Table of Contents

Introduction

1 Franz Mehring: Literary Practice as a Socialist Form
 1  A Portrait
 2  Biographical Sketch
 3  The Question of an Aesthetic Practice
 4  Die Lessing-Legende
 5  The Plays: ‘Minna von Barnhelm’ and ‘Emilia Galotti’
 6  The Critique of Naturalism

2 Political Spontaneism and Cultural Practice
 1  Political Spontaneism and Cultural Practice
 2  The ‘Kunstlump’ Debate
 3  Erste Dada-Messe (The First Dada Fair): ‘Die Kunst ist tot. Es lebe die neue Maschinenkunst Tatlins’
 4  Das Proletarische Theater
 5  Franz Jung: Activist and Artist
 6  Herzfelde’s ‘Gesellschaft, Künstler und Kommunismus’ (1922)
 7  Art and/or Politics 1919–22

3 Märten and the Development of a Theoretical Position: From Reformism to the November Revolution
 1  The Historical Materialism Debate 1920–21

4 The ‘German October’ and Reconfiguration
 1  The ‘German October’
 2  Intellectuals and ‘the Second Culture’
 3  Practice: From ‘Die Rote Gruppe’ to the ‘Assoziation revolutionärer bildender Künstler Deutschlands’
 4  Wittfogel’s Aesthetic Programme
 5  Thalheimer’s Introductions to Mehring’s Oeuvre

5 Wittfogel’s Critique of Thalheimer’s Introduction
 1  Zur Frage der marxistischen Ästhetik (On the Question of Marxist Aesthetic)
 2  Wittfogel’s Series
 3  Becher: ‘Unsere Wendung’ (Our Turning Point)
 4  Lukács and Die Linkskurve
 5  Reportage or Portrayal
 6  From the Second to the Third International: Lukács’s ‘Franz Mehring, 1846–1919’
 7  ‘Nur-Kampfkultur oder positive Kultur’?
  Conclusion

6 Crisis and Critique: Continuity and Conflict

Appendix: Towards a Materialist History of Art
References
Index

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About the Author

Martin I. Gaughan, a graduate of Trinity College Dublin in politics and economics, was awarded a PhD at the University of East Anglia, ('Berlin Dadaism and Constructivism', 1982). He is the author of German Art 1907-1937. Modernism and Modernisation (Peter Lang, 2007), and has contributed chapters to other publications.