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)