Marcuse, Herbert

Introduction

Herbert Marcuse (1898–1979) was born in 1898 as the first child of an assimilated Jewish family in Berlin. He receives a middle-class intellectual education, goes to the Gymnasium, and is member of the “hikers movement” (Wandervogelbewegung). In 1916, he is recruited to the German army (Reichswehr), but soon engages in left politics. In 1917, he becomes member of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) but leaves it after the assassinations of Karl Liebknecht and Rosa Luxemburg. For a short time in 1918, he is member of the Soldiers’ Council in Berlin Reinickendorf. But after 1919, he refrains for the rest of his life from becoming a member in any political party or institution.

In 1919–1920, Marcuse learns German Studies at the Humboldt University in Berlin but switches in 1920 to the Albert Ludwig University in Freiburg. There he makes his doctorate on the German Artist novel (Marcuse 1978b). Besides his political interest, here already his passion for aesthetics...