The CIA secretly founded and financed the journal Der Monat after 1948.

Evidence

Although even insiders in journalism were not exactly certain about it, Der Monat had been founded in 1948 by the American Congress for the Freedom of Culture, a partner of the CIA, the anti-communist successor to the OSS. The Congress for Cultural Freedom, held in Berlin from 26 to 30 June 1950, was also financed by the CIA. A congress of free people in a free city' was the phrase used by Melvin Lasky, editor-in-chief of Der Monat, who devoted the next two issues of his journal exclusively to the congress. Adorno had so little sensitivity to the anti-communist freedom’ jargon that he published articles in Der Monat just as he did elsewhere. — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School, 1740

Categorization

• QUESTION: Would be worth checking how widely known the CIA funding of the Congress for Cultural Freedom was among intellectuals at the time, and whether Adorno’s indifference was shared.
• XREF: Connects to wider literature on CIA cultural infiltration during the Cold War (e.g. origins of Partisan Review and Encounter).