Assimilated wealthy Jewish sons often rebelled into anti-capitalist theory against their fathers

Evidence

Lukács’s father, the son of a provincial Jewish craftsman, had risen by his own efforts into the upper middle classes during a period of accelerated industrialization in Budapest. He had received an aristocratic title at around the turn of the century. These successes went hand in hand with his political conservatism and generous patronage of the arts. His son, who was intended to step into his father’s shoes, took his doctorate in political science after studying law and economics, and took up a post with the Royal Hungarian Ministry of Trade. Shortly afterwards, he gave up the post to continue his studies, now devoted entirely to literature, the history of art and philosophy. The father became a patron to his own son, who, like many of the sons of assimilated upper-middle-class Jewish families which had experienced sudden social advancement, turned his back on the paternal money-earning world and became an anti-capitalist theoretician. — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School, 305

Categorization

• XREF: This generational pattern of assimilated Jewish wealth producing anti-capitalist sons echoes the biographies of Benjamin, Bloch, and many Frankfurt School members themselves. — connects to: Jewish class position outside bourgeois-worker conflict drove sons toward leftist movements — Hannah Arendt, The Origins of Totalitarianism, 246; Assimilated Jewish sons resented ancestors’ indifference to wielding power — Hannah Arendt, The Origins of Totalitarianism, 114; Well-to-do Jewish sons abandoned business for the liberal professions (+2 more)

Broader Connections

• Jewish class position outside bourgeois-worker conflict drove sons toward leftist movements #corroborates (0.85) — Hannah Arendt, The Origins of Totalitarianism, 246
• Jews were historically overrepresented among revolutionary socialists and communists #corroborates (0.82) — Naomi Klein, Doppelganger, 946
• Well-to-do Jewish sons abandoned business for the liberal professions #expands (0.78)
• Assimilated Jewish sons resented ancestors’ indifference to wielding power #expands (0.72) — Hannah Arendt, The Origins of Totalitarianism, 114