Karl Korsch | |
|---|---|
 Korsch's officialReichstag portrait, 1924 | |
| Born | 15 August 1886 |
| Died | 21 October 1961(1961-10-21) (aged 75) Belmont, Massachusetts, U.S. |
| Education | |
| Education | University of Munich University of Geneva University of Berlin University of Jena (Dr. jur.) |
| Philosophical work | |
| Era | 20th-century philosophy |
| Region | Western philosophy |
| School | Western Marxism |
| Institutions | Tulane University Columbia University |
| Main interests | Politics,economics,law |
| Notable ideas | The principle of historical specification (comprehending all things social in terms of a definite historical epoch) |
| Minister of Justice of the Free State of Thuringia | |
| In office 16 October 1923 – 12 November 1923 | |
| Minister-President | August Frölich |
| Preceded by | Roman Rittweger |
| Succeeded by | Richard Leutheußer |
| Member of theReichstag forThuringia | |
| In office 26 July 1924 – 1 July 1928 | |
| Preceded by | Hermann Schubert |
| Succeeded by | Multi-member district |
| Member of theLandtag of Thuringia | |
| In office February 1924 – July 1924 | |
| Personal details | |
| Political party | USPD(1917–1920) KPD(1920–1926) KAPD(1927) |
| Other political affiliations | Determined Left(1926) Group of International Communists(1926) Left Communists(1926–1928) |
Karl Korsch (German:[kaʁlkɔʁʃ]; August 15, 1886 – October 21, 1961) was a GermanMarxisttheoretician and political philosopher.[1] He is recognized as one of the "dissidents" that challenged theMarxism of theSecond International ofKarl Kautsky,Georgi Plekhanov andLenin.[2] Along withGyörgy Lukács, Korsch is considered to be one of the major figures responsible for laying the groundwork forWestern Marxism in the 1920s.[3]
Karl Korsch was born in the small rural village ofTostedt (nearHamburg) toLutheran parents, Carl August Korsch and his wife Therese (née Raikowski) on August 15, 1886.[4][5] Although Karl's father worked as a secretary in a city hall bureau, he was deeply devoted to studying the philosophy ofLeibniz in his private life. He wrote an unpublished book covering the development of Leibnitz's theories of the monads.[6] Longing for a more urban and intellectual life, Carl August made the decision to relocate his family west, to a village just outsideMeiningen in theThuringen region, when Karl was eleven years old.[7] The move not only allowed the elder Korsch to obtain employment at a local bank (where he eventually rose to the position of vice president), it also gave his children the opportunity to receive a better education. Karl, who showed great intellectual promise at a young age, excelled as a student during his years of schooling at Meiningen.
Beginning in 1906, Korsch successively attended universities inMunich,Geneva, andBerlin, studying various subjects such as philosophy and humanities in preparation for a more concentrated study in the field of law.[7] Korsch then entered theUniversity of Jena (incidentally, the same university that awardedKarl Marx his doctorate in philosophy in 1841) to begin working on his law degree in 1908. When he was not occupied with his studies, Korsch was extremely active in theFreie Studenten, a left-of-center student group which pushed for further liberalization of the school's code of behavior.[7] Korsch also found time to become editor of the student newspaper, to which he also contributed articles. In addition, Korsch organized and participated in lectures that featured prominent socialist speakers such asEduard Bernstein andKarl Liebknecht. The extent of his extracurricular activities did not seem to have the slightest detrimental effect on Korsch's academic performance since he managed to earn hisdoctor of law from the University of Jena's in 1910. His thesis title wasDie Anwendung der Beweislastregeln im Zivilprozess und das qualifizierte Geständnis (The application of theburden of proof incivil cases and the qualified confession). It was around this time that Korsch metHedda Gagliardi, whom he would eventually marry in 1913.
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Korsch received a grant in 1912 to travel to England and work on translating and writing a commentary to a legal text by Sir Ernest Schuster.[7] During this time, Korsch became a member of theFabian Society, a reformist socialist organization. In 1913 he marriedHedda Gagliardi, who came from abourgeois family.[8] She was a grandchild of feministHedwig Dohm, who would be closely involved in his theoretical work. Hedda Korsch from 1916 was a teacher at theWickersdorf Free School Community. Korsch's stay in England came to an end in the summer of 1914 when he received orders to report to his military regiment atMeiningen for maneuvers. Despite being opposed to a war that he knew was on the horizon, Korsch nevertheless made the decision to return to his native country because in the words of his wife: “He wanted to be with the masses, and they would be in the army.” At the start of the war, Korsch initially held the rank of lieutenant but was quickly demoted to sergeant for daring to voice his objections to theGerman Army's invasion of neutral Belgium. However, these disciplinary measures did little to shake Korsch of his pacifist convictions; throughout the war, he refused to carry any sort of weapon into battle.[9] According to Hedda Korsch, Karl's rationale for going into combat unarmed was “that it made no difference, since you were just as safe with or without a weapon: the point was that you were safe neither way.” Instead of fighting, Korsch made it his personal mission to save as many lives as he could. As the conflict wore on, Korsch was decorated several times and was even re-promoted to the rank of captain. He was awarded the Iron Cross twice for his bravery under fire.[9] More important than these official accolades, Korsch's strong moral character and reputation for bravery under fire helped him garner the respect of many of the men in his company. An account cited that he had to change his North German accent to be understood by the soldiers and the common people.[10]
In 1917, he joined theIndependent Social Democratic Party of Germany (USPD), which had broken away from theSocial Democratic Party of Germany over the later's support for the war. Whenwidespread unrest began to sweep through the German military in 1917, this company established a soldiers' soviet with Korsch being elected by his fellow soldiers to serve as one of this soviet's delegates. This "red company" was one of the last to be demobilized, a process which occurred in January 1919.
Korsch's wartime experiences in Germany had radicalised him, especially the ferment within the leftwing parties of Germany following theRussian Revolution. Korsch focused his studies and writings on working-out a replacement economic system forworkers' councils to implement across Germany, published under the titleWhat is Socialization? in March 1919. Korsch was part of the USPD faction which joined theCommunist Party of Germany in 1920. This was despite his misgivings about thetwenty-one Conditions required for adherence to theComintern.[11] After an SPD-KPD coalition government was formed inFree State of Thuringia in October 1923, Korsch was appointed Minister of Justice. He served in theSecond Frölich Cabinet for 27 days during theGerman October untilPresidentFriedrich Ebert issued aReichsexekution, sending theReichswehr to forcibly dissolve the government. Because he had called for the formation ofProletarian Hundreds, Korsch was forced to temporarily go into hiding.[12]
InFebruary 1924, Korsch was elected to theLandtag of Thuringia, and in July he was elected to theReichstag in a by-election triggered by the resignation of fellow CommunistHermann Schubert. He was re-elected inDecember 1924, serving until 1928.[13]
On April 30, 1926, Korsch was expelled from the KPD. Earlier that year, he andErnst Schwarz had formed theEntschiedene Linke (Determined Left), an opposition faction within the party that had initially attracted 7,000 members.[14] Still retaining his Reichstag seat, he formed theGroup of International Communists with two other expelled legislators before joining theLeft Communists in November and theCommunist Workers' Party of Germany in June 1927.
Korsch attributed the failure of the German revolution to the lack of ideological preparation and leadership of the working class. Accordingly, he turned his focus to developing workers' organisations into bodies subjectively capable of realizing revolutionary opportunities. In contrast to what seemed to him amaterialistfatalism, he thought it would be possible to galvanize workers' organisations into bolder political action if more effort was put into educating workers in the deeper theory ofMarxism.
Having been active in left-wing politics in Germany from 1917 to 1933, he left his country of birth on 27 February 1933, the night of theReichstag fire. At first he stayed inEngland andDenmark.
The bodies ofDora Fabian andMathilde Wurm were found in a locked bedroom in London on 4 April 1935. In the subsequentcoroner's inquest, Korsch was to play a significant role. Fabian had been working with (Anton) Roy Ganz of the Swiss Police to investigate the activities ofHans Wesemann, a former Social Democrat journalist who had become a Nazi agent.[15] In fact Korsch had attended an interview with Ganz at which Inspector Jempson of theSpecial Branch had been present, but without Korsch being aware of his identity. Korsch later claimed that Ganz had encouraged him to reveal his revolutionary sentiments in front of the policeman and suggested that this was a factor in the expulsion of Korsch from Britain a few months later.
In 1936, he settled in the United States with his wife, teaching atTulane University,New Orleans, and working at theInstitute for Social Research, then part ofColumbia University,New York City. Korsch died inBelmont, Massachusetts, on October 21, 1961.[16]
In his later work, he rejectedorthodox Marxism as historically outmoded, wanted to adapt Marxism to a new historical situation, and wrote in hisTen Theses (1950) that "the first step in re-establishing a revolutionary theory and practice consists in breaking with that Marxism which claims to monopolize revolutionary initiative as well as theoretical and practical direction" and that "today, all attempts to re-establish the Marxist doctrine as a whole in its original function as a theory of the working classes social revolution are reactionary utopias."[17]
Korsch was especially concerned that Marxist theory was losing its precision and validity – in the words of the day, becoming "vulgarized" – within the upper echelons of the various socialist organizations. His masterwork,Marxism and Philosophy, is an attempt to re-establish the historic character of Marxism as the heir toHegel. It commences with a quote fromVladimir Lenin'sOn the Significance of Militant Materialism: "We must organize a systematic study of the Hegelian dialectic from a materialist standpoint." Korsch's critique of the traditional bourgeois concept of progress in his workKarl Marx stressed that the development of material productive sources is not a natural result or a result of independent economic evolution and can be changed by man.[18] He maintained that the revolutionary transformation of the mode of production and labor is essential to realize a proletarian revolution.[19]
In Korsch's formulation, Hegel represented at the level of ideas the real, material progressiveness of thebourgeoisie. Alongside the extinction of 'Hegelianism' around 1848, the bourgeoisie lost its claim to that progressive role in society, ceasing to be the universal class. Marx, in taking Hegel and transforming that philosophy into something new, in which the workers would be the progressive class, himself represented the moment at which the revolutionary baton materially passed from bourgeoisie to workers. To Korsch, the central idea of Marxian theory was what he termed "the principle of historical specification". This means to "comprehend all things social in terms of a definite historical epoch". (Korsch,Karl Marx, p. 24) He emphasizes that Marx "deals with all categories of his economic and socio-historical research in that specific form and in that specific connection in which they appear in modern bourgeois society. He does not treat them as eternal categories." (op. cit., p. 29f.) He was also noted for claiming that socialism must not confine itself to the "socialization of the means of production" and, instead, construct useful formula for the socialistic organization of the national economy.[20]
Korsch's stance had ramifications which were unpalatable to the official Communist Party structure – not least, casting the Party's own ideological weaknesses as the only material explanation for the failure of the revolution. Published in 1923,Marxism and Philosophy was strongly opposed by Party faithful and other left-wing figures, includingKarl Kautsky andGrigory Zinoviev.[21] Zinoviev famously said of Korsch and his fellow critic Lukács, "If we get a few more of these Professors spinning out their theories, we shall be lost." Over the subsequent five years, the German Communist Party gradually purged all such dissenting voices. Korsch survived within a current known as the Resolute Lefts, until his expulsion in April 1926.[21] He remained a communist deputy to the Reichstag.
Korsch is an oft-neglected figure within twentieth centurypolitical theory.[22] While his critique was not accepted into the officialMarxist–Leninist doctrine of theThird International, it remained influential amongst communist dissenters and academics for several decades. Within those currents, particularly in Germany, Britain, Hungary and Italy, his influence varies from group to group, but became more significant with the brief revival of revolutionary politics in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Korsch taught and befriendedBertolt Brecht, the Marxian playwright, who said he picked Korsch to instruct him in Marxism due to his independence from the Communist Party. It was through Brecht, moreover, that Korsch made the acquaintance ofWalter Benjamin, who had also been active in theFreie Studenten and who had attended the Wickersdorf Free School Community, where Korsch's wife,Hedda Gagliardi, had been a teacher.[23] Korsch's book,Karl Marx, which Benjamin read in manuscript form, is cited extensively in the convolute devoted to Marx in theArcades Project. According to Howard Eiland and Michael W. Jennings, the text was “one of Benjamin’s main sources [on]… Marxism,” introduced him “to an advanced understanding of Marxism.[24][25]
Korsch also instructedFelix Weil, the founder of theInstitute for Social Research, from which the highly influentialFrankfurt School was to emerge. He also influenced the German Marxist historianArthur Rosenberg. Indirect disciples includeFranz Jakubowski andNildo Viana.Sidney Hook attended Korsch lectures in Berlin in 1928.
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