Stanisław Brzozowski and Die Neue Zeit

Abstract

Stanislaw Brzozowski's contribution to Die Neue Zeit (The New Times), »Der Geschichtsmaterialismus als Kulturphilosophie: Ein philosophisches Programm« (Historical Materialism as Philosophy of Culture: A Philosophical Project), has long been known to scholars. The original Polish version, which was published in Przeglad Spoleczny (Social Review) and in Brzozowski's book Idee (Ideas), has been subject to intensive analysis. In this paper, I will argue that although the German version of the article does not considerably enrich Brzozowski's work from a strictly thematic point of view, it cannot be dismissed as a re-issue either. The circumstances of its publication in Die Neue Zeit, the theoretical journal of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD), do help us to understand Brzozowski's intellectual and political dilemmas, especially in regards to his personal relationship with German and Polish Social Democracy between the Russian Revolution of 1905 and the outbreak of the »Brzozowski affair« in early 1908, when he abruptly abandoned all efforts to gain an international reputation. Thus, this article challenges the commonly held view on the lamentable ignorance of Brzozowski outside of Polish literature through the contextual reconstruction of the story of his sole appearance in the most important forum of German Social Democracy.