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TheGermanLeftandAestheticPolitics Martin I. Gaughan - 978-90-04-47156-6 Historical Materialism Book Series EditorialBoard LorenBalhorn(Berlin) DavidBroder(Rome) SebastianBudgen(Paris) SteveEdwards(London) JuanGrigera(London) MarcelvanderLinden(Amsterdam) PeterThomas(London) volume 237 Thetitlespublishedinthisseriesarelistedatbrill.com/hm Martin I. Gaughan - 978-90-04-47156-6 The German Left and Aesthetic Politics CulturalPoliticsbetweentheSecondandThird Internationals By MartinI.Gaughan leiden | boston Martin I. Gaughan - 978-90-04-47156-6 TheLibraryofCongressCataloging-in-PublicationDataisavailableonlineathttp://catalog.loc.gov lcrecordavailableathttp://lccn.loc.gov/2021040209 TypefacefortheLatin,Greek,andCyrillicscripts:“Brill”.Seeanddownload:brill.com/brill‑typeface. issn1570-1522 isbn978-90-04-29710-4(hardback) isbn978-90-04-47156-6(e-book) Copyright2022byKoninklijkeBrillnv,Leiden,TheNetherlands. KoninklijkeBrillnvincorporatestheimprintsBrill,BrillNijhoff,BrillHotei,BrillSchöningh,BrillFink, Brillmentis,Vandenhoeck&Ruprecht,BöhlauVerlagandV&RUnipress. Allrightsreserved.Nopartofthispublicationmaybereproduced,translated,storedinaretrievalsystem, ortransmittedinanyformorbyanymeans,electronic,mechanical,photocopying,recordingorotherwise, withoutpriorwrittenpermissionfromthepublisher.Requestsforre-useand/ortranslationsmustbe addressedtoKoninklijkeBrillnvviabrill.comorcopyright.com. Thisbookisprintedonacid-freepaperandproducedinasustainablemanner. Martin I. Gaughan - 978-90-04-47156-6 Contents Introduction 1 1 FranzMehring:LiteraryPracticeasaSocialistForm 11 1 APortrait 12 2 BiographicalSketch 14 3 TheQuestionofanAestheticPractice 19 4 DieLessing-Legende 30 4.1 Introduction 30 4.2 ContemporaryReception 31 4.3 TheBourgeoisMyth 40 5 ThePlays:‘MinnavonBarnhelm’and‘EmiliaGalotti’ 44 5.1 SchillerforGermanWorkers 50 6 TheCritiqueofNaturalism 63 2 PoliticalSpontaneismandCulturalPractice 73 1 PoliticalSpontaneismandCulturalPractice 73 2 The‘Kunstlump’Debate 77 3 ErsteDada-Messe(TheFirstDadaFair):‘DieKunstisttot.Eslebedie neueMaschinenkunstTatlins’ 82 4 DasProletarischeTheater 87 5 FranzJung:ActivistandArtist 96 6 Herzfelde’s‘Gesellschaft,KünstlerundKommunismus’(1922) 102 7 Artand/orPolitics1919–22 105 3 MärtenandtheDevelopmentofaTheoreticalPosition:FromReformism totheNovemberRevolution 108 1 TheHistoricalMaterialismDebate1920–21 116 4 The‘GermanOctober’andReconfiguration 131 1 The‘GermanOctober’ 132 2 Intellectualsand‘theSecondCulture’ 138 3 Practice:From‘DieRoteGruppe’tothe‘Assoziationrevolutionärer bildenderKünstlerDeutschlands’ 142 4 Wittfogel’sAestheticProgramme 146 5 Thalheimer’sIntroductionstoMehring’sOeuvre 151 5.1 Literature 151 5.2 HistoryofPhilosophy 156 Martin I. Gaughan - 978-90-04-47156-6 vi contents 5 Wittfogel’sCritiqueofThalheimer’sIntroduction 159 1 ZurFragedermarxistischenÄsthetik(OntheQuestionofMarxist Aesthetic) 163 1.1 DieLinkskurve 166 2 Wittfogel’sSeries 169 3 Becher:‘UnsereWendung’(OurTurningPoint) 184 4 LukácsandDieLinkskurve 188 5 ReportageorPortrayal 197 6 FromtheSecondtotheThirdInternational:Lukács’s‘FranzMehring, 1846–1919’ 202 7 ‘Nur-KampfkulturoderpositiveKultur’? 213 Conclusion 216 6 CrisisandCritique:ContinuityandConflict 223 Appendix:TowardsaMaterialistHistoryofArt 245 References 268 Index 279 Martin I. Gaughan - 978-90-04-47156-6 Introduction Astheworkingclass,intheprocessofitsrevolutionaryreconstruc- tionof theworld,reconstructsitsownnature,itproducesitsown literature–uponalevelincomparablyhigherthantheliteratureof thebourgeoisie.1 ∵ Thegeneraltrajectoryof theapproachtakeninthistextmaybeindicatedby twoquotationsfromthecriticaltheoristKarlWittfogel,thefirsttoattemptto establishanelaboratedMarxistaesthetic(seeChapter5below)andonefrom Marx.Inthefirst,WittfogelisdescribingtheachievementofFranzMehring,a memberoftheGermanSocialDemocraticParty(spd)andfoundingmember of theGermanCommunistParty(kpd),designatedbyLukácsasthegreatest Germanliterarycriticandtheoristofthenineteenthcentury:‘butatthesame timehisworkconstitutesanoriginalcontributiontothedeepeningofoursci- entificinsightsintotheclassstruggleasithasdevelopedwithinthepolitical andideologicalhuskoflatefeudal-bourgeoisGermany’.2Itisanaestheticprac- ticewithapurpose,neitherreductivistnorinstrumentalist,givingriseto‘sci- entificinsights’whilstallowingtheculturalartefactthequalitiespropertoit. ThesecondisfromaconferenceoftheAssociationofProletarian-Revolution- ary Writers (bprs) on the eve of the Nazi take-over: ‘Naturally overall the immediate prosecution of the economic-political struggle remains our cent- ralduty.Neverthelesstheeffectivecontributionofrevolutionaryculturalwork, asexperienceshows,shouldnotbeundervalued’.3ThereisapassageinMarx whichmayprovideacontextforWittfogel’sstatements.Marxiswritingabout engagingwith‘realconcreteterms’:‘Thetotalityasaconceptualentityseenby theintellectisaproductofthethinkingintellectwhichassimilatestheworld intheonlywayopentoit,awaywhichdiffersfromtheartistic,religiousand practicallyintelligentassimilationoftheworld’.4 1 Lifshitz1973,p.75.HeisheresummarisingMarx’spositionassetoutinhiscritiqueofSue’s TheMysteriesofParisinTheHolyFamily. 2 Brauneck1973,p.393. 3 Wittfogel,DieLinkskurve,3,no.1,p.17. 4 Marx1974,p.141.Thisstatementisrichinitsimplicationsforthedeploymentofamaterialist © koninklijkebrillnv,leiden,2022 | doi:10.1163/9789004471566_002 Martin I. Gaughan - 978-90-04-47156-6 2 introduction Thepresenttexttraceshowtheprogrammesummarilylaidoutabovewas pursuedontheGermanleftbetweentheSecondandThirdInternationals,both initstheorisinganditspractices.Itconsiderstheargumentsconcerningpro- letarian culture and proletarian self-consciousness and how the developing politicalpositionsontheleftarticulatedandcontestedthestatusofculturein thecontextofongoingstruggle.Onemajorsourceofcontentionwastheques- tionconcerningtheartof theÜbergangzeit,theartof thetransitionalperiod leading up to the seizure of power: was proletarian art possible before that momentoronlyafterit?5Whatwastherelationofthecultureoftherevolution- aryeraofthebourgeoisie(dasErbe)tothat?ThelastchapterofFranzMehring’s renownedstudyof Lessing, DieLessing-Legende(1893),carriesthetitle‘Less- ing und das Proletariat’, his biography of Schiller EinLebensbildfürdeutsche Arbeiter(1905).Mehring’sintentionwastopresentthismaterialasexemplary of radical potential of the proletariat in their own struggle (a position also sharedbyLeninandTrotsky),notasastagetowardsembourgeoisementofthe working class.6 But in a major revisionist, if also at times laudatory, essay in 1933,LukácscriticisedMehring’slackofcommitmenttoproletarianartperse, therebylinkinghimwithTrotsky’sposition.7 The issue of the art of the Übergangzeit and of proletarian revolutionary artbecamemoreacuteafterthefailedNovemberRevolutionof1918.Thepre- war hegemony of the spd (Social Democratic Party) was challenged by the formation of the uspd (Independent Socialist Party), the kpd (Communist philosophyoflanguage,thecontinuityofitsoperationsacrosssociallyconstructeddiscursive categories.Suchatheorywasdevelopedinthe1920sbyVygotskyandVolosinovintheSoviet Union. 5 Morawski1973,p.75,notesthat‘norecordedopinionofMarxontheneedorlikelihoodof aproletarianartisextant,norcanhisopinionbeextrapolatedfromavailabletextswithany certainty…’. 6 WhatLarsT.Lihcalls‘themergerformula’or‘themergerofsocialismandtheworkermove- ment,commontobothKautskyandLenin’(2008,Parti,‘Erfurtianism’,pp.44–61,areference tothe1891ErfurtProgrammeofthespd)maycastlightonthesharedperceptionthatthe revolutionaryproletariatmightseeksomecommoncausewiththerevolutionarybourgeoisie, butinthemannerRosaLuxemburgwroteoftheiractivereceptionofSchiller,inwhosework they‘depositedtheir…ownworldview,…pickedthroughhisintellectualworkandfusedit unconsciouslyintoitsownworldofrevolutionarythoughtandfeeling’(seeChapter1). 7 Thisessay,whichwillbeconsideredfurtherinChapter5,wasaresponsetoStalin’sques- tioningoftheroleoftheGermanSecondInternationalparty,particularlyinliterarycriticism andtheory.Lukács’sassiduousnessevendiscoveredina1912exchangeofopinionsonthepos- sibilityofproletarianliteratureinthepagesofthespdjournal,DieNeueZeit,organisedby Mehring,‘the“original”GermanTrotskyismisencounteredalreadyinitspresentform’(‘Hier istderdeutsche“urwüchsige”TrotzkiismusbereitsinReinkulturaufgetreten’).Mehringhad notparticipatedinthediscussionbutwasreproachedforhissilence. Martin I. Gaughan - 978-90-04-47156-6 introduction 3 Party) and the kapd (The Communist Workers’ Party). The kpd continued withMehring’sculturalheritageformuchof the1920s,buttheuspdandthe kapdpursuedmoreradicalprogrammes.Thekapddrewupitsown(anti-)das Erbeprogrammeofdissentingwritersacrossthecenturies,includingRabelais, Swift, Sterne, Jack London, the Irish ‘navvy poet’ and novelist Patrick Mac- GillandplaywrightFranzJung,anumberofwhoseearlyplayswereproduced by Piscator in the Proletarisches Theater. Suspicious of democratic central- ism, inclined to political and cultural ‘spontaneism’, their objective was to energise proletarian revolutionary self-consciousness through culture, a pro- grammethatwasinfluencedbytheDutchcommunistsPannekoekandGorter. They claimed that the objective conditions for revolution were present but bourgeoiscultureinthisindustriallyadvancedWesternsocietyhamperedthe developmentof thesubjectivemoment:thetaskof culturewastochallenge, undermine,anddisplacethatculture,replacingitwithitsowndevelopingpro- duction. Anotherconcernof thetextistoestablishhowtheseissuesplayedouton theground:whatweretherelationshipsbetweenpartypolitics,events(e.g.the ‘GermanOctober’of1923),theprocessofStalinisationofthekpd,andcultural production?Whatkindofartwasproducedandbywhom?WielandHerzfelde proposed that artists from bourgeois backgrounds, particularly in the visual arts,wouldbeneededfordecades;bytheendofthedecade,argumentsagainst ‘fellow-travellers’ would be pursued. Both he and the co-founder of the Pro- letarischesTheater,HermannSchüller,warnedagainstthebureaucratisation ofculture.Thefitbetweenadvancedtheorisingandproletarianrevolutionary cultural production was problematic: the editorial board of the revolution- ary writers’ journal, Die Linkskurve, had to suspend its course on dialectical materialismonthegroundsofalackofunderstanding–oneformermember described Lukács’s contribution as a ‘monologue’.This approach is meant to givebodytothesometimesfrictionlessoperationoftheory,tomeettheMarxist demandtoworkfromtheconcrete,asemphasised,forinstance,byKorschand SternbergintheirengagementswithBrecht(Chapter6below).Inpayingatten- tiontothesemomentsintheirparticularity,theindividualactors,theworks produced,thetextswritten,onecanbetterperceivetheextraordinaryintellec- tualandartisticenergyexpendedandthelevelofachievementaccomplished. TomeetthetrajectoryproposedbyMarxintheabovequotation,thislabour couldnotonlybeaboutacritiqueof bourgeoiscultureindecline,important thoughthatis,asMehring’sdetailedcriticismofbourgeoiscriticsinhisLessing- Legendemadeclear;italsohadtoproducetheoryandpracticeproposingapro- letarianrevolutionaryconceptualisationofsocio-culturalexperience,enabling acorrespondingpracticebyitsaddressees.KarlWittfogel,forexample,wrote Martin I. Gaughan - 978-90-04-47156-6 4 introduction playsforPiscator’sProletarischesTheatre,atheoreticalessayonanewformof theatre,andintroducedwhatwasthefirstformalarticulationofaMarxistaes- thetic in the journal of the proletarian revolutionary writers, DieLinkskurve, in 1930. August Thalheimer, a founding member of the kpd and its leading theoretician, was an outspoken critic of the failures of the Soviet party and itsroleinthe‘GermanOctober’,penningapowerfulrebukeintheformof a pamphlet,firstpublishedin1931.8Hisinsightfulintroductionstotwovolumes of Mehring’sworks,onliteratureandhistoryof philosophy,in1929,mayvery wellhavepromptedStalin’scallforananalysisof theroleof thepre-warspd (see note six). BothWittfogel and Lukács led aThird Period assault on him. Figuresandincidents,suchastheseandothers,providetheworkingfabricfor engagingwiththisgreatdepartureforaculturalmaterialistpraxis. A proposal presented at the spd conference in 1920, that culture be con- sidered‘athirdpillarofthemovement’takingitsplacealongsidethepolitical andtheeconomic,manifeststhelevelofengagement.9Itistheobjectiveofthis text to operate within that premise, specifically within the cultural tradition identifiedbyMarxandEngelsintheirperiodicengagementswiththesubject andelaboratedbyliteraryhistoriansandtheoristssuchasMehring,Wittfogel, and Lukács, particularly their work on the revolutionary bourgeois heritage, ‘das Erbe’. This, however, was not an uncontested contribution to the struc- turingof aMarxisttheoryof culture.AlthoughthekpdembracedMehring’s ‘das Erbe’ programme in the immediate aftermath of the November Revolu- tion of 1918, more ‘spontaneist’ committed activists and artists, particularly members of the uspd and the kapd, espoused the immediate creation of a proletarianculture.Thesetwostrandswouldruninparallelduringtheearly Weimarperiod,butwiththegradualStalinisationofthekpdfromthemiddle of theWeimardecade,thespontaneistprogrammewouldwaneandtheher- itageprogrammewouldbesubjecttorevision,withanemphaticintroduction of dialecticalmaterialismasthenecessarymodeof investigation,stimulated principallybyLenin’sreadingofHegel. Another objective here is to align the cultural theorising and its practice withtheshiftingpoliticallandscape:bothwereinterventionistbutnotfunc- 8 AsThalheimerworked,withBukharin,ondraftingCominternprogrammes,itscontentmust havebeenwidelyaccessible. 9 Asimilarclaimwasarticulatedbythekpd-established‘InteressengemeinschaftfürArbeit- erkultur’(SocietyforthePromotionofWorking-ClassCulture)foundedin1929:theWestern Europeanproletariat,underthedirectionoftheComintern,hadfoughtonthepoliticaland economicfrontbut‘thepartyhasnowseizedtheinitiativetobringthestruggletothethird, theculturefront’(‘JetzthatdieParteidieInitiativeergriffen,umdenKampfauchanderdrit- ten,anderKulturfrontaufzunehmen’)(quotedinLüdecke1973,p.46). Martin I. Gaughan - 978-90-04-47156-6

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