Die gelehrten Krieger und die Rockefeller-Revolution

Abstract

Abstract In World War II American intelligence proved to be a place where German-Jewish emigre intellectuals not only warred against Germany but also connected successfully to their American-born comrades. This paper is dealing with a post-war intellectual network contributing to the intellectual foundations of the New Left in the United States. The origins of this circle of intellectuals can be traced back to the wartime Office of Strategic Services. In the early Cold War period intellectual analysts of Nazi Germany continued their cooperation in academic settings, and with support from philanthropic institutions such as the Rockefeller Foundation. In this context their leftist political discourse and activism took shape. Their Cold War politics, however, was associated with their concept of intellectual history as well as with a decontaminated version of Weimar thought. A close reading of archival sources with regard to Herbert Marcuse will exemplify the main argument of this paper.