Gustav Landauer
Encyclopedia
Gustav Landauer was one of the leading theorists on anarchism
in Germany in the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th century. He was an advocate of communist anarchism
and an avowed pacifist
. Landauer is also known for his study and translations of William Shakespeare
's works into German
. One of his grandchildren, with wife and author Hedwig Lachmann
, was Mike Nichols
, the American
television, stage and film director
, writer, and producer.
in the Grand Duchy of Baden
where he went through school. He was educated in philosophy
, German studies
and art history
at Heidelberg
, Strasbourg
, and Berlin
. After breaking off his studies in 1893, he worked as a freelance journalist and public speaker.
His later works show the lasting influence of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
and Leo Tolstoy
but he also felt attracted to the philosophy of Johann Gottlieb Fichte
and the French mutualist anarchism of Pierre-Joseph Proudhon
and the socialist anarchism theories of Mikhail Bakunin
and especially the communist anarchism of Peter Kropotkin
.
His second wife, Hedwig Lachmann
, was an accomplished translator, and they worked together to translate various works into German, including those of British playwright Oscar Wilde
, including The Picture of Dorian Gray
, and the American poet Walt Whitman
.
In the spring of 1889 in Berlin, Landauer met his sponsor and long-time friend, the author and philosopher Fritz Mauthner
for the first time. In April 1891 he joined the Free Volksbühne
Berlin and declared his support of the "Friedrichshagen Poet Circle" (Friedrichshagener Dichterkreis) for Naturalist
literature.
In February 1892 Landauer became a member of the Association of Independent Socialists (Verein Unabhängiger Sozialisten) and of a group of publishers for their mouthpiece "Socialist Organ of the Independent Socialists" (Sozialistisches Organ der unabhängigen Sozialisten). In this paper he wrote a number of articles about art, but also critical remarks about political issues as well as on the economic views of Karl Marx
and Eugen Dühring
.
Together with friends from the literature group "The Young" (Die Jungen), who also worked with the Association of Independent Socialists, he founded the "New Free Volksbühne" (Neue Freie Volksbühne).
At the end of 1892 Landauer married the seamstress Margarethe Leuschner.
In July 1893 the Association of Independent Socialists, in which Landauer had become the leading member of its anarchist wing, split up. In the same month he ended his cooperation with the magazine "Socialist" (Sozialist) of which the last issue appeared in January 1895.
At the "International Convention of Socialist Workers" of the II. Socialist International
in August 1893 in Zurich, Landauer, as a delegate for the Berlin anarchists, stood for an "anarchist socialism". Against an anarchist minority the convention with 411 delegates from 20 countries passed a resolution in favour of participation in elections and political action in parliaments. The anarchists were excluded from the II. Socialist International.
Landauer was arrested for "incitement to civil disobedience" in October 1893, and sentenced 2 months in prison. In December the sentence was extended to 9 months, which Landauer served in the prison of Sorau (today Żary
).
After Landauer had been unable to establish a secure livelihood in Switzerland in 1895 he returned to Berlin where he lived very modestly in a circle of artists, literati, people from theatres and critics. Between 1895 and 1899 he published another magazine titled "Socialist-Anarchist Monthly" (Sozialist – Anarchistische Monatszeitschrift).
In 1899 Landauer met the poet and language teacher Hedwig Lachmann
, who would later become his second wife. In September of that year they decided to stay together for a longer period in England, where Landauer became close friends with the Russian anarchist Peter Kropotkin
. During this time Lachmann's and Landauer's daughter Gudula was born. In 1902 they returned to Berlin.
In 1903 Landauer divorced his first wife and married Hedwig Lachmann the same year. In 1906 their second daughter Brigitte was born.
From 1909 to 1915 Landauer published the magazine "The Socialist" (Der Sozialist) in Berlin, which was considered to be the mouthpiece of the "Socialist Federation" (Sozialistischer Bund) founded by Landauer in 1908. Among the first members were Erich Mühsam
and Martin Buber
. As a political organisation the federation remained unimportant.
In these years Landauer himself wrote 115 contributions for the magazine concerning art, literature and philosophy but also contemporary politics. In this magazine he also published to a greater extent own translations of the French philosopher and theorist Pierre-Joseph Proudhon
. Because of the tightening of censorship
the magazine had to be closed down.
In 1914 Landauer would not let himself be carried away by the general enthusiasm for the German war effort
. Instead, he fought against it from the very beginning from his anarchist and pacifist standpoint.
Because of the increasing difficulties and poverty during the war, Landauer and his family moved from Berlin to Krumbach, near Ulm, in southwestern Germany. Here his wife died on 21 February 1918 of pneumonia.
Right after the war and the start of the November Revolution (German Revolution
) Kurt Eisner
sent a letter to Landauer on 14 November 1918 inviting him to participate in the Revolution and the establishment of a soviet republic in Bavaria
: "What I would like you to do is to contribute in the reconstruction of the souls by speech".
After the assassination of Eisner by the right-wing extremist student Anton Graf von Arco auf Valley
on 21 February 1919 the debates on the question of a council (soviet) system or a parliamentary system in the new Bavarian republic grew in intensity. When the soviet republic was proclaimed on 7 April 1919 against the elected government of Johannes Hoffmann
, Landauer became Commissioner of Enlightenment and Public Instruction. The government of the first Soviet Republic of Bavaria (Erste Räterepublik des Freistaates Bayern) was initially dominated by independent socialists and pacifists like Ernst Toller
(author and poet) or Silvio Gesell
and anarchists like Erich Mühsam
or Landauer. Landauer's first and only decree was to ban history lessons in Bavarian schools.
Three days after the soviet government had been taken over by functionaries of the KPD (Communist Party of Germany
) around Eugen Leviné
and Max Levien Gustav Landauer became disappointed with their policies and resigned from all his political posts on 16 April 1919.
After the City of Munich was reconquered by the German army and Freikorps
units, Gustav Landauer was arrested on 1 May 1919 and stoned to death by troopers one day later in Munich's Stadelheim Prison
.
After the Nazis were elected in Germany in 1933 they destroyed Landauer's grave, which had been erected in 1925, sent his remains to the Jewish congregation of Munich, charging them for the costs. Landauer was later put to rest at the Munich Waldfriedhof
(Forest Cemetery)
. Unlike the religions mentioned before, Buddha supported his statements with arguments. Under the mystic-symbolic cloak of the teachings of Reincarnation
he believes to have discovered the deep-lying "Core of Truth" and that he could now express this truth without the cloak. Until 1903 Landauer clearly rejected religious concepts such as god, immortality, the hereafter, revelation etc. Instead, he believed in rationality and enlightenment.
But in his essay "Skepsis und Mystik" (Scepticism and Mysticism) published in 1903 there is a turn in Landauer's thinking towards mysticism. His translation, the "Doctrines of Meister Eckhart
" (Die mystischen Schriften des Meister Eckhart) from Middle High German into High German is also published in 1903. Although Landauer is still sceptical about Meister Eckhart's concept of God, because instead talking about God he actually only talks about world, worldly or world spirit. The divine-oneness of Meister Eckhart is seen from the perspective of essence and bliss of nature; the "essential" of things is transcendent. Thus, it can be argued that Landauer had "pantheism
" in mind. He also often wrongly called Meister Eckhart a pantheist. For Eckhart the term "pan-en-theism" ("All things are in God") would probably be more fitting. Landauer's view of religion during the conception of his mysticism can be characterized as follows: He still regards the concrete manifestations of "ecclesiastical Christianity" as negative, among them "priests and professors of philosophy" but also priests and founders of philosophies "who quickly find peace in something positive". He sympathizes with those "who passionately desire peace but cannot be appeased by anything, such as heretics, sectarians and mystics". Amongst others, in "Skepsis und Mystik" (Scepticism and Mysticism) Landauer mentions Dionysius Areopagita
, Johannes Scotus Eriugena
, Meister Eckhart, Giovanni Pico della Mirandola
, Jakob Böhme
, Angelus Silesius
and Alfred Mombert
. Their common trait was that they did not accept terms and concepts as intellectually correct and that they therefore opposed religious groups. For these thinkers the world of senses was only something metaphorical. By segregation they would try to unite their self with the world. Landauer's reverence for mysticism enabled him to include Christ into his thinking. He interprets Christ is a "Symbol of Man becoming God". For Landauer becoming God means the merger of the self with the world and that's exactly what Christ showed us.
At the age of 22 Landauer broke with the Jewish religious community. As described before, he rather referred to Christian-mystical tradition than to Judaism. Around 1907 he consciously returned to Judaism and its religious traditions. An important impetus for this reversal came from Martin Buber
with whom he was good friends. Buber also occupied himself at the beginning of the century with Christian mysticism. From then on Landauer also included "Hasidic mysticism
" into his thinking.
It is interesting how Landauer coins the terms of "time" and "eternity" in his essay "Skepsis und Mystik" (Sceticism and Mysticism). Eckhart or Neoplatonists of the Christian and Pre-Christian tradition (Plotinus, Augustinus
, Dionysius Areopagita, Scotus Eriugena, Bonaventura etc.) respectively, did not define eternity as a time span which was forever expanded. Eternity is rather present in every moment of time, it contains time as a whole and transcends it at the same time. An "secluded" person that can free himself from time, experiences eternity by "mystical show" (spiritual perception) (Plotinus
). For Landauer eternity at the same time is an everlasting temporal continuation but also the source of the temporal stream of development (Entwicklungsstrom). The idea of past and future is a "distortion of space" because only by applying ideas of space it could be suggested that we are standing at a point from which one can see into the past and into the future.
The two opinions that, on one hand, eternity is an everlasting temporal continuation and on the other, it is the source of time, seem to contradict each other. For Landauer eternity remains bound to the course of time. He declares eternal renewal to be a constant through which "temporal quality differences" quite possibly appear in the "eternal presence".
Landauer's perception of time and eternity distinguishes itself by regarding past, present and future not as a category of time but as a result of "distortion of space". Thus eternity for him is a temporal course which, at the same time, is the source of time. Neoplatonists (Meister Eckhart) also talk about a temporal course of time that is embraced by eternity which at the same time is the source of time. Thus, eternity can be experienced by "mystical show" (spiritual perception) (Plotinus) within time. For Meister Eckhart as well as for Landauer the key to this experience lies in the so called "secludedness".
For Landauer sinking into one's self means being blessed with the world. In Neoplatonism or according to Meister Eckhart the "search in one's own heart" in the end leads to the recognition or to the "vision of God". Another difference in mystical anthropology between Landauer and Eckhart is the "concept of heredity" which Landauer propagates. The individual is the result of a long chain of ancestors which are all still present by executing power over a person. The upright carriage of man e. g. is a visible sign of this power of the first humans over us. Heredity leads us back, beyond human and animal ancestors, all the way to the inorganic world. This thought is confirmed in "Skepsis und Mystik" by the mystical idea that man has the whole world in himself. Thus, our complete ancestry is within us. Landauer also connects the concepts of "mankind" and "human nature", which, in addition to that, he defines as divine.
Of course the world is emphasized in comparison to the human individual. In turn, the human individual is subordinate to the human race. The individualization is a result of the "Will of the World" and not the will of the individual or the "human race". In 1895 Landauer still adhered to the thesis, that individuals are the result of the will of the human race. Around this time he also declared that the more someone stepped out of the mass as an own independent self the larger would be his influence on mankind. On the other hand in Skepsis und Mystik (Scepticism and Mysticism) he wrote that the world had to separate off the individuals so that it could flare up and appear within them, for: "The world wants to become". Until 1900 Landauer started out that the individual had to fulfil himself in order to come up to the primordial idea of progressing mankind. After 1900 the human being could any time "coincide with the world", that is to say man can fulfil himself any time. Utopia is thus moved from the future into the eternal presence, which can be mystically experienced. Thus the future course of Socialism (Anarchism
) does not depend on a certain development stage of mankind.
For Landauer seclusion is necessary in order to break through to the human race. In Skepsis und Mystik (Scepticism and Mysticism) he writes:
"The firmer an individual is footed on himself, the deeper he retreats into himself, the more he isolates himself from the influences of his surroundings, the more he finds himself coinciding with the world of the past and with what he originally is".
By "originally" Landauer means the human community, which is stronger, more noble and much older than the frail influence of the state or society.
The seclusion not only has consequences for the individuals themselves. By the seclusion the individuals are also returned to the unity with the world.
. Landauer supported anarchism already in the 90s of the 19th century. In those years he was especially enthusiastic about the individualistic approach of Max Stirner
. He didn't want to stay behind Stirner's extremely individual approach but wanted to develop a new general public, a unity and community. His "social Anarchism" was a union of individuals on a voluntary basis in small socialist communities which came together freely. Landauer's goal was always emancipation from state, church or other forms of subordination in society. The expression 'Anarchism' stems from the Greek "arche" meaning 'power', 'reign' or 'rule'. Thus 'An-archy' equals 'non-power', 'no-reign' or 'no-rule'. The rejection of the state is common to all Anarchist positions. Some also reject institutions and moral concepts, such as church, matrimony or family; the rejection is, of course, voluntary. Landauer came out against Marxists and Social Democrats, reproaching them for wanting to erect another state executing power. For him Anarchism was a spiritual movement, almost religious. In contrast to other Anarchists he did not reject matrimony; on the contrary, it was a pillar of the community in Landauer's system. True Anarchism results from the "inner segregation" of the individuals.
Here once more is a list of the most important aspects of Landauer's Anarchism:
It is exactly this from which one is to be freed. Precondition for autonomy and independence respectively is the "seclusion" which leads to a "Unity with the world". According to Landauer it is necessary to change the nature of man or at least to change his ways, so that finally the inner convictions can appear and be lived. This includes an "Anarchism of deed" that is never strictly theoretical.
1)The first problem he points out is ownership of land. It is the cause of "the begging and dependent position of those without possessions". The landowner can deny it to the landless. But the latter needs the land for the purpose of direct and indirect consumption thus creating a dependency. Land ownership and its correlate, landlessness, according to Landauer, are the roots of slavery, bondage, tribute, lease, interest and the proletariat.
The solution to this problem simply lies in the dissolution of land ownership. In "Aufruf zum Sozialismus" (Call to Socialism) Landauer says (p. 170):
Justice will of course depend on the inner spiritual attitude of the people. There will be no need for legal procedures pertaining to the just distribution of land because the spirit of the people will "voluntarily" recognise what a just distribution is.
2) The second evil stressed by Landauer is the superiority of money as a means of exchange for goods. After some time goods lose their value through use. Money makes the disastrous exception that it is part of the exchange but not of the devaluation. If there is to be a just exchange economy, the money that is used cannot have the quality of our money with an "absolute value". Landauer also regards interest as damaging because it creates constant economical growth. But the main evil of present money is its non-consumptiveness. Landauer's idea is that in a free exchange economy money must become equal compared to goods having the dual character of exchange and consumption. He basically refers to ideas of the economist Silvio Gesell
. In "Aufruf zum Sozialismus" (Call to Socialism) he writes:
According to Landauer, Silvio Gesell is one of the very few who learned from Pierre Joseph Proudhon. When producing or acquiring a means of exchange there will be no other interest but consumption. This was Proudhon's idea that the fast circulation of money brings happiness and liveliness into one's private life while the dropping off in the market and the stubbornness of persisting money also brings life to a grind.
Silvio Gesell proposed the reformation of the monetary system: Instead of the money used until now, so called "free money" is to be introduced. Money is given out in the form of notes along with little tickets to be torn off as smaller change. The little tickets also serve as devaluation, because every week it must be diminished by 1/1000 of its value. Every week the owner of a note must attach a stamp to indicate the devaluation of 1/1000. This induces the owner of the "money" to spend it as soon as possible. Coins would be abolished and the Central Bank would be replaced by a currency office responsible for transactions, contributions and regulation of circulation. This office would also withdraw all notes at the end of the year and replace them with new ones. Gustav Landauer fully supported this idea of Silvio Gesell.
3. The third evil leading to slavery according to Landauer is added value. Value initially means to have a claim against someone, meaning an economical, not an ethical value. The word "value" includes the expectation that the price should equal the material value. The respective price is usually much higher than the sum of wages paid to make the product. This is because people want to make use of every advantage, not only of property but also of the rarity of a commodity in demand or the ignorance of the consumer. As a result, work cannot buy everything it was paid to produce so that a considerable part remains for the buying power of profit.
In "Aufruf zum Sozialismus" (Call to Socialism) Landauer criticizes Marxism
as follows:
The truth for Landauer is that every and each profit is drawn from labour. There is no productivity of property and no productivity of capital as such, but only a productivity of labour. This is a conclusion he shared with Marx.
Anarchism
Anarchism is generally defined as the political philosophy which holds the state to be undesirable, unnecessary, and harmful, or alternatively as opposing authority in the conduct of human relations...
in Germany in the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th century. He was an advocate of communist anarchism
Anarchist communism
Anarchist communism is a theory of anarchism which advocates the abolition of the state, markets, money, private property, and capitalism in favor of common ownership of the means of production, direct democracy and a horizontal network of voluntary associations and workers' councils with...
and an avowed pacifist
Pacifism
Pacifism is the opposition to war and violence. The term "pacifism" was coined by the French peace campaignerÉmile Arnaud and adopted by other peace activists at the tenth Universal Peace Congress inGlasgow in 1901.- Definition :...
. Landauer is also known for his study and translations of William Shakespeare
William Shakespeare
William Shakespeare was an English poet and playwright, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's national poet and the "Bard of Avon"...
's works into German
German language
German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....
. One of his grandchildren, with wife and author Hedwig Lachmann
Hedwig Lachmann
Hedwig Lachmann was a German author, translator and poet.-Life:Lachmann was born in Stolp, Pomerania in 1865 and was the daughter of a Jewish cantor. She spent her childhood in Stolp and a subsequent seven years in Hürben . At the age of 15, she passed exams in Augsburg to become a language teacher...
, was Mike Nichols
Mike Nichols
Mike Nichols is a German-born American television, stage and film director, writer, producer and comedian. He began his career in the 1950s as one half of the comedy duo Nichols and May, along with Elaine May. In 1968 he won the Academy Award for Best Director for the film The Graduate...
, the American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
television, stage and film director
Film director
A film director is a person who directs the actors and film crew in filmmaking. They control a film's artistic and dramatic nathan roach, while guiding the technical crew and actors.-Responsibilities:...
, writer, and producer.
Biography
Gustav Landauer was the second child of a Jewish shoe shop owner in KarlsruheKarlsruhe
The City of Karlsruhe is a city in the southwest of Germany, in the state of Baden-Württemberg, located near the French-German border.Karlsruhe was founded in 1715 as Karlsruhe Palace, when Germany was a series of principalities and city states...
in the Grand Duchy of Baden
Grand Duchy of Baden
The Grand Duchy of Baden was a historical state in the southwest of Germany, on the east bank of the Rhine. It existed between 1806 and 1918.-History:...
where he went through school. He was educated in philosophy
Philosophy
Philosophy is the study of general and fundamental problems, such as those connected with existence, knowledge, values, reason, mind, and language. Philosophy is distinguished from other ways of addressing such problems by its critical, generally systematic approach and its reliance on rational...
, German studies
German studies
German studies is the field of humanities that researches, documents, and disseminates German language and literature in both its historic and present forms. Academic departments of German studies often include classes on German culture, German history, and German politics in addition to the...
and art history
Art history
Art history has historically been understood as the academic study of objects of art in their historical development and stylistic contexts, i.e. genre, design, format, and style...
at Heidelberg
Heidelberg
-Early history:Between 600,000 and 200,000 years ago, "Heidelberg Man" died at nearby Mauer. His jaw bone was discovered in 1907; with scientific dating, his remains were determined to be the earliest evidence of human life in Europe. In the 5th century BC, a Celtic fortress of refuge and place of...
, Strasbourg
Strasbourg
Strasbourg is the capital and principal city of the Alsace region in eastern France and is the official seat of the European Parliament. Located close to the border with Germany, it is the capital of the Bas-Rhin département. The city and the region of Alsace are historically German-speaking,...
, and Berlin
Berlin
Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...
. After breaking off his studies in 1893, he worked as a freelance journalist and public speaker.
His later works show the lasting influence of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe was a German writer, pictorial artist, biologist, theoretical physicist, and polymath. He is considered the supreme genius of modern German literature. His works span the fields of poetry, drama, prose, philosophy, and science. His Faust has been called the greatest long...
and Leo Tolstoy
Leo Tolstoy
Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy was a Russian writer who primarily wrote novels and short stories. Later in life, he also wrote plays and essays. His two most famous works, the novels War and Peace and Anna Karenina, are acknowledged as two of the greatest novels of all time and a pinnacle of realist...
but he also felt attracted to the philosophy of Johann Gottlieb Fichte
Johann Gottlieb Fichte
Johann Gottlieb Fichte was a German philosopher. He was one of the founding figures of the philosophical movement known as German idealism, a movement that developed from the theoretical and ethical writings of Immanuel Kant...
and the French mutualist anarchism of Pierre-Joseph Proudhon
Pierre-Joseph Proudhon
Pierre-Joseph Proudhon was a French politician, mutualist philosopher and socialist. He was a member of the French Parliament, and he was the first person to call himself an "anarchist". He is considered among the most influential theorists and organisers of anarchism...
and the socialist anarchism theories of Mikhail Bakunin
Mikhail Bakunin
Mikhail Alexandrovich Bakunin was a well-known Russian revolutionary and theorist of collectivist anarchism. He has also often been called the father of anarchist theory in general. Bakunin grew up near Moscow, where he moved to study philosophy and began to read the French Encyclopedists,...
and especially the communist anarchism of Peter Kropotkin
Peter Kropotkin
Prince Pyotr Alexeyevich Kropotkin was a Russian zoologist, evolutionary theorist, philosopher, economist, geographer, author and one of the world's foremost anarcho-communists. Kropotkin advocated a communist society free from central government and based on voluntary associations between...
.
His second wife, Hedwig Lachmann
Hedwig Lachmann
Hedwig Lachmann was a German author, translator and poet.-Life:Lachmann was born in Stolp, Pomerania in 1865 and was the daughter of a Jewish cantor. She spent her childhood in Stolp and a subsequent seven years in Hürben . At the age of 15, she passed exams in Augsburg to become a language teacher...
, was an accomplished translator, and they worked together to translate various works into German, including those of British playwright Oscar Wilde
Oscar Wilde
Oscar Fingal O'Flahertie Wills Wilde was an Irish writer and poet. After writing in different forms throughout the 1880s, he became one of London's most popular playwrights in the early 1890s...
, including The Picture of Dorian Gray
The Picture of Dorian Gray
The Picture of Dorian Gray is the only published novel by Oscar Wilde, appearing as the lead story in Lippincott's Monthly Magazine on 20 June 1890, printed as the July 1890 issue of this magazine...
, and the American poet Walt Whitman
Walt Whitman
Walter "Walt" Whitman was an American poet, essayist and journalist. A humanist, he was a part of the transition between transcendentalism and realism, incorporating both views in his works. Whitman is among the most influential poets in the American canon, often called the father of free verse...
.
In the spring of 1889 in Berlin, Landauer met his sponsor and long-time friend, the author and philosopher Fritz Mauthner
Fritz Mauthner
Fritz Mauthner was a journalist and philosopher from Horschitz, Bohemia.He became editor of the Berliner Tageblatts in 1895, but is best known for his Beiträge zu einer Kritik der Sprache , published in three parts in 1901 and 1902...
for the first time. In April 1891 he joined the Free Volksbühne
Volksbühne
The Volksbühne is a theater in Berlin, Germany. Located in Berlin's city center Mitte on Rosa-Luxemburg-Platz in what was the GDR's capital....
Berlin and declared his support of the "Friedrichshagen Poet Circle" (Friedrichshagener Dichterkreis) for Naturalist
Naturalism (literature)
Naturalism was a literary movement taking place from the 1880s to 1940s that used detailed realism to suggest that social conditions, heredity, and environment had inescapable force in shaping human character...
literature.
In February 1892 Landauer became a member of the Association of Independent Socialists (Verein Unabhängiger Sozialisten) and of a group of publishers for their mouthpiece "Socialist Organ of the Independent Socialists" (Sozialistisches Organ der unabhängigen Sozialisten). In this paper he wrote a number of articles about art, but also critical remarks about political issues as well as on the economic views of Karl Marx
Karl Marx
Karl Heinrich Marx was a German philosopher, economist, sociologist, historian, journalist, and revolutionary socialist. His ideas played a significant role in the development of social science and the socialist political movement...
and Eugen Dühring
Eugen Dühring
Eugen Karl Dühring was a German philosopher and economist, a socialist who was a strong critic of Marxism.-Life and works:...
.
Together with friends from the literature group "The Young" (Die Jungen), who also worked with the Association of Independent Socialists, he founded the "New Free Volksbühne" (Neue Freie Volksbühne).
At the end of 1892 Landauer married the seamstress Margarethe Leuschner.
In July 1893 the Association of Independent Socialists, in which Landauer had become the leading member of its anarchist wing, split up. In the same month he ended his cooperation with the magazine "Socialist" (Sozialist) of which the last issue appeared in January 1895.
At the "International Convention of Socialist Workers" of the II. Socialist International
Socialist International
The Socialist International is a worldwide organization of democratic socialist, social democratic and labour political parties. It was formed in 1951.- History :...
in August 1893 in Zurich, Landauer, as a delegate for the Berlin anarchists, stood for an "anarchist socialism". Against an anarchist minority the convention with 411 delegates from 20 countries passed a resolution in favour of participation in elections and political action in parliaments. The anarchists were excluded from the II. Socialist International.
Landauer was arrested for "incitement to civil disobedience" in October 1893, and sentenced 2 months in prison. In December the sentence was extended to 9 months, which Landauer served in the prison of Sorau (today Żary
Zary
Żary is a town in western Poland with about 39,900 inhabitants , situated in the Lubusz Voivodeship...
).
After Landauer had been unable to establish a secure livelihood in Switzerland in 1895 he returned to Berlin where he lived very modestly in a circle of artists, literati, people from theatres and critics. Between 1895 and 1899 he published another magazine titled "Socialist-Anarchist Monthly" (Sozialist – Anarchistische Monatszeitschrift).
In 1899 Landauer met the poet and language teacher Hedwig Lachmann
Hedwig Lachmann
Hedwig Lachmann was a German author, translator and poet.-Life:Lachmann was born in Stolp, Pomerania in 1865 and was the daughter of a Jewish cantor. She spent her childhood in Stolp and a subsequent seven years in Hürben . At the age of 15, she passed exams in Augsburg to become a language teacher...
, who would later become his second wife. In September of that year they decided to stay together for a longer period in England, where Landauer became close friends with the Russian anarchist Peter Kropotkin
Peter Kropotkin
Prince Pyotr Alexeyevich Kropotkin was a Russian zoologist, evolutionary theorist, philosopher, economist, geographer, author and one of the world's foremost anarcho-communists. Kropotkin advocated a communist society free from central government and based on voluntary associations between...
. During this time Lachmann's and Landauer's daughter Gudula was born. In 1902 they returned to Berlin.
In 1903 Landauer divorced his first wife and married Hedwig Lachmann the same year. In 1906 their second daughter Brigitte was born.
From 1909 to 1915 Landauer published the magazine "The Socialist" (Der Sozialist) in Berlin, which was considered to be the mouthpiece of the "Socialist Federation" (Sozialistischer Bund) founded by Landauer in 1908. Among the first members were Erich Mühsam
Erich Mühsam
Erich Mühsam was a German-Jewish anarchist essayist, poet and playwright. He emerged at the end of World War I as one of the leading agitators for a federated Bavarian Soviet Republic....
and Martin Buber
Martin Buber
Martin Buber was an Austrian-born Jewish philosopher best known for his philosophy of dialogue, a form of religious existentialism centered on the distinction between the I-Thou relationship and the I-It relationship....
. As a political organisation the federation remained unimportant.
In these years Landauer himself wrote 115 contributions for the magazine concerning art, literature and philosophy but also contemporary politics. In this magazine he also published to a greater extent own translations of the French philosopher and theorist Pierre-Joseph Proudhon
Pierre-Joseph Proudhon
Pierre-Joseph Proudhon was a French politician, mutualist philosopher and socialist. He was a member of the French Parliament, and he was the first person to call himself an "anarchist". He is considered among the most influential theorists and organisers of anarchism...
. Because of the tightening of censorship
Censorship
thumb|[[Book burning]] following the [[1973 Chilean coup d'état|1973 coup]] that installed the [[Military government of Chile |Pinochet regime]] in Chile...
the magazine had to be closed down.
In 1914 Landauer would not let himself be carried away by the general enthusiasm for the German war effort
History of Germany during World War I
During World War I, the German Empire was one of the Central Powers that ultimately lost the war. It began participation with the conflict after the declaration of war against Serbia by its ally, Austria-Hungary...
. Instead, he fought against it from the very beginning from his anarchist and pacifist standpoint.
Because of the increasing difficulties and poverty during the war, Landauer and his family moved from Berlin to Krumbach, near Ulm, in southwestern Germany. Here his wife died on 21 February 1918 of pneumonia.
Right after the war and the start of the November Revolution (German Revolution
German Revolution
The German Revolution was the politically-driven civil conflict in Germany at the end of World War I, which resulted in the replacement of Germany's imperial government with a republic...
) Kurt Eisner
Kurt Eisner
Kurt Eisner was a Bavarian politician and journalist. As a German socialist journalist and statesman, he organized the Socialist Revolution that overthrew the Wittelsbach monarchy in Bavaria in November 1918....
sent a letter to Landauer on 14 November 1918 inviting him to participate in the Revolution and the establishment of a soviet republic in Bavaria
Bavaria
Bavaria, formally the Free State of Bavaria is a state of Germany, located in the southeast of Germany. With an area of , it is the largest state by area, forming almost 20% of the total land area of Germany...
: "What I would like you to do is to contribute in the reconstruction of the souls by speech".
After the assassination of Eisner by the right-wing extremist student Anton Graf von Arco auf Valley
Anton Graf von Arco auf Valley
Anton von Padua Alfred Emil Hubert Georg Graf von Arco auf Valley , commonly known as Anton Arco-Valley, German political activist, is best remembered as the assassin of Kurt Eisner, the first republican premier of Bavaria, in February 1919.Arco-Valley was born in Sankt Martin im Innkreis in Upper...
on 21 February 1919 the debates on the question of a council (soviet) system or a parliamentary system in the new Bavarian republic grew in intensity. When the soviet republic was proclaimed on 7 April 1919 against the elected government of Johannes Hoffmann
Johannes Hoffmann
Johannes Hoffmann was a Bavarian Minister-President and member of the SPD.-Life:Born in Ilbesheim, near Landau, his parents were Peter Hoffmann and Maria Eva Keller...
, Landauer became Commissioner of Enlightenment and Public Instruction. The government of the first Soviet Republic of Bavaria (Erste Räterepublik des Freistaates Bayern) was initially dominated by independent socialists and pacifists like Ernst Toller
Ernst Toller
Ernst Toller was a left-wing German playwright, best known for his Expressionist plays and serving as President of the short-lived Bavarian Soviet Republic, for six days.- Biography :...
(author and poet) or Silvio Gesell
Silvio Gesell
Silvio Gesell was a German merchant, theoretical economist, social activist, anarchist and founder of Freiwirtschaft.-Life:...
and anarchists like Erich Mühsam
Erich Mühsam
Erich Mühsam was a German-Jewish anarchist essayist, poet and playwright. He emerged at the end of World War I as one of the leading agitators for a federated Bavarian Soviet Republic....
or Landauer. Landauer's first and only decree was to ban history lessons in Bavarian schools.
Three days after the soviet government had been taken over by functionaries of the KPD (Communist Party of Germany
Communist Party of Germany
The Communist Party of Germany was a major political party in Germany between 1918 and 1933, and a minor party in West Germany in the postwar period until it was banned in 1956...
) around Eugen Leviné
Eugen Levine
Eugen Leviné was a Communist, revolutionary and leader of the short lived Bavarian Soviet Republic.-Background:...
and Max Levien Gustav Landauer became disappointed with their policies and resigned from all his political posts on 16 April 1919.
After the City of Munich was reconquered by the German army and Freikorps
Freikorps
Freikorps are German volunteer military or paramilitary units. The term was originally applied to voluntary armies formed in German lands from the middle of the 18th century onwards. Between World War I and World War II the term was also used for the paramilitary organizations that arose during...
units, Gustav Landauer was arrested on 1 May 1919 and stoned to death by troopers one day later in Munich's Stadelheim Prison
Stadelheim Prison
Stadelheim Prison, in Munich's Giesing district, is one of the largest prisons in Germany.Founded in 1894 it was the site of many executions, particularly by guillotine during the Nazi period.-Notable inmates:...
.
After the Nazis were elected in Germany in 1933 they destroyed Landauer's grave, which had been erected in 1925, sent his remains to the Jewish congregation of Munich, charging them for the costs. Landauer was later put to rest at the Munich Waldfriedhof
Munich Waldfriedhof
The Munich Waldfriedhof is one of 29 cemeteries of Munich in Bavaria, Germany. It is one of the larger and more famous burial sites of the city due to its park like design and tombs of notable personalities. The Waldfriedhof is widely considered the first woodland cemetery.-Description:The Munich...
(Forest Cemetery)
Metaphysics and Religion
Landauer's ideas about metaphysics and religion changed around 1900. In his essay "Christentum und Anarchismus" ("Christianity and Anarchism" published in 1895 in the magazine Sozialist) Landauer was posed against religion. He especially rejected monotheist religions, such as Christianity, Judaism or Islam, saying that he denied any revelation. This can also be seen in an 1895 text in a series of articles "Zur Entwicklungsgeschichte des Individuums" (On the Developmental History of the Individual) in which Landauer pronounced himself in favour of BuddhaGautama Buddha
Siddhārtha Gautama was a spiritual teacher from the Indian subcontinent, on whose teachings Buddhism was founded. In most Buddhist traditions, he is regarded as the Supreme Buddha Siddhārtha Gautama (Sanskrit: सिद्धार्थ गौतम; Pali: Siddhattha Gotama) was a spiritual teacher from the Indian...
. Unlike the religions mentioned before, Buddha supported his statements with arguments. Under the mystic-symbolic cloak of the teachings of Reincarnation
Reincarnation
Reincarnation best describes the concept where the soul or spirit, after the death of the body, is believed to return to live in a new human body, or, in some traditions, either as a human being, animal or plant...
he believes to have discovered the deep-lying "Core of Truth" and that he could now express this truth without the cloak. Until 1903 Landauer clearly rejected religious concepts such as god, immortality, the hereafter, revelation etc. Instead, he believed in rationality and enlightenment.
But in his essay "Skepsis und Mystik" (Scepticism and Mysticism) published in 1903 there is a turn in Landauer's thinking towards mysticism. His translation, the "Doctrines of Meister Eckhart
Doctrines of Meister Eckhart
Meister Eckhart Dominican friar and German mystic was a renowned theologian whose teachings, though popular among the monastic and lay populations that he preached to, deviated enough from the accepted language of the Catholic Church that he was tried as a heretic in 1327...
" (Die mystischen Schriften des Meister Eckhart) from Middle High German into High German is also published in 1903. Although Landauer is still sceptical about Meister Eckhart's concept of God, because instead talking about God he actually only talks about world, worldly or world spirit. The divine-oneness of Meister Eckhart is seen from the perspective of essence and bliss of nature; the "essential" of things is transcendent. Thus, it can be argued that Landauer had "pantheism
Pantheism
Pantheism is the view that the Universe and God are identical. Pantheists thus do not believe in a personal, anthropomorphic or creator god. The word derives from the Greek meaning "all" and the Greek meaning "God". As such, Pantheism denotes the idea that "God" is best seen as a process of...
" in mind. He also often wrongly called Meister Eckhart a pantheist. For Eckhart the term "pan-en-theism" ("All things are in God") would probably be more fitting. Landauer's view of religion during the conception of his mysticism can be characterized as follows: He still regards the concrete manifestations of "ecclesiastical Christianity" as negative, among them "priests and professors of philosophy" but also priests and founders of philosophies "who quickly find peace in something positive". He sympathizes with those "who passionately desire peace but cannot be appeased by anything, such as heretics, sectarians and mystics". Amongst others, in "Skepsis und Mystik" (Scepticism and Mysticism) Landauer mentions Dionysius Areopagita
Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite
Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite, also known as Pseudo-Denys, was a Christian theologian and philosopher of the late 5th to early 6th century, the author of the Corpus Areopagiticum . The author is identified as "Dionysos" in the corpus, which later incorrectly came to be attributed to Dionysius...
, Johannes Scotus Eriugena
Johannes Scotus Eriugena
Johannes Scotus Eriugena was an Irish theologian, Neoplatonist philosopher, and poet. He is known for having translated and made commentaries upon the work of Pseudo-Dionysius.-Name:...
, Meister Eckhart, Giovanni Pico della Mirandola
Giovanni Pico della Mirandola
Count Giovanni Pico della Mirandola was an Italian Renaissance philosopher. He is famed for the events of 1486, when at the age of 23, he proposed to defend 900 theses on religion, philosophy, natural philosophy and magic against all comers, for which he wrote the famous Oration on the Dignity of...
, Jakob Böhme
Jakob Böhme
Jakob Böhme was a German Christian mystic and theologian. He is considered an original thinker within the Lutheran tradition...
, Angelus Silesius
Angelus Silesius
Angelus Silesius was a German Catholic mystic and poet.-Life:Silesius was born in Breslau , Silesia as son of Polish noble and German mother...
and Alfred Mombert
Alfred Mombert
Alfred Mombert was a German poet, born in Karlsruhe, and educated at the universities of Heidelberg, Leipzig, Munich, and Berlin. He practiced law for six years and then devoted himself to his literary work...
. Their common trait was that they did not accept terms and concepts as intellectually correct and that they therefore opposed religious groups. For these thinkers the world of senses was only something metaphorical. By segregation they would try to unite their self with the world. Landauer's reverence for mysticism enabled him to include Christ into his thinking. He interprets Christ is a "Symbol of Man becoming God". For Landauer becoming God means the merger of the self with the world and that's exactly what Christ showed us.
At the age of 22 Landauer broke with the Jewish religious community. As described before, he rather referred to Christian-mystical tradition than to Judaism. Around 1907 he consciously returned to Judaism and its religious traditions. An important impetus for this reversal came from Martin Buber
Martin Buber
Martin Buber was an Austrian-born Jewish philosopher best known for his philosophy of dialogue, a form of religious existentialism centered on the distinction between the I-Thou relationship and the I-It relationship....
with whom he was good friends. Buber also occupied himself at the beginning of the century with Christian mysticism. From then on Landauer also included "Hasidic mysticism
Hasidic Judaism
Hasidic Judaism or Hasidism, from the Hebrew —Ḥasidut in Sephardi, Chasidus in Ashkenazi, meaning "piety" , is a branch of Orthodox Judaism that promotes spirituality and joy through the popularisation and internalisation of Jewish mysticism as the fundamental aspects of the Jewish faith...
" into his thinking.
It is interesting how Landauer coins the terms of "time" and "eternity" in his essay "Skepsis und Mystik" (Sceticism and Mysticism). Eckhart or Neoplatonists of the Christian and Pre-Christian tradition (Plotinus, Augustinus
Augustinus
The Augustinus seu doctrina Sancti Augustini de humanae naturae sanitate, aegritudine, medicina adversus Pelagianos et Massilianses, known as the Augustinus, was a theological work in Latin by Cornelius Jansen...
, Dionysius Areopagita, Scotus Eriugena, Bonaventura etc.) respectively, did not define eternity as a time span which was forever expanded. Eternity is rather present in every moment of time, it contains time as a whole and transcends it at the same time. An "secluded" person that can free himself from time, experiences eternity by "mystical show" (spiritual perception) (Plotinus
Plotinus
Plotinus was a major philosopher of the ancient world. In his system of theory there are the three principles: the One, the Intellect, and the Soul. His teacher was Ammonius Saccas and he is of the Platonic tradition...
). For Landauer eternity at the same time is an everlasting temporal continuation but also the source of the temporal stream of development (Entwicklungsstrom). The idea of past and future is a "distortion of space" because only by applying ideas of space it could be suggested that we are standing at a point from which one can see into the past and into the future.
The two opinions that, on one hand, eternity is an everlasting temporal continuation and on the other, it is the source of time, seem to contradict each other. For Landauer eternity remains bound to the course of time. He declares eternal renewal to be a constant through which "temporal quality differences" quite possibly appear in the "eternal presence".
Landauer's perception of time and eternity distinguishes itself by regarding past, present and future not as a category of time but as a result of "distortion of space". Thus eternity for him is a temporal course which, at the same time, is the source of time. Neoplatonists (Meister Eckhart) also talk about a temporal course of time that is embraced by eternity which at the same time is the source of time. Thus, eternity can be experienced by "mystical show" (spiritual perception) (Plotinus) within time. For Meister Eckhart as well as for Landauer the key to this experience lies in the so called "secludedness".
Mystical Anthropology
In mystical anthropology man has within him a divine spark or the "uncreated base of the soul", which goes to make up the actual human nature and at the same time is one with God. In the Bible it says "Man is an image of God". To define the actual nature of man, Landauer explicitly refers to Meister Eckhart. Therefore, according to Landauer, our "individual", firmly "standing on itself" and "deeply retreating into itself" is at the same time "our most general", which connects us with the whole "all-one" world and leads us to unity with it. Landauer says in "Skepsis und Mystik" (see: Skepsis und Mystik 1978, p. 17): "The deeper I return home into myself, the more I am blessed with the world".For Landauer sinking into one's self means being blessed with the world. In Neoplatonism or according to Meister Eckhart the "search in one's own heart" in the end leads to the recognition or to the "vision of God". Another difference in mystical anthropology between Landauer and Eckhart is the "concept of heredity" which Landauer propagates. The individual is the result of a long chain of ancestors which are all still present by executing power over a person. The upright carriage of man e. g. is a visible sign of this power of the first humans over us. Heredity leads us back, beyond human and animal ancestors, all the way to the inorganic world. This thought is confirmed in "Skepsis und Mystik" by the mystical idea that man has the whole world in himself. Thus, our complete ancestry is within us. Landauer also connects the concepts of "mankind" and "human nature", which, in addition to that, he defines as divine.
Of course the world is emphasized in comparison to the human individual. In turn, the human individual is subordinate to the human race. The individualization is a result of the "Will of the World" and not the will of the individual or the "human race". In 1895 Landauer still adhered to the thesis, that individuals are the result of the will of the human race. Around this time he also declared that the more someone stepped out of the mass as an own independent self the larger would be his influence on mankind. On the other hand in Skepsis und Mystik (Scepticism and Mysticism) he wrote that the world had to separate off the individuals so that it could flare up and appear within them, for: "The world wants to become". Until 1900 Landauer started out that the individual had to fulfil himself in order to come up to the primordial idea of progressing mankind. After 1900 the human being could any time "coincide with the world", that is to say man can fulfil himself any time. Utopia is thus moved from the future into the eternal presence, which can be mystically experienced. Thus the future course of Socialism (Anarchism
Anarchism
Anarchism is generally defined as the political philosophy which holds the state to be undesirable, unnecessary, and harmful, or alternatively as opposing authority in the conduct of human relations...
) does not depend on a certain development stage of mankind.
For Landauer seclusion is necessary in order to break through to the human race. In Skepsis und Mystik (Scepticism and Mysticism) he writes:
"The firmer an individual is footed on himself, the deeper he retreats into himself, the more he isolates himself from the influences of his surroundings, the more he finds himself coinciding with the world of the past and with what he originally is".
By "originally" Landauer means the human community, which is stronger, more noble and much older than the frail influence of the state or society.
The seclusion not only has consequences for the individuals themselves. By the seclusion the individuals are also returned to the unity with the world.
Political Philosophy: Ethical Anarchism
From the above described philosophical sources and works Landauer developed an anarchism which was not individualistic; he rejected individualist anarchismIndividualist anarchism
Individualist anarchism refers to several traditions of thought within the anarchist movement that emphasize the individual and his or her will over external determinants such as groups, society, traditions, and ideological systems. Individualist anarchism is not a single philosophy but refers to a...
. Landauer supported anarchism already in the 90s of the 19th century. In those years he was especially enthusiastic about the individualistic approach of Max Stirner
Max Stirner
Johann Kaspar Schmidt , better known as Max Stirner , was a German philosopher, who ranks as one of the literary fathers of nihilism, existentialism, post-modernism and anarchism, especially of individualist anarchism...
. He didn't want to stay behind Stirner's extremely individual approach but wanted to develop a new general public, a unity and community. His "social Anarchism" was a union of individuals on a voluntary basis in small socialist communities which came together freely. Landauer's goal was always emancipation from state, church or other forms of subordination in society. The expression 'Anarchism' stems from the Greek "arche" meaning 'power', 'reign' or 'rule'. Thus 'An-archy' equals 'non-power', 'no-reign' or 'no-rule'. The rejection of the state is common to all Anarchist positions. Some also reject institutions and moral concepts, such as church, matrimony or family; the rejection is, of course, voluntary. Landauer came out against Marxists and Social Democrats, reproaching them for wanting to erect another state executing power. For him Anarchism was a spiritual movement, almost religious. In contrast to other Anarchists he did not reject matrimony; on the contrary, it was a pillar of the community in Landauer's system. True Anarchism results from the "inner segregation" of the individuals.
Here once more is a list of the most important aspects of Landauer's Anarchism:
- Anarchism entails absence of power (reign, hierarchy, forced institutions)
- Anarchism is not equatable with terrorism; it is to be achieved through non-violence.
- Anarchism cannot be based upon egoistic individualism.
It is exactly this from which one is to be freed. Precondition for autonomy and independence respectively is the "seclusion" which leads to a "Unity with the world". According to Landauer it is necessary to change the nature of man or at least to change his ways, so that finally the inner convictions can appear and be lived. This includes an "Anarchism of deed" that is never strictly theoretical.
Monetary and Economic Philosophy
In "Aufruf zum Sozialismus" (Call to Socialism) Landauer describes 3 aspects of economical slavery of modern Capitalism, as he calls it:1)The first problem he points out is ownership of land. It is the cause of "the begging and dependent position of those without possessions". The landowner can deny it to the landless. But the latter needs the land for the purpose of direct and indirect consumption thus creating a dependency. Land ownership and its correlate, landlessness, according to Landauer, are the roots of slavery, bondage, tribute, lease, interest and the proletariat.
The solution to this problem simply lies in the dissolution of land ownership. In "Aufruf zum Sozialismus" (Call to Socialism) Landauer says (p. 170):
Justice will of course depend on the inner spiritual attitude of the people. There will be no need for legal procedures pertaining to the just distribution of land because the spirit of the people will "voluntarily" recognise what a just distribution is.
2) The second evil stressed by Landauer is the superiority of money as a means of exchange for goods. After some time goods lose their value through use. Money makes the disastrous exception that it is part of the exchange but not of the devaluation. If there is to be a just exchange economy, the money that is used cannot have the quality of our money with an "absolute value". Landauer also regards interest as damaging because it creates constant economical growth. But the main evil of present money is its non-consumptiveness. Landauer's idea is that in a free exchange economy money must become equal compared to goods having the dual character of exchange and consumption. He basically refers to ideas of the economist Silvio Gesell
Silvio Gesell
Silvio Gesell was a German merchant, theoretical economist, social activist, anarchist and founder of Freiwirtschaft.-Life:...
. In "Aufruf zum Sozialismus" (Call to Socialism) he writes:
According to Landauer, Silvio Gesell is one of the very few who learned from Pierre Joseph Proudhon. When producing or acquiring a means of exchange there will be no other interest but consumption. This was Proudhon's idea that the fast circulation of money brings happiness and liveliness into one's private life while the dropping off in the market and the stubbornness of persisting money also brings life to a grind.
Silvio Gesell proposed the reformation of the monetary system: Instead of the money used until now, so called "free money" is to be introduced. Money is given out in the form of notes along with little tickets to be torn off as smaller change. The little tickets also serve as devaluation, because every week it must be diminished by 1/1000 of its value. Every week the owner of a note must attach a stamp to indicate the devaluation of 1/1000. This induces the owner of the "money" to spend it as soon as possible. Coins would be abolished and the Central Bank would be replaced by a currency office responsible for transactions, contributions and regulation of circulation. This office would also withdraw all notes at the end of the year and replace them with new ones. Gustav Landauer fully supported this idea of Silvio Gesell.
3. The third evil leading to slavery according to Landauer is added value. Value initially means to have a claim against someone, meaning an economical, not an ethical value. The word "value" includes the expectation that the price should equal the material value. The respective price is usually much higher than the sum of wages paid to make the product. This is because people want to make use of every advantage, not only of property but also of the rarity of a commodity in demand or the ignorance of the consumer. As a result, work cannot buy everything it was paid to produce so that a considerable part remains for the buying power of profit.
In "Aufruf zum Sozialismus" (Call to Socialism) Landauer criticizes Marxism
Marxism
Marxism is an economic and sociopolitical worldview and method of socioeconomic inquiry that centers upon a materialist interpretation of history, a dialectical view of social change, and an analysis and critique of the development of capitalism. Marxism was pioneered in the early to mid 19th...
as follows:
The truth for Landauer is that every and each profit is drawn from labour. There is no productivity of property and no productivity of capital as such, but only a productivity of labour. This is a conclusion he shared with Marx.
Works
- Skepsis und Mystik (1903)
- Die Revolution (trans. Revolution) (1907)
- Aufruf zum Sozialismus (1911) (trans. by David J. Parent as For Socialism. Telos Press, 1978. ISBN 0-914386-11-5)
- Editor of the journal Der Sozialist (trans. The Socialist) from 1893–1899
- "Anarchism in Germany" (1895), "Weak Statesmen, Weaker People" (1910) and "Stand Up Socialist" (1915) are excerpted in Anarchism: A Documentary History of Libertarian IdeasAnarchism: A Documentary History of Libertarian IdeasAnarchism: A Documentary History of Libertarian Ideas is a three-volume anthology of anarchist writings edited by historian Robert Graham. The anthology is published by Black Rose Books. Each selection is introduced by Graham, placing each author and selection in their historical and ideological...
- Volume One: From Anarchy to Anarchism (300CE-1939), ed. Robert Graham. Black Rose Books, 2005. ISBN 1-55164-250-6 - Gustav Landauer. Gesammelte Schriften Essays Und Reden Zu Literatur, Philosophie, Judentum. (translated title: Collected Writings Essays and Speeches of Literature, Philosophy and Judaica). (Wiley-VCH, 1996) ISBN 3-05-002993-5
- Gustav Landauer. Anarchism in Germany and Other Essays. eds. Stephen Bender and Gabriel Kuhn. Barbary Coast Collective.
- Gustav Landauer. Revolution and Other Writings: A Political Reader, ed. & trans. Gabriel Kuhn; PM Press, 2010. ISBN 9781604860542
Further reading
- Thomas Esper. The Anarchism of Gustav Landauer. (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1961)
- Ruth Link-Salinger Hyman. Gustav Landauer: Philosopher of Utopia. (Hackett Publishing Company, 1977). ISBN 0-915144-27-1
- Eugene Lunn. Prophet of Community: The Romantic Socialism of Gustav Landauer. (Charles H. Kerr Publishing Company, 1973). ISBN 0-520-02207-6
- Charles B. Maurer. Call to Revolution: The Mystical Anarchism of Gustav Landauer. (Wayne State University Press, 1971). ISBN 0-8143-1441-4
- Michael Löwy, Redemption & Utopia: Jewish Libertarian Thought in Central Europe, a Study in Elective Affinity. Translated by Hope Heaney. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1992.
- Martin Buber. Paths in Utopia. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1949.
External links
Gustav Landauer by Dr. Siegbert Wolf, in: "Lexikon der Anarchie"- Gustav Landauer Page from the Anarchist Encyclopedia
- The Communitarian Anarchism of Gustav Landauer by Larry Gambone
- "Gustav Landauer (1870-1919)" by James Horrox
- "Gustav Landauer — the Man, the Jew and the Anarchist" by Avraham Yassour
- "Topos and Utopia in Landauer’s and Buber’s Social Philosophy" by Avraham Yassour
- http://www.theanarchistlibrary.org/HTML/Saul_Newman__Voluntary_Servitude_Reconsidered__Radical_Politics_and_the_Problem_of_Self-Domination.html"Voluntary Servitude Reconsidered: Radical Politics and the Problem of Self-Domination" by Saul NewmanSaul NewmanSaul Newman is a political theorist and central post-anarchist thinker.Newman coined the term "post-anarchism" as a general term for political philosophies filtering 19th century anarchism through a post-structuralist lens, and later popularized it through his 2001 book From Bakunin to Lacan...
]. Newman relates Landauer's views on social change to those of Etienne de la BoëtieÉtienne de La BoétieÉtienne de La Boétie was a French judge, writer, anarchist, and "a founder of modern political philosophy in France." He "has been best remembered as the great and close friend of the eminent essayist Michel de Montaigne, in one of history's most notable friendships."-Life:"La Boétie was born in... - Biography of Gustav Landauer in the Anarchy Archives
- Gustav Landauer Essays from The Scarlet Letter Archive
- Gustav Landauer Papers. Details the holdings of the International Institute of Social HistoryInternational Institute of Social HistoryThe International Institute of Social History is a historical research institute in Amsterdam. It was founded in 1935 by Nicolaas Posthumus. The IISG is part of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences....