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This paper tracks the influence of the German Revolution of 1918–19 in the work of Herbert Marcuse and Hannah Arendt, assessing its significance for their work on revolution, and particularly their reflections on the New Left movement of the 1960s. The German Revolution, this paper will suggest, was a formative political experience for both thinkers: Marcuse, through his participation in the soldier councils; Arendt, at one step removed, through the experiences of her husband Heinrich Blücher in the Spartacist League. For both, the influence of this revolution has been understated, overshadowed by the extensive literature on Marcuse's status as New Left revolutionary “guru” and Arendt's work on the American and French revolutions.
Yet the German Revolution was central to the politicization of both thinkers. It is biographically at the root of their understanding of the concept of revolution, and remained an influence throughout their work. Their consideration of the possibilities of the German Revolution takes on particular resonance during the student unrest of the late 1960s, and both Arendt and Marcuse drew explicit comparisons between the two situations, viewing in the agitations of the late 1960s the possibility of a proto-revolutionary movement. Shmuel Lederman has outlined some of the ways in which the German Revolution formed a significant influence on Arendt's thinking, arguing that it “constituted an important part of a broader ‘silent dialogue’ Arendt had with the European socialist left.”1 James Muldoon also highlights the influence of socialist traditions on Arendt's work through the writings of Rosa Luxemburg. The council system is repeatedly cited by Arendt as perhaps the only modern alternative to the party system, and “it is from modern workers’ struggles rather than ancient Athens that Arendt draws her main examples of council systems,” he writes, although he critiques Arendt's attempts to “extract them from their socialist origins.”2 This paper develops this line of thinking with reference to Arendt's considerations on the potential for revolutionary action in the context of New Left politics in 1960s America.
It has been argued that, despite substantial disagreements in their work, Marcuse and Arendt can be profitably read together, that they “augment” one another.3 Yet, beyond this, this paper will argue that there is a considerable degree of convergence in their...