The English-language publication of Marx on Campus gives me the opportunity to revise the book’s preface. The original German edition has been met with a remarkable reception since first appearing in 2014, as reflected in the ongoing series of reviews in publications such as Blätter für deutsche und internationale Politik, Das Argument, and others up to and including the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung.1 I also held quite a few lectures on the topic and received countless letters and emails from people who were personally involved with the Marburg School at some point in their lives.
Marx on Campus clearly satisfied an existing desire to learn more not only about the history of mainstream social science, but also about non-conformist, alternative, and specifically socialist and Marxist currents in the social sciences at German universities. This is true not only for Germany itself but also for readers outside of the country, who likely associate critical and Marxist theory from the German-speaking world with the Frankfurt School of Max Horkheimer, Theodor W. Adorno, and Jürgen Habermas. The Marburg School by contrast embodies a wholly different type of relationship between critical theory and political praxis. The Marburg intellectuals were stubbornly dedicated to grasping scientific analysis and critique as the precondition and means of practical change to exploitative and oppressive social relations, and to seeking out collective actors capable of effecting these changes. In doing so the protagonists and supporters of the Marburg School saw themselves as political actors in the movements and struggles of their time, staking out a position in the national academic field clearly distinct from competing intellectual currents and schools. The wide-ranging public attacks against them were rooted in the nature of things, so to speak, that is in the reality that academic scholarship is not just a privilege to be enjoyed from the ivory tower, but is rather inevitably implicated in the opposing interests and conflicts of the society in which it is conducted.
Although the Marburg School exerted considerable influence beyond the borders of the provincial university town of Marburg an der Lahn in the second half of the twentieth century, its existence has largely been forgotten – a victim, if you will, of discursive-historical amnesia. This slim volume seeks to remedy that circumstance by describing for the reader how the Marburg School helped to keep the critique of capitalism and society alive during a period in (West) German history when such critique earned its proponents more outrage, scorn, and rejection than it did reputation or public recognition. Through fortunate coincidence it just so happens that Wolfgang Abendroth’s long out-of-print A Short History of the European Working Class, one of precious few Marburg School works available in English, is to be reissued this year by Verso Books.2 I hope that my book, together with the reprinting of Abendroth’s classic, will make a small contribution to introducing this particular school of thought to a new generation of Marxist thinkers.
I feel inextricably linked to this Marburg School and owe to it a great deal of crucial intellectual and political impulses and experiences. After all, I lived in Marburg for ten years and was involved in many of the current’s discussions, conflicts, and political projects. For that reason I feel capable of giving an overview of its development, contributions, and limitations without collapsing into hagiography, but also without denying my own personal proximity to the subject at hand.
Numerous individuals whose scholarly activity was connected to the Marburg School in some way, many of whom still see themselves as its representatives, read the manuscript or at least parts of it before its publication. That said, not everyone who worked as a political scientist or sociologist at the University of Marburg and held left-wing, socialist, or Marxist (that is to say, historical materialist) views identifies with what I depict in this book as the ‘Marburg School’. Indeed, the manuscript provoked quite mixed reactions ranging from harsh rejection to informative commentaries, useful tips and additions, all the way to friendly support for the project, albeit sometimes with critical objections here and there.
As the author, for me working on the text also represented the kind of dual self-reflection Pierre Bourdieu called for in social-scientific praxis. Accordingly, I attempted to remain critically aware of the connotations of the theorems and concepts I used as well as reflect on my own position in the academic field. That said, I do not wish to deny that I also wrote the book in order to give expression to the memories tying me to the fortunes of the Marburg School.
The list of those who supported my project would be too long if I were to name them all, but that does not make my gratitude any less sincere. I thank PapyRossa Verlag for its support and assistance in completing the book, and the Historical Materialism Book Series for making it accessible to a global readership. I would also like to extend my thanks to the Dr. Heinz-Jung-Stiftung in Frankfurt am Main and the Stiftung für Sozialgeschichte des 20. Jahrhunderts in Bremen for their generous financial support. Last but not least I thank Ingar Solty for his new introduction to the English edition and Loren Balhorn for taking on the translation with skill and dedication.
Lothar Peter
Bremen, Germany
February 2019