Neumann urged realizing Weimar’s basic rights rather than abandoning the Republic

Evidence

The central task of socialist constitutional law is to develop the positive social aspects of the second part of the Weimar constitution and to present them in concrete form … The central task of socialist jurisprudence is … to set the socialist interpretation of basic rights against the renaissance in bourgeois constitutional theory. The task of socialist politics is to realize these basic rights in practice. When Kirchheimer asks in his title, Weimarand what then?', verging on communist ways of thinking, the answer can only be: First try Weimar!’ — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School, 925

Categorization

• CANDY: ‘First try Weimar!’ — a crisp, quotable slogan capturing Neumann’s legalist reformism against Kirchheimer’s crypto-communism.
• XREF: connects to: Neumann’s Marxism coexisted with reformist hopes for constitutional restoration — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School: Its History,…, 934; Kirchheimer held that accelerating Weimar leftward was the way to stop fascism — Martin Jay, The Dialectical Imagination: A History…, 473

Broader Connections

• Neumann’s Marxism coexisted with reformist hopes for constitutional restoration #expands (0.95) — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School, 934
• Kirchheimer held that accelerating Weimar leftward was the way to stop fascism #responds-to (0.80) — Martin Jay, The Dialectical Imagination, 473