Grünberg’s two Vienna mentors held opposing views on property and social reform

Evidence

Lorenz von Stein was a conservative constitutionalist, who saw capitalist society as providing the best possible climate for personal freedom to be achieved, so long as the propertied class, with the help of the state, never grew tired of keeping injustices in check by means of social reform. Anton Menger was a radical lawyer and socialist, who, in his works on the sociology of law, criticized the organization of private property from a rationalistic, liberal point of view. — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School, 75

Categorization

• DEFINE: Useful grounding of the two intellectual poles — conservative constitutionalism vs. radical legal socialism — that shaped the Institute’s first director.
• XREF: The conservative-socialist polarity echoes the broader reform-vs-revolution tension running through Critical Theory’s institutional origins.