Weil openly told the Prussian ministry but concealed the Marxist aim from the university.

Evidence

The Privy Councillor, Herr Wende, will be able to confirm that in my very first discussions with him I mentioned that we (my late friend Prof. Kurt Albert Gerlach and I) intended to found an Institute to serve first and foremost for the study and broadening of scientific Marxism. When we saw what favourable working conditions were being offered to most of the sciences and even branches of sciences which had not counted as `worthy of the university’ until then (Business Management, Sociology, etc.), the thought forced itself on us that the study of Marxism could and indeed must be encouraged in the same way … — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School, 60

Categorization

• STORYSTEM: The image of founders who speak honestly to one authority and strategically conceal from another — a bureaucratic double-game — is a ripe device for fiction about institutional power.
• APHORISMS: A structurally embedded lesson: an idea’s legitimacy often depends on presenting it through the same institutional channels that legitimize rival, ‘worthy’ fields.