George Lichtheim

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George Lichtheim (born November 6, 1912 in Berlin , † April 22, 1973 in London ) was a German-British writer whose works were primarily concerned with the history and theory of socialism and Marxism . He made a point of being neither a liberal nor a communist and described himself as a socialist.

He was a representative of the Marxist interpretation of history and saw in Marxism the legacy of the German idealistic tradition from Kant to Hegel. He was critical of the later development from Friedrich Engels and of Soviet Marxism and was open to critical theory and the Frankfurt School ( Max Horkheimer , Herbert Marcuse , Theodor Wiesengrund Adorno , Jürgen Habermas ).

Life

George Lichtheim was born in Berlin in 1912 as the son of the Zionist politician and publicist Richard Lichtheim and spent the first years of his life in Constantinople until 1917, where his father represented the World Zionist Organization. The family then lived in Berlin and for a short time in London. In 1934 the Lichtheims emigrated to Palestine. He lived in Jerusalem in the Rechavia district and became a close friend of Gershom Scholem .

Lichtheim came to England via Palestine in 1945 and initially published under the pseudonym George L. Arnold . He translated large parts of Gershom Scholem 's work, Die Judenische Mystik in their mainstreams, originally written in German, into English ( Major Trends in Jewish Mysticism , 1941) and wrote numerous articles for the Palestine Post , Commentary , Partisan Review , Dissent , New Leader , Encounter , Times Literary Supplement, and The New York Review of Books .

Lichtheim died by suicide .

Works (selection)

  • The Pattern of World Conflict . Dial Press, New York 1955
  • Marxism: An Historical and Critical Study . Praeger (Praeger university series), New York [u. a.] 1962
  • Marxism in Modern France . Columbia University Press, New York [u. a.] 1966
  • The Concept of Ideology, And Other Essays . Random House, New York 1967 [Ger. The concept of ideology . Suhrkamp (Edition Suhrkamp 676), Frankfurt / M. 1973. ISBN 3-518-00676-2 ]
  • The Origins of Socialism . Praeger (Books That Matter), New York 1969 [Ger. Origins of socialism (The modern non-fiction book 86). Bertelsmann, Gütersloh 1969]
  • A Short History of Socialism . Fontana / Collins (Fontana paperbacks), London 1975 [Ger. Brief history of socialism . Kiepenheuer & Witsch (Study Library), Cologne 1972. ISBN 3-462-00891-9 ]
  • Lukács . Collins (Fontana paperbacks), London 1970 [Ger. Georg Lukács . dtv (Modern Theorists), Munich 1971. ISBN 3-423-00748-6 ]
  • Imperialism . Praeger, New York 1971 [Ger. Imperialism . dtv (Scientific Series), Munich 1972. ISBN 3-423-04112-9 ]
  • From Marx to Hegel . Orbach & Chambers, London 1971
  • Europe in the Twentieth Century . Weidenfeld and Nicolson, London 1972 [Ger. Europe in the 20th century. A contemporary intellectual history . dtv ( Kindler's Cultural History of Europe 20), Munich 1983. ISBN 3-423-05941-9 ]
  • Thoughts Among the Ruins: Collected essays on Europe and beyond , (1973)
  • Collected Essays , Viking 1973

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Werner Röder (Ed.): Biographical Handbook of German-speaking Emigration after 1933 . 2 vols. KG Saur, Munich 1983
  2. ↑ " I am not a liberal and never have been. I find liberalism almost as boring as communism and have no wish to be drawn into an argument over Which of these two antiquated creeds is less likely to advance us any further. " Letter to the Editor of The New York Review of Books on March 19, 1964 (last reviewed June 2, 2013)
  3. ^ Steven Lukes On George Lichtheim , The New York Review of Books 1973
personal data
SURNAME Lichtheim, George
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Lichtheim, Georg
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German-British writer
DATE OF BIRTH November 6, 1912
PLACE OF BIRTH Berlin
DATE OF DEATH April 22nd 1973
Place of death London