The Frankfurt School arrived in New York during a rare pro-intellectual, popular left government

Evidence

Horkheimer and his assistants arrived in the United States at a moment when, after a year of the Roosevelt administration, the worst of the crisis seemed to be over. At the beginning of 1933 there had been over 14 million unemployed. In 1932-3 emigration from the USA exceeded immigration by 57,000a phenomenon unheard of in the country’s history. The Horkheimer circle arrived during a period in which the government was sympathetic towards intellectuals and prepared to entrust them with important tasks. It was a government which, by American standards, was left-wing, but at the same time successful and popular. The group arrived with a great deal of money, and at a moment when the numbers emigrating to the USA to escape the Nazis were still small. — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School, 598

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the broader story of émigré intellectuals’ reception in America; also notes 1932-3 US emigration exceeding immigration, an extraordinary reversal.