The elder theoretician of German Marxism: historian, literary critic, and Spartacus League co-founder
Lenin characterized Mehring as 'a man not only wanting but also knowing how to be a Marxist.'
Franz Mehring was the foremost Marxist historian, literary critic, and philosopher of the German workers' movement. Joining the SPD in 1891, he became a lead writer for Die Neue Zeit and, alongside Kautsky and Luxemburg, formed the theoretical backbone of the party's Marxist left. He co-founded the Spartacus League in 1916, led the founding of the German Communist Party (KPD) in 1919, and authored the classical Marx biography Karl Marx: The Story of His Life (1918) and the landmark History of German Social Democracy (1898). His The Lessing Legend (1893), a materialist demolition of Prussian mythology, drew high praise from Engels, and he extended historical materialism into cultural criticism against the encroachments of neo-Kantianism and Nietzsche.
Career timeline
- 1846Born in Schlawe, Pomerania (Prussia)
- 1884–1890Editor, Berliner Volks-Zeitung
- 1891Joined SPD; lead writer, Die Neue Zeit (to 1913)
- 1902–1907Editor-in-chief, Leipziger Volkszeitung
- 1906–1911Lecturer, SPD central party school
- 1916Co-founder, Spartacus League
- 1917–1918Member, Prussian Landtag
- 1919Co-founder, Communist Party of Germany (KPD)
Founder of Marxist revisionism and evolutionary socialism, author of The Preconditions of Socialism
"I have extraordinarily little interest in what is called the 'final goal of Socialism.' This aim, whatever it be, is nothing to me, the movement everything." — Response to critics (1899)
German SPD theorist and politician. Engels's literary executor and editor of Der Sozialdemokrat, Bernstein began as an orthodox Marxist before his 1899 The Preconditions of Socialism challenged Marx's predictions of capitalist collapse, class polarization, and revolutionary necessity. His dictum "the goal is nothing, the movement everything" laid the foundation for social democracy's reformist, parliamentary turn, creating the schism between revolutionary socialism and evolutionary social democracy. He broke with the SPD's pro-war majority to co-found the anti-war USPD during World War I, and spent his final years defending Weimar parliamentary democracy, dying six weeks before Hitler took power.
Career timeline
- 1872Joined SDAP (Eisenachers); delegate to 1875 Gotha unification congress
- 1881–1890Editor of Der Sozialdemokrat in exile (Zurich, then London); close collaborator of Engels
- 1891Co-drafted Erfurt Programme with Kautsky; named Engels's literary executor (1895)
- 1899Published The Preconditions of Socialism — launched revisionism debate that divided the international socialist movement
- 1902–1928Reichstag deputy (Breslau-West, later Potsdam II) — specialist in taxation, trade, and constitutional law
- 1915–1917Turned against war credits; issued peace manifesto with Haase and Kautsky; co-founded the anti-war USPD
- 1918–1928Assistant secretary in Weimar Treasury; defended parliamentary democracy; died 1932
Chief theoretician of orthodox Marxism in the Second International, founding editor of Die Neue Zeit, editor of Marx's Capital Vol. IV
"Socialism as a means to the emancipation of the proletariat, without democracy, is unthinkable." — The Dictatorship of the Proletariat (1918)
Leading Marxist theoretician of the Second International. He authored the Erfurt Programme, refuted Bernstein's revisionism, and after the Russian Revolution critiqued Bolshevik rule, creating the defining point of divergence between social democracy and Leninism.
Career timeline
- 1875Joined Austrian SDAP; published Darwin and Socialism
- 1880–1883Moved to Zurich, met Bernstein; travelled to London and befriended Marx and Engels
- 1883–1917Founded and edited Die Neue Zeit for 35 years — leading Marxist theoretical journal of the Second International
- 1885–1890Worked closely with Engels in London; began editing Marx's Theories of Surplus Value
- 1891–1892Authored theoretical section of Erfurt Programme and commentary The Class Struggle — defining SPD Marxism
- 1899–1909Led orthodox Marxist counter-attack against Bernstein's revisionism; published The Road to Power
- 1917Broke with SPD over war policy; co-founded Independent Social Democratic Party (USPD)
- 1918–1922Published The Dictatorship of the Proletariat criticising Bolshevik rule; provoked Lenin's polemical reply
Co-author of permanent revolution who arranged Lenin's sealed train: the 'merchant of revolution'
In December 1917, Lenin refused Parvus's request to return to Russia with the words: 'the cause of the revolution should not be touched by dirty hands.'
A Marxist theorist and journalist in the German SPD who co-developed the theory of permanent revolution with Leon Trotsky in 1904–1905. During World War I, he built a revolutionary network inside Russia with German government funding and played the decisive role in arranging Lenin's return via the 'sealed train' in April 1917. After the Bolsheviks took power, Lenin refused his request to return, declaring that 'the cause of the revolution should not be touched by dirty hands'; Parvus remained in Germany and became an advisor to early Weimar Republic leaders. Criticized for commodifying his principles between revolutionary Marxism and realpolitik, he remains one of the most controversial figures of 20th-century socialism.
Career timeline
- 1891PhD from Basel, joins German SPD
- 1894–1897Writer for Die Neue Zeit, adopts pseudonym Parvus
- 1897–1898Editor of Sächsische Arbeiterzeitung
- 1900Helps Lenin and Martov launch Iskra
- 1904–1905Co-formulates permanent revolution with Trotsky
- 1905Strategist of the St. Petersburg Soviet, authors Financial Manifesto
- 1915Presents revolutionary plan to German Foreign Ministry, builds Copenhagen network
- 1917Arranges Lenin's return via the sealed train
Frankfurt School philosopher and the pre-eminent theorist of the 1960s New Left
'In its advanced positions, it is the Great Refusal — the protest against that which is' — One-Dimensional Man (1964)
Herbert Marcuse was a central philosopher of the Frankfurt School who fused Marxism with Freudian psychoanalysis to develop a critical theory of modern capitalist society. In Eros and Civilization (1955) he analyzed the repressive structures of capitalist society and explored the utopian potential of liberated Eros, while in One-Dimensional Man (1964) he diagnosed advanced industrial society as a 'one-dimensional' order where technological abundance erodes critical consciousness, introducing the concept of repressive desublimation. A German-Jewish émigré who fled Nazism for the United States, he served in the OSS during the war and later taught at Brandeis and UC San Diego, becoming the intellectual pillar of the 1960s student movements and the New Left. His radical thought, crystallized in the 'Great Refusal,' has had a lasting impact on critical theory and emancipatory politics.
Career timeline
- 1932Joined Institute for Social Research (Frankfurt School) in exile, Geneva
- 1934–1942Researcher, Institute for Social Research, Columbia University, New York
- 1942–1951Analyst, OSS and State Department; head of Central European Section
- 1954–1965Professor of political theory, Brandeis University
- 1965–1970Professor of philosophy, UC San Diego
