Horkheimer’s perfectionism over even a dictated letter made the directorship unsustainable

Evidence

In spite of some vacillations, the basic orientation of the Institute’s directors was clear. His dual role as a scholar and as director of the Institute of Social Research' was too much for Horkheimer, who, as he had complained in his Notes from Beach Bluff’, did everything with exactly the same degree of libido', and for whom dictating a letter … involved the same amount of effort as writing a scholarly paper’. Alice Maier, his secretary in New York, recalled that `Mr Horkheimer thought very carefully about each and every word, and in two hours had sometimes not dictated a single word … Mr Horkheimer dictated to shorthand and then changed everything ten times.’ From now on, Horkheimer’s scholarly work was to take precedence. For this he would need only one or two principal assistants or collaborators. The institute was to be reduced in size to the extent that, although to outward appearances it would continue to exist, internally it would involve hardly any expense or energy. — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School, 1098

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Horkheimer’s perfectionism made directorship unsustainable, shrinking the Institute — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School: Its History,…, 1098

Broader Connections

• Horkheimer’s perfectionism made directorship unsustainable, shrinking the Institute #expands (0.95) — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School, 1098