Adorno’s Kierkegaard book failed partly because it was overshadowed by Hitler’s seizure of power

Evidence

Its date of publication ironically fell on the day Hitler took power in 1933. Siegfried Kracauer, with whom Adorno had studied Kant, was the recipient of its dedication; the impact of another close friend, Walter Benjamin, was also evident in Adorno’s arguments. Both Benjamin and Tillich were among the book’s favorable reviewers. Kierkegaard was, however, not a critical or popular success. While partly due to its unapologetically abstruse style and demandingly complex analysis, its minimal effect was also produced by what Adorno was later to call its being “overshadowed from the beginning by political evil.” — Martin Jay, The Dialectical Imagination, 257

Categorization

• QUESTION: The coincidence of publication date with Hitler’s takeover is striking—worth confirming whether the timing was deliberate or accidental.
• XREF: connects to: Adorno’s Kierkegaard Habilitation succeeded where Benjamin’s Trauerspiel book had failed. — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School: Its History,…, 370