Abstract
Kurt Gossweiler has become known as one of the most important German researchers on fascism. Particularly his books The Röhm Affair, Big Banks, Industrial Monopolies, State: Economy and Policy of the State Monopolistic Capitalism in Germany 1914–1932 and Capital, Reichswehr and NSDAP: To the Early History of German Fascism 1919–1924 are found as reference books also in Western German university libraries, despite Gossweiler's main merit: having irrefutably hammered out the class character of fascism analyzing the factions in German monopoly capitalism. After 1989, after the incorporation of the socialist German Democratic Republic (GDR), he devoted himself to researching the causes of the collapse of the Soviet Union and its impact with focus on revisionism.
Highlights
One of Kurt Gossweiler’s greatest contributions to the study of fascism is the thorough investigation of the capital factions in German monopoly capital.1. This runs like a leitmotiv through his books Großbanken, Industriemonopole, Staat: Ökonomie und Politik des staatsmonopolistischen Kapitalismus in Deutschland 1914–1932 (Big Banks, Industrial Monopolies, State: Economy and Policy of the State Monopolistic Capitalism in Germany 1914–1932) (Gossweiler 1971) and Der Putsch, der keiner war: Die Röhm-Affäre 1934 und der Richtungskampf im deutschen Faschismus
Who are these elements and now? What special interests did they have over the other “elements of finance capital”? How could they assert themselves against these elements? And connected with this: when does the ruling class go on the adventurous course towards fascism and war and who prevails against whom? Behind this is the even more general question: how does political will and political action arise in capitalism? How do the divergent economic interests of individual capitalists give rise to political ideas of the total capitalist class and the state? How does politics become the concentrated expression of economics?
Gossweiler comes to the conclusion that the most reactionary, chauvinist, imperialist elements of finance capital were to be found in the “old” industries: the heavy industry around the Vereinigte Stahlwerke; Haniel-Group; GHH (Gutehoffnungshütte, coal and steel trust); MAN (Maschinenfabrik Augsburg Nürnberg, business group specialized in machinery, engines, trucks; nowadays Volkswagen owned by Piech/Porsche holds 75% of the shares of MAN); and HoeschGroup all beside others, under the leadership of Deutsche Bank with such infamous representatives as von Stauss, Kirdorf and Vögler
Summary
One of Kurt Gossweiler’s greatest contributions to the study of fascism is the thorough investigation of the capital factions in German monopoly capital.1 This runs like a leitmotiv through his books Großbanken, Industriemonopole, Staat: Ökonomie und Politik des staatsmonopolistischen Kapitalismus in Deutschland 1914–1932 (Big Banks, Industrial Monopolies, State: Economy and Policy of the State Monopolistic Capitalism in Germany 1914–1932) (Gossweiler 1971) and Der Putsch, der keiner war: Die Röhm-Affäre 1934 und der Richtungskampf im deutschen Faschismus (The Putsch, Which Was NotWRPE Produced and distributed by Pluto Journals www.plutojournals.com/wrpe/One At All: The Röhm Affair 1934 and the Factional Struggle within German Fascism) (Gossweiler [1983] 2009).2 And it speaks for the high significance of Gossweiler’s analysis as well as, for the expertise and courage of the PapyRossa Publishing House to have recently reprinted these writings.
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