Interwar German authorities tolerated Marxist scholarship when presented as academic theory

Evidence

A leading article under the headline Against Class Struggle' appeared in 1934 in the right-wing liberal newspaper Frankfurter Nachrichten, stating: We can confidently leave Marxism, as a theory, to decay naturallyafter all, we don’t fight against Thomism either.’ Only the actual practice of class struggle, it held, was to be condemned. — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School, 124 (#corroborates, via linked claim)

The 1918 November Revolution had only just begun in Germany when Robert Wilbrandt travelled to Berlin. Wilbrandt was forty-three, and had been Professor of Political Economy in Tübingen since 1908. One of the few German socialist academics, he was frowned upon by his university colleagues as an extreme leftist. — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School, 26 (#qualifies, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: The Bolshevik Revolution’s success drove German left intellectuals toward reexamining Marxist theory’s foundations — Martin Jay, The Dialectical Imagination: A History…, 90; Professing Marxism in Weimar academia publicly meant professing Social Democracy; Weimar-era liberal opinion tolerated Marxism as theory while condemning its practice — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School: Its History,…, 124 (+1 more)

Broader Connections

• Weimar-era liberal opinion tolerated Marxism as theory while condemning its practice #corroborates (0.85) — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School, 124
• Socialist academics were rare and stigmatized in German universities #qualifies (0.72) — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School, 26