| Part ofa series on the |
| Frankfurt School |
|---|
 |
Major works |
Friedrich Pollock (/ˈpɒlək/;German:[ˈpɔlɔk]; alsoFrederick Pollock;[1] 22 May 1894 – 16 December 1970) was a Germansocial scientist andphilosopher. He was one of the founders of theInstitute for Social Research inFrankfurt am Main, and a member of theFrankfurt School of Marxist theory.
Friedrich Pollock was born to a leather factory owner inFreiburg im Breisgau. Pollock'sJewish-born father turned away fromJudaism, and raised his son accordingly.[2] Pollock was educated in finance from 1911 to 1915. During this time, he metMax Horkheimer, with whom he became a lifelong friend. He then studiedeconomy,sociology and philosophy inFrankfurt am Main, where he wrote his thesis onMarx'slabor theory of value.[citation needed] In 1923 Pollock received his doctorate in economics from theUniversity of Frankfurt. TheInstitute for Social Research was founded in the same year by Pollock together withLeo Löwenthal,Walter Benjamin,Theodor W. Adorno, and Horkheimer. The Institute for Social Research was reestablished after World War II, when Pollock and Adorno returned to Frankfurt after exile in the United States.[3]
Between 1927 and 1928, Pollock traveled to theSoviet Union in honor of the tenth anniversary of theOctober Revolution. His research there led to his treatiseAttempts at Planned Economy in the Soviet Union 1917–1927. Thereafter, he took a post as lecturer at the University of Frankfurt replacingCarl Grünberg as director of the Institute for Social Research from 1928 till 1930.[citation needed] Prior to theNazi seizure of power, Pollock had used his contacts in theInternational Labour Organization to establish aGeneva branch of the Institute for Social Research.[4] In 1933, Pollock and Horkheimer moved into exile, first in Geneva, then toLondon,Paris, and finallyNew York City.
In 1950 Pollock had resettled in Frankfurt and was reappointed director of the Institute for Social Research. From 1951 to 1958, he was professor of economics and sociology at theUniversity of Frankfurt.[citation needed] In 1956 Pollock publishedAutomation: Materials for the Evaluation of the Economic and Social Consequences as interdisciplinary analyses. This publication exemplified holistic economic research, which had been championed by theFrankfurt school in the 1950s.[5] InAutomation Pollock argued thatpost-industrialemployees might be spared from "soul-destroying drudgery".[6]
In 1959, Pollock and Horkheimer moved toMontagnola,Ticino,Switzerland, although Pollock held a position as professor Emeritus at the University of Frankfurt until 1963. He died in Montagnola in 1970.
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)