Adorno’s co-authorship of Dialectic of Enlightenment hurt his chances for a Frankfurt philosophy chair

Evidence

Horkheimer had, he wrote to Marcuse, naturally . . . pressed strongly for you yourself to be appointed to Gadamer's chair'. The difficulties of installing Adorno in the chair were greater, since he was too closely identified with Horkheimer as co-author of Dialectic of Enlightenment. Probably,’ Horkheimer continued, `neither is possible, and we will get a second-class or third-class existentialist’a reference to supporters of Heidegger. — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School, 1977

Categorization

• XREF: Relevant to the reader’s earlier engagement (in other books) with how reputation and publication identity affect academic appointments.