Frankfurt School

History of the Frankfurt School

The Frankfurt School's history is typically separated into three distinct phases. The first phase (1923–31) serves as the Frankfurt School's formative years. Although Marxism held something of a tenuous position in Germany during that period, numerous scholars, spurred in part by György Lukács' canonical History and Class Consciousness, sought a university through which the principles of Marxism could be taught and in which a Marxist research agenda could be housed. This intellectual climate, along with an endowment from Hermann Weil, led to the school's initial construction, and under the leadership of Carl Grünberg, the Frankfurt School operated as a school of orthodox, scientific Marxism that ultimately held little significance outside the period.

This would all change when Max Horkheimer took over the leadership of the Frankfurt School and oversaw much of the work performed during the second phase (1931–50). Horkheimer, along with Theodor Adorno, Herbert Marcuse, Leo Löwenthal and others, would gradually transform the Frankfurt School, leading it away from rigid scientific Marxism towards interdisciplinary critiques of modernity, culture and technology. These powerful critiques would also draw important contributions from surrounding thinkers such as Walter Benjamin and Siegfried Kracauer, their strong affiliation to the Frankfurt School leading many scholars to include them as honorary members. The new Frankfurt School programme now consisted of forays into the visual, musical and literary arts, along with strong efforts into philosophical and social criticism. Linking all these diverging critiques together was a profoundly critical approach that inspired examinations of capitalism, modernism, the Enlightenment, mass culture, positivism, phenomenology and Nazism. The rise of Nazism, and the Frankfurt School's unrelenting critique of it, led to many of its key members migrating to the USA, bringing critical theory with them and serving as influences on post–World War II critical movements.

The third phase of the Frankfurt School commenced when Horkheimer and Adorno returned to Germany and was carried into the twenty-first century. This third phase can be separated into two distinct movements. The first movement consists of the final work of Horkheimer, Adorno and other original members. Now highly regarded as intellectuals and looked upon favourably by the left as precursors to the 1960s liberal movements, the Frankfurt School theorists would continue onwards with their programme, particularly expanding their critiques of mass culture, technology and positivism. The second movement contains the work of their students and successors, such as Jürgen Habermas and Axel Honneth. These theorists would continue the critical theory mission and advance into new territories such as threats against and the means for the preservation of public spaces, critiques of advanced capitalism and discussions regarding Internet technology. Although this third phase undoubtedly reflects clear demarcations from the second phase's mode of critique, the similar critical motivations and the rigorous execution by Frankfurt School theorists impart consistency, power and a critical ethos to their theory.

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