gseis.ucla.edu/faculty/kellner/kellner.html
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Ralph Dumain" <rdumain at igc.org>
To: <theory-frankfurt-school at srcf.ucam.org>
Sent: Sunday, February 19, 2006 10:51 AM
Subject: [FRA:] Adorno dissing Marcuse


>I found this piece of information on the Marcuse web site:
>
> Adorno to Horkheimer about
> Herbert Marcuse
> May 13, 1935 letter
> London to New York
>
> On May 13, 1935 Theodor W. Adorno, then in London, wrote a letter to Max 
> Horkheimer, head of the Institute for Social Research in New York. In it 
> he made a nasty remark about Herbert Marcuse--that he would be a 'fascist 
> if his Jewish background didn't prevent him' (ein "durchs Judentum 
> verhinderter Faszist") who should be thrown out of the Institute for 
> Social Research.
> Horkheimer wrote back with a stern rebuke.
>
> http://www.marcuse.org/herbert/people/adorno/AdornoToHorkheimer1935.htm
>
> What was this all about, anyway?
>
>
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