Police targeted the Institute for surveillance while claiming a general inspection.

Evidence

On 30 July 1940, during the university vacation, two police officers visited the Institute. Only Lowenthal and one of the secretaries were present. Lowenthal reported to Horkheimer: In the course of a long discussion, they took precise information about individual members of staff, how long they had been there and which of them were Americans, and noted both their home and vacation addresses. Headed writing paper, our pamphlet [the 1938 prospectus], the book by Rusche and Kirchheimer, the title and contents pages of the new journal [the SPSS, the English-language continuation of the ZfS], and what Social Studies consisted of, all made a deep impression on them. The visit was allegedly part of a general inspection of foreign institutions, but Lowenthal found that no one else in academic circles had been affected. — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School, 1061

Categorization

• SEED: The discrepancy between ‘routine inspection’ and selective targeting is a useful case study for articles about how state surveillance operationalizes suspicion against radical-intellectual institutions.