Felix Weil’s socialist activism got him expelled from Tübingen and banned from Württemberg

Evidence

Felix Weil was one of his students there in the summer semester of 1919. A twenty-one-year-old student of economics and social science, he had put himself, in full uniform, at the disposal of the Frankfurt Workers’ and Soldiers’ Council during the November Revolution, along with his personal cadet from the student fraternity. He had now come to Tübingen specially to attend the socialist professor’s lectures. He wrote an essay on `The Essence and Methods of Socialization’ which was published in the Berlin journal Arbeiterrat (Workers’ Council); on Wilbrandt’s suggestion, Weil developed this into a doctoral dissertation. But his degree for the dissertation was only awarded (by Frankfurt University) in 1920, as Weil had been briefly arrested for socialist activities in October 1919, and then expelled from Tübingen University and banned from the state of Württemberg. — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School, 33

Categorization

• XREF: Felix Weil becomes the chief financial backer of the Frankfurt Institute; his biography here is foundational institutional history for the whole book. — connects to: Felix Weil financed left-wing causes without ever joining the Communist Party — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School: Its History,…, 43; Felix Weil controlled the Frankfurt Institute’s ideological direction through his power over director appointments. — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School: Its History,…, 72; The elder Weil sought an honorary doctorate via a social science foundation — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School: Its History,…, 54

Broader Connections

• Felix Weil financed left-wing causes without ever joining the Communist Party #expands (0.82) — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School, 43
• Felix Weil controlled the Frankfurt Institute’s ideological direction through his power over director appointments. #expands (0.75) — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School, 72
• The elder Weil sought an honorary doctorate via a social science foundation #expands (0.72) — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School, 54