Institute funding insecurity reached every staff member including Benjamin and Fromm by 1939

Evidence

The problems of exile, real or imagined financial difficulties, and the patriarchal conduct and indecisiveness of the Institute’s directors, together with Horkheimer’s need for security, produced an unpredictable jumble of insecurities from which none of the members of its staff was spared. In 1939 Horkheimer told Benjamin that in spite of our efforts, it is possible that the day may come in the not too distant future when we will have to inform you that, with the best will in the world, we are not in a position to renew your research contract.' In the spring of 1939, Pollock told Fromm that from that October the Institute would no longer be able to pay his salary ($330 per month). — <cite>Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School, 1091</cite> (#corroborates`, via linked claim)

From the winter of 1938-9 onward, the Institute tried (very half-heartedly) to get official foundations and private citizens interested in its activities as a whole and in specific research projects (as briefly sketched out in the Institute’s impressive-looking prospectus of 1938), in the hope of receiving grant money. (Horkheimer wrote to Benjamin, As you can imagine, this activity, in view of the special nature of our work, which is seen here even more than elsewhere as a luxury, at the very least, and in the medium of this language, is not easy for me.') Many of the staff were left confused and insecure by more or less secretive hints dropped about the Institute's impending financial collapse, and by obscure reductions in their salaries. — <cite>Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School, 1043</cite> (#expands`, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Exile and financial insecurity destabilized every Institute staff member — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School: Its History,…, 1091; The Institute’s 1938-39 fundraising was half-hearted and destabilized staff morale — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School: Its History,…, 1043

Broader Connections

• Exile and financial insecurity destabilized every Institute staff member #corroborates (1.00) — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School, 1091
• The Institute’s 1938-39 fundraising was half-hearted and destabilized staff morale #expands (0.72) — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School, 1043