Franz Borkenau
| Franz Borkenau | |
|---|---|
| Born |
December 15, 1900 Vienna, Austria-Hungary |
| Died | May 22, 1957 (aged 56) Zurich, Switzerland |
| Nationality | Austrian |
| Occupation | Sociologist and journalist |
| Known for | One of the pioneers of the totalitarianism theory. |
Franz Borkenau (December 15, 1900 – May 22, 1957) was an Austrian writer and publicist. Borkenau was born in Vienna, Austria, the son of a civil servant. As a university student in Leipzig, his main interests were Marxism and psychoanalysis. Borkenau is known as one of the pioneers of the totalitarianism theory.
During 1921, Borkenau joined the Communist Party of Germany and was active as a Comintern agent until 1929. After graduating from the University of Leipzig during 1924, Borkenau moved to Berlin. In the 1920s, Borkenau was described by Richard Löwenthal as a "sincere Marxist" who very much wanted a world revolution. At the end of 1929, Borkenau resigned from both the Comintern and the KPD owing to his personal repulsion and disgust about how the Communists operated, combined with an increasing horror about Stalinism.
Despite his disillusionment with Communism, Borkenau remained a leftist and worked as a researcher for the Institute for Social Research in Frankfurt, Germany. During his time at the Frankfurt Institute, Borkenau was a protégé of Carl Grünberg and his main interest was the relationship between capitalism and ideology. During 1933, Borkenau, who in Nazi terms was a "Half Jew", fled from Germany and lived at various times in Vienna, Paris and Panama City. During the 1930s, Borkenau was involved with organizing aid from abroad for the clandestine group Neu Beginnen (New Beginnings), which was working for the end of the Nazi regime. In a series of articles published during 1933-34 in the left-wing German language émigré press, Borkenau defended the Neu Beginnen group as the superior alternative to both the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) and the Communist Party of Germany (KPD).
...
Wikipedia