Franz Mehring
1846-1919
Biography:
Originally a liberal journalist, Mehring joined the German Social Democratic Party (SPD) in the early 1890s. He rapidly became acknowledged as an important theoretician. In the course of time he moved to the left and became associated with the current around Rosa Luxemburg. With the outbreak of World War I he was, despite his advanced years, a prominent member of the revolutionary opposition to the war along with Rosa Luxemburg, Karl Liebknecht and Clara Zetkin. He was a founder member of the German Communist Party established on New Years Day 1919, but died later in the month shortly after the murder of his comrades Luxemburg and Liebknecht.
Works:
The Origins of German Middle Class Culture: The Lessing Legend, 1892/1893
On Historical Materialism, 1893 (alternative translation)
Aesthetical Raids (excerpts), 1899
Ibsen’s Greatness and Limitations, 1900
Frederick Engels, 1906
Obituary of Friedrich Sorge, 1906
Review of Hermann Schlüter’s The Beginnings of the German Labor Movement in America, 1907
Philosophy and Philosophizing, 1909
Absolutism and Revolution in Germany (1525–1848), 1910
Anglo-German Relations, 1911
Charles Dickens, 1912
Our Old Masters and Their Modern Substitutes, 1917
Preface to Marx’s The Divine Right of the Hohenzollern, 1918
Socialist Divisions in Germany, 1918
Karl Marx: The Story of His Life, 1918
An Unusual Friendship, 1919
Further reading:
Marx/Engels Internet Archive
Rosa Luxemburg Internet Archive
Marxism and Culture Section
Eleanor Marx Aveling Archive