Abstracts
Abstract
The focus of analysis is the reconstruction of the relationship between the philosopher and sociologist Max Horkheimer (1895–1973) and Hans Simmel (1891–1943), Georg Simmel’s first son. Its basis is an unpublished folder at the Universitätsarchiv, Frankfurt am Main. Under review is the attempt by Horkheimer to arrange a visa for Hans Simmel to travel to the US. On the one hand, a testimony is revealed of an intellectual debt (Horkheimer’s to Georg Simmel), which was transformed into a biographical debt toward Hans; on the other hand, we sketch a tragic link with the rise of the Nazi party and the consequences of the persecution and diaspora of Jews from Germany, as well as the Institute for Social Research (New York) commitments to help German intellectuals. Consequently, there are two principal aims: firstly, to reconstruct the biographical events which connect Hans Simmel and Max Horkheimer at a specific period (1936–1943), furnishing details about concrete aspects of their historical situation; secondly, in the background we examine the ambivalent relationship between Georg Simmel’s thought and the former Frankfurt School authors, who appreciated Simmel’s innovative style, yet distanced themselves from his irrational-bourgeois approach (due to the stigmatization of Korsch and Lukács).
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Appendices
Acknowledgements
I am very grateful to Jochen Stollberg (Universität Frankfurt am Main) and Dr. Matthias Jehn (Universität Frankfurt am Main) for giving me full support, some years ago, during my archive research at the Archivzentrum, Goethe-Universität Frankfurt am Main. I owe PD Dr Gregor Fitzi (Universität Potsdam, President of the Georg Simmel Gesellschaft) many hints and generous human support in my recent research on Simmel’s works. I am in debt to Prof. Dr Em. Alfred Schmidt (†), Goethe-Universität Frankfurt am Main, for orienting my interests towards Horkheimer’s work as well as supervising my research on his writings and unpublished material. I also feel sincere gratitude to Prof. Dr Em. Otthein Rammstedt (†) for giving me (when I met him in Bielefeld), several opportunities to research Simmel’s work and his biographical details. I am also grateful to Stafana Breitwieser and Barbara Niss (Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai – Archive) for recent suggestions on New York archive records on Hans Simmel.
Biographical note
Davide Ruggieri, PhD, is a Research Fellow in Cultural Sociology at the University of Bologna. His main research field tackles the history of sociological theory, Georg Simmel’s sociology, critical theory, and relational sociology (particularly the relation of culture/individualisation within the social processes). He conducted research and archive activities abroad in the Universities of Mainz, Frankfurt am Main, Bielefeld, and Munich.
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