The Frankfurt Institute hosted communists from every splinter faction

Evidence

On 13 March the Institute was searched by the police and closed. In May, the rooms on the ground floor were opened up and put at the disposal of the Nazi Student League. The Secret State Police (Gestapo) office in Prinz-Albrecht-Strasse, Berlin, sent the following note on 14 July 1933: … In accordance with clauses 1 and 3 of the Act of 26 May 1933 (RGBI I, p. 293) confiscating Communist property, the Institute of Social Research in Frankfurt am Main is hereby seized and confiscated in favour of the Free State of Prussia, as the aforementioned Institute has encouraged activities hostile to the state. — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School, 516 (#expands, via linked claim)

Specific to the Frankfurt Institute was an institutional structure ensuring that the political spectrum represented at Kiel and Cologne could be extended towards the left. By analogy with the Society for the Support of the Institute of World Economy and Marine Transport at the University of Kiel, a registered Society for Social Research was created to sponsor the Weil family’s foundation. But apart from the two Weils, who had the chairmanship, the society’s members comprised only a few people who were either friends or acquaintances of the Weils, such as Gerlach, Sorge, Horkheimer and Käte Weil. Since the director of the Institute was to be appointed by the Minister of Culture with the agreement of the Society for Social Research, Felix Weil was able to decide who the director would be. And, since the director had practically dictatorial control over the Institute, Weil was able, through his power over the appointment, to determine the dominant ideological line at the Institute as far as it was humanly possible to do so. — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School, 72 (#expands, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: The Nazi regime legally confiscated the Frankfurt Institute as Communist property — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School: Its History,…, 516; Felix Weil controlled the Frankfurt Institute’s ideological direction through his power over director appointments. — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School: Its History,…, 72

Broader Connections

• The Nazi regime legally confiscated the Frankfurt Institute as Communist property #expands (0.85) — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School, 516
• Felix Weil controlled the Frankfurt Institute’s ideological direction through his power over director appointments. #expands (0.75) — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School, 72