Horkheimer marketed the Institute to sponsors as a hub for applied social reconstruction advice.

Evidence

To secure finance and official grants, Horkheimer was even prepared to emphasize the Institute’s participation in post-war reconstruction. In a memorandum to potential sponsors, the Institute was extolled, not only as an institution offering a progressive course of study in sociology and linking the extension of the German tradition of social philosophy and the humanities' with the most advanced empirical research methods of modern American sociology’, but also as a centre offering academic advice on the state’s urgent problems. — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School, 456

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the recurring pattern of exiles repackaging radical theory in institutionally legible terms to secure patronage.
• SHARE: Nerdy institutional-history tidbit: Horkheimer pitching the Institute as a consultancy for post-war reconstruction to secure grants.