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.
Activities and affiliations
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)
Related historical events
Opposition to the war and the Spartacist movement
At the outbreak of the First World War, Mehring opposed Germany’s participation alongside left-wing Social Democrats Karl Liebknecht, Rosa Luxemburg, and Clara Zetkin. When the SPD leadership and majority supported war credits and wartime class cooperation, he joined the opposition within the party, viewing that course as a departure from the principles of the international workers’ movement. In 1915 he co-edited the antiwar left’s journal Die Internationale, and in 1916 took part in founding the Spartacus group. That August, the military authorities placed him in preventive custody for four months in Berlin’s Stadtvogtei prison. After his release, he joined the Independent Social Democratic Party (USPD) in 1917, which called for an immediate end to the war.
Mehring’s antiwar work extended beyond an internal party dispute. In 1918 he published an appeal to workers together with Zetkin, Luxemburg, and Liebknecht, and also published his book on Marx’s life. The Spartacist movement, formed amid the war and the party split, led to the founding of the German Communist Party (KPD) at the end of 1918. Mehring played an important role in preparing its founding congress and died in early January 1919, shortly after the party was established.