Secret Reports on Nazi Germany: The Frankfurt School Contribution to the War Effort

by Franz Neumann, Herbert Marcuse, Otto Kirchheimer, Raffaele Laudani (Editor), Raymond Geuss (Foreword by)

Overview

A groundbreaking book that gathers key wartime intelligence reports

During the Second World War, three prominent members of the Frankfurt School—Franz Neumann, Herbert Marcuse, and Otto Kirchheimer—worked as intelligence analysts for the Office of Strategic Services, the wartime forerunner of the CIA. This book brings together their most important intelligence reports on Nazi Germany, most of them published here for the first time.

These reports provide a fresh perspective on Hitler's regime and the Second World War, and a fascinating window on Frankfurt School critical theory. They develop a detailed analysis of Nazism as a social and economic system and the role of anti-Semitism in Nazism, as well as a coherent plan for the reconstruction of postwar Germany as a democratic political system with a socialist economy. These reports played a significant role in the development of postwar Allied policy, including denazification and the preparation of the Nuremberg Trials. They also reveal how wartime intelligence analysis shaped the intellectual agendas of these three important German-Jewish scholars who fled Nazi persecution prior to the war.

Secret Reports on Nazi Germany features a foreword by Raymond Geuss as well as a comprehensive general introduction by Raffaele Laudani that puts these writings in historical and intellectual context.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781400846467
Publisher:	Princeton University Press
Publication date:	07/14/2013
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	704
File size:	2 MB

About the Author

Franz Neumann (1900-1954) was a labor lawyer and political activist in Germany before the Nazi period, and was a professor of political science at Columbia University after his work in the OSS and at the Nuremberg Trials. Herbert Marcuse (1898-1979) was a philosopher who made important contributions to the Frankfurt School critical theory of society. He taught at Brandeis and San Diego universities after his work in the OSS. Otto Kirchheimer (1905-1965) worked for the OSS until 1952. Later he was professor of political science at the New School for Social Research and Columbia. Raffaele Laudani is assistant professor of the history of political thought at the University of Bologna.

Table of Contents

Foreword, by Raymond Geuss ix
Acknowledgments xv
Notes on the Texts xvii
On the Authors xxi
Introduction 1

Part I THE ANALYSIS OF THE ENEMY
1Franz Neumann - Anti-Semitism: Spearhead of Universal Terror 27
2Herbert Marcuse - Possible Political Changes in Nazi Germany in the Near Future 31
3Herbert Marcuse - Changes in the Reich Government 38
4Franz Neumann and Paul Sweezy - Speer's Appointment as Dictator of the German Economy 48
5Herbert Marcuse and Felix Gilbert - The Significance of Prussian Militarism for Nazi Imperialism: Potential Tensions in United Nations Psychological Warfare 61
6Herbert Marcuse - German Social Stratification 74
Part II PATTERNS OF COLLAPSE
7Franz Neumann - German Morale after Tunisia 95
8Herbert Marcuse (assisted by Franz Neumann and Hans Meyerhoff) - Morale in Germany 100
9Franz Neumann, Herbert Marcuse, and Felix Gilbert - Possible Patterns of German Collapse 106
10Franz Neumann - The Social and Political Effects of Air Raids on the German People: A Preliminary Survey 118
11Franz Neumann - The Attempt on Hitler's Life and Its Consequences 133
Part III POLITICAL OPPOSITION
12Franz Neumann - The Free Germany Manifesto and the German People 149
13Herbert Marcuse - The German Communist Party 167
14Herbert Marcuse - The Social Democratic Party of Germany 199
Part IV DENAZIFICATION AND MILITARY GOVERNMENT
15Otto Kirchheimer - The Abrogation of Nazi Laws in the Early Period of MG 229
16Herbert Marcuse - Dissolution of the Nazi Party and Its Affiliated Organizations 253
17Franz Neumann - German Cartels and Cartel-Like Organizations 264
18Herbert Marcuse - Policy toward Revival of Old Parties and Establishment of New Parties in Germany 285
19Otto Kirchheimer - General Principles of Administration and Civil Service in Germany 301
20Otto Kirchheimer - Administration of German Criminal Justice under Military Government 318
21Franz Neumann - The Problem of Inflation in Germany 345
Part V A NEW GERMANY IN A NEW EUROPE
22Franz Neumann and Paul Sweezy - The Adaptation of Centralized European Controls of Raw Materials, Industry, and Transport 397
23Franz Neumann - The Revival of German Political and Constitutional Life under Military Government 412
24Franz Neumann - The Treatment of Germany 436
Part VI TOWARD NUREMBERG
25Otto Kirchheimer and John Herz - The "Statement on Atrocities" of the Moscow Tripartite Conference 451
26Franz Neumann - Problems Concerning the Treatment of War Criminals 457
27Otto Kirchheimer and John Herz - Leadership Principle and Criminal Responsibility 464
28Herbert Marcuse - Nazi Plans for Dominating Germany and Europe: The Nazi Master Plan 475
29Otto Kirchheimer - Nazi Plans for Dominating Germany and Europe: Domestic Crimes 522
Part VII A NEW ENEMY
30Herbert Marcuse - Status and Prospects of German Trade-Unions and Works Councils 557
31Herbert Marcuse - The Potentials of World Communism 591

Notes 611
Index 659

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

"This collection brings alive with exceptional force the real politics behind critical theory. It highlights the range and sophistication of a vast array of intelligence reports about the structures of power and domination under National Socialist rule, compiled through the teamwork of Franz Neumann, Herbert Marcuse, and Otto Kirchheimer. Their cool objectivity is remarkable, and reminds us just how indebted we remain to their pioneering work."—Duncan Kelly, University of Cambridge

"An intellectual dispossessed is an intellectual driven to understand the techniques of his dispossession. This indispensable volume assembles key texts by three German-Jewish refugees from Nazi Germany who contributed to America's wartime effort and the planning for postwar reconstruction. A fascinating archive for historians and political theorists alike, it reminds us that the Institute for Social Research carried to our shores not only philosophers but also worldly critics of modern dictatorship. Their insights have lost none of their relevance or power."—Peter E. Gordon, Harvard University

"Secret Reports on Nazi Germany offers unique and privileged insight into three of twentieth-century Germany's most outstanding political minds: Franz Neumann, Herbert Marcuse, and Otto Kirchheimer. It is fascinating to follow their thought processes and ruminations as they sift through intelligence reports and newspaper articles in order to assess the German political situation during the eventful final two years of the National Socialist dictatorship."—Richard Wolin, author of Heidegger's Children: Hannah Arendt, Karl Löwith, Hans Jonas, and Herbert Marcuse

"This illuminating collection brings together for the first time key texts by Neumann, Marcuse, and Kirchheimer, and offers important insights into Nazi Germany. Laudani has provided an excellent scholarly service."—Douglas Kellner, University of California, Los Angeles, author of Media Spectacle and Insurrection, 2011: From the Arab Uprisings to Occupy Everywhere

Editorial Reviews

"[F]ascinating. . . . [T]his new volume . . . conveniently collects a substantial chunk of the original documents penned by Neumann and his research team."—-William E. Scheuerman, Foreign Affairs

From the Publisher

"Editor Laudani laces the reports throughout the forward, introduction, and short biographies, placing them in the larger context of critical theory and as tools for assessing postwar liberal democracy. Overall, the reports offer highly readable, objective assessments and possible reforms."

Choice

[F]ascinating. . . . [T]his new volume . . . conveniently collects a substantial chunk of the original documents penned by Neumann and his research team.

Foreign Affairs - William E. Scheuerman

Editor Laudani (history & human cultures, Univ. of Bologna) provides researchers and other readers with a fascinating collection of primary sources: intelligence reports produced by German Jewish refugees—Neumann, Herbert Marcuse, and Otto Kirschheimer—when they worked for the U.S. Office of Strategic Services (the precursor to the CIA) in its Central European research division. Laudani argues that the documents are significant in part because all three men were members of the famed neo-Marxist Frankfurt School, and thus their insights into such topics as the nature of totalitarian regimes, plans for postwar de-Nazification, and the legal and philosophical basis of the Nuremberg war crimes tribunals shaped postwar political theories. VERDICT The history of wartime intelligence is a developing field, and this material is a welcome addition. If Laudani is correct that many of these reports (most of which are published here for the first time) had a limited impact on policy formulations, then a more forceful assertion as to their historical significance for the nonspecialist is required. While each document is given a brief editorial explanation, the collection would have benefited from a more detailed introduction providing the context and significance of the material. Recommended for specialists.—Frederic Krome, Univ. of Cincinnati Clermont Coll.

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