Karl Korsch (1886-1961)

Early theorist of the German Communist Party; one of the founders of the early “Western Marxism”. The term “Western Marxism” was first put forward and used in his long article “The Present Situation of The Problem of Marxism and Philosophy—An Anti-Critique” published in 1930.

Born in a family of bank official in Tostedt, near Hamburg, Germany, Karl Korsch studied law, economics and philosophy in Munich, Berlin, Geneva and Jena after graduating from high school. In 1910, Korsch received his doctor’s degree in law from the University of Jena. When World War I broke out in August 1914, Korsch returned to Germany from England. After enlisting in the army, he was demoted from reserve officer to corporal due to his opposition to the war. After the war, Korsch took an active part in political activities and joined the Independent Social-Democratic Party of Germany. During this period, Korsch was mainly influenced by the reformist ideas of the Fabian Society of England. In March, he published his book What is Socialization?.

In 1920, Karl Korsch joined the German Communist Party. In 1922, he wrote three propaganda pamphlets: The Principles of Historical Materialism, The Essence of Marx Doctrine and The Introduction of the Critique of the Gotha Program. In 1923, Korsch published his masterpiece as Marxism and Philosophy.

In July 1925, Thalmann was elected as the leader of the German Communist Party, which accelerated the process of “Bolshevization” of the communist Party. Korsch was vehemently opposed to Thalmann’s “Bolshevization” policy and was expelled from the German Communist Party in April 1926.

After that, Korsch quit his political activities and focused on theoretical research. He published a long article entitled as “Historical Materialism” and systematically criticized the basic viewpoints in Kautsky’s Historical Materialism. In 1930, he republished his Marxism and Philosophy and added a new part to this book as a long postscript titled as “The Present Situation of The Problem of Marxism and Philosophy—An Anti Critique”. In this part, he argued that Leninism cannot answer the practical needs of the international class struggle theoretically and attacked Lenin from an Hegelian Marxism position.

After Hitler came to power in 1933, Korsch moved first to Denmark and then to the United States. He died in Belmont, Massachusetts, in 1961. Korsch wrote abundant works throughout his life, the most influential of which was Marxism and Philosophy published in 1923.

In this book, Korsch put forward the “principle of totality”: according to Korsch, society is composed of three aspects: economy, law and state, and thirdly the pure ideology. Korsch accused the vulgar Marxists of failing to understand these three aspects of the society as a whole and as totality. He stressed the importance of ideology but turned Marxism into a pure philosophy and denied the decisive role of economic factors in social development. He wrote: the economy in the last instance is the only objective and totally non-ideological reality; secondly Law and the State which are already somewhat less real because they are dressed in ideology; thirdly pure ideology which is objectless and totally unreal (pure rubbish).

In addition, Korsch also argued on the historical stages in the development of Marxism: The first stage, from Marx’s Critique of Hegel’s Philosophy of Right in 1843 to the Manifesto of the Communist Party in 1848; the second stage, from the bloody struggle of the proletariat in Paris in June 1848 to 1900; and the third stage, starting from 1900 onwards. But, such division greatly deviated from the reality of the development of Marxism.

The so-called “Marxism”, as opposed to Marxism and Leninism, discussed by Korsch in his Marxism and Philosophy, and the periodization of the history of the development of Marxism, were severely criticized by the German Communist Party and the Marxist theorists of the Third International.