Frankfurt School

The Frankfurt School

In 1924, it was created as part of Frankfort University, the Institute for Social Research. One of its founders was Max Horkheimer and its director since 1930. They will also be part of this group thinkers such as Adorno, Marcuse and Erich Fromm (who will then distance himself from the school).

The Nazi persecution in 1934 resulted in the transfer of the Institute to Columbia University in New York (Horkheimer, Marcuse and Fromm were of Jewish origin) and although some of its members would return to Frankfort at the end of the war, others, such as Marcuse, will choose to stay in the USA. In this second stage, it will be its directors Adorno and Habermas, who will be the main representative of the school from 1956.

The Institute for Social Research emerges in a clear Marxist line, although it opts for a critical position by deviating from the basic concepts of historical materialism such as conceiving class struggle as the engine of history. In fact, when the strength of the workers' movements is weakened in Europe and the transformation of capitalism takes place, a reinterpretation of Marx's thinking begins, a space in which the Frankfort school will be inserted. This is a new look at Hegel, Marx, Weber and Freud.

The Frankfurt School adopted an interdisciplinary persepective, adding approaches not only from philosophy but also from sociology, psychology, psychoanalysis, Protestant theology and criticism of culture and art. These are, therefore, studies of “social theory”. The works produced by the Frankfort school are known as “Critical Theory”: it is not a system of doctrines but a particular methodological conception.

Related topics

Critical Theory of the Media

Critical Theory and Education