The Institute answered fascism’s triumph with intensifying theoretical analysis, not despair

Evidence

Although sobered by the triumph of fascism in Germany, Horkheimer and the others were still somewhat optimistic about the future. “The twilight of capitalism,” wrote “Heinrich Regius” in 1934, “need not initiate the night of humanity, which, to be sure, seems to threaten today.” 123 An intensification of their explorations of the crisis of capitalism, the collapse of traditional liberalism, the rising authoritarian threat, and other, related topics seemed the best contribution they could make to the defeat of Nazism. — Martin Jay, The Dialectical Imagination, 183

Categorization

• DEFINE: Establishes that ‘Heinrich Regius’ was Horkheimer’s 1934 pseudonym and captures his guarded optimism during exile.