Sternberg, Fritz

Friedrich Sternberg was born on June 11, 1895 in the Silesian city ​​of Breslau . He was the fifth child in a large Jewish family. At the age of thirteen, as a gymnasium student, he first became acquainted with the ideas of socialism . Since 1910 it was published in the local Social Democratic newspaper Die Volkswacht. At the same time, Friedrich Sternberg joined the ranks of the Jewish youth movement, where he met with the German-Jewish philosopher Martin Buber . After graduating from school in 1913 he studied economics: first in Breslau, then in Berlin . In his free time, he collaborates with socialist Zionist organizations. In 1914, Friedrich Strenberg broke with the Social Democratic Party of Germany , whose parliamentary faction supported the outbreak of the First World War and the military loan that followed. In May 1916 he was drafted into the army. In the German army of the Russian territory of Poland occupied by the German army, Sternberg got acquainted with the ideology of the Bund and in August 1917 joined its ranks. In subsequent years (from about 1922), Sternberg ranks among the supporters of the social-Zionist organization Poalei Zion . He met the November Revolution of 1918 in his hometown and was elected to the city soldier’s council .

Weimar Republic

In the summer of 1919, Sternberg lived in Vienna , where, along with other subjects, he studied psychoanalysis . During the winter semester of 1919/20, he began teaching at the University of Frankfurt , replacing Franz Oppenheimer during seminars. For three years, combines teaching activities with his own training, paying much attention to the study of the theory of marginal utility . However, in 1923, due to an unsuccessful attempt to seek the professorship and disagreements with Franz Oppenheimer, Friedrich Sternberg renounced his university career and focused on the study of imperialism . For financial reasons, he was forced to return to his hometown, where he founded the Marxist discussion group, which later became the basis for the local cell of the Socialist Workers Party of Germany . He continues to work on his book Imperialism. Around the same time, Sternberg, who in 1921 participated in the Zionist Congress in Carlsbad , departs from the ideas of Zionism .

During this period, Sternberg made contacts both with famous cultural figures (such as Bertolt Brecht , Lyon Feuchtwanger , Georges Gros ), as well as with various Marxist figures and organizations. Perhaps it was Sternberg, along with Karl Korsch, who became the figure under whose influence the future German theater classic Bertolt Brecht became a supporter of Marxist ideas. The publication in 1926 of the book Imperialism caused a wide resonance in German society. Having gained fame, Sternberg began to regularly publish articles in workers' and trade union newspapers, he was invited to conduct courses and seminars. This helped him improve his financial situation. In 1927, Sternberg participated in the anti-fascist congress in Brussels . In 1929 and 1930 he visited the Soviet Union twice, where he had many meetings with Soviet scientists and political figures, including Yevgeny Varga , Karl Radek , Nikolai Bukharin . In 1930-1933, until the ban, newspapers were regularly published in the popular magazine Die Weltbühne, usually under the pseudonyms Thomas Tarn ( German: Thomas Tarn ) and K. L. Gershtorf "( German KL Gerstorff ). This period was marked by close collaboration with the publicist Hans Meyer (later - Jean Amery ); in the apartment at Sternberg the poet Peter Huchel repeatedly stayed. On November 7, 1931, he joined the newly created Socialist Workers' Party of Germany (SRPG), an active member of which has been all subsequent years, despite the progressive disease of diabetes . Sternberg spoke at rallies of the SRPG, organized intra-party courses, and was constantly published in the party press. In 1932, in the elections to the Prussian parliament, was the first number on the electoral list of the Socialist Workers Party of Germany from Berlin; the elections were unsuccessful, the SPG gained just 0.4% of the vote. Together with journalist Klaus Zweiling, he is the author of the draft program for the first congress of the Socialist Workers Party of Germany. Together with Zweiling, the leadership of the Socialist Youth Union of Germany - the youth organization of the SRPG, as well as with the former members of the Communist Party - Opposition, Paul Frohlich and Jacob Walcher belonged to the left wing of the Socialist Workers Party of Germany. The left wing advocated the transformation of the SRPG into a revolutionary Marxist party; In early 1933, she won the internal party discussion with the party leadership ( Kurt Rosenfeld , Max Zeidewitz ), who adhered to the leftist ideas of social democracy .

Emigration. Post-war time

After the National Socialists came to power, Sternberg was exposed to a double danger - as a Marxist and as a Jew. After setting fire to the Reichstag, he was forced to go into an illegal position and on May 12, 1933, under the guise of an athlete-skier, passed through the Gigantic Mountains to Czechoslovakia , from where he later moved to Basel . He lived there for three years in a semi-legal position, experiencing serious financial difficulties, while he tried to help members of the SRPG who illegally immigrated to Switzerland from the southern regions of Nazi Germany . In late August - early September 1933, in the French town of Royan, Sternberg repeatedly met with Leon Trotsky on the creation of an economic platform for the Fourth International ^[1] , but insurmountable disagreements arose when discussing specific issues. In the spring of 1936, Sternberg was expelled from Switzerland and he moved to Paris , where the leadership of the SRPG in exile was located. Occasionally he took part in the Lutetium Circle - an attempt to create a Popular Front from various German emigrant political organizations. Until 1939, Sternberg was one of the main authors of the emigrant publications of the Socialist Workers Party of Germany - Die Marxistische Tribüne and Die Neue Front - Organ für proletarisch-revolutionäre Sammlung, as well as in several other newspapers and magazines, including Neuen Weltbühne and even the bourgeois Galler Tagblatt "and " Economist " .

In May 1939, on a tourist visa, he entered the United States . In connection with the outbreak of World War II, he was first extended with a tourist visa, then, in 1943, Sternberg received an immigrant visa, in 1948 - US citizenship. He works as a freelance journalist with a number of American publications, including The Nation and The New Republic , investigating financial support from the Rockefeller Foundation and the Brookings Institution of the German War Economy. In 1944, he became one of the signatories to the program of the German theologian-socialist Paul Tillich , who initiated the . At the same time, he maintains close contacts with US trade union leaders, thanks to which he gets the opportunity to conduct classes and courses for union members. In order to secure a livelihood, Sternberg gives lectures and seminars at various universities in the United States.

In 1950, for the first time since 1933, he visited Germany, where on August 20, as a representative of North American socialists, he participated in a socialist demonstration in Frankfurt . In 1951 he made a three-week trip to Yugoslavia , where, among others, he met with Edward Cardel . Since 1954, he finally moved to Europe (retaining US citizenship), where until his death in 1963 he worked as an expert in trade union organizations, in committees and commissions of the Social Democratic Party of Austria and the left wing of the Social Democratic Party of Germany .

• 1921 - Jews as the carriers of the new economy in Palestine ( Die Juden als Träger einer neuen Wirtschaft in Palästina. Eine Studie ). Vienna
• 1926 - Imperialism ( Der Imperialismus ). Berlin.
• 1929 - Imperialism and its criticism ( Der Imperialismus und seine Kritiker ). Berlin
• 1930 - A Turn in Science? Critique of the book of Henryk Grossman : The law of accumulation and collapse of the capitalist system. At the same time, a positive study of imperialism. ( Eine Umwälzung der Wissenschaft? Kritik des Buches von Henryk Großmann: Das Akkumulations- und Zusammenbruchgesetz des kapitalistischen Systems. Zugleich eine positive Analyse des Imperialismus ). Berlin.
• 1932 - The Decline of German Capitalism ( Der Niedergang des deutschen Kapitalismus ). Berlin.
• 1935 - Fascism in power ( Der Faschismus an der Macht ). Amsterdam
• 1938 - Germany and the Lightning War ( Germany and a Lightning War ). London
• 1939 - The origins of Nazism. Why Hitler Can't Win. ( From Nazi Sources. Why Hitler can't win ). New York / Toronto .
• 1947 - The Coming Crisis . New York / Toronto.
• 1948 - How to stop the Russians without war . New York / Toronto.
• 1949 - Life in a time of crisis. The fight against depression and war. ( Living with the Crisis. The Battle against Depression and War ). New York.
• 1951 - Capitalism an Socialism on Trial . New York.
• 1953 - The end of the revolution. Soviet Russia - from revolution to reaction. ( The End of a Revolution. Soviet Russia - From Revolution to Reaction . New York.
• 1955 - Marx and modernity. Development trend in the second half of the twentieth century ( Marx und die Gegenwart. Entwicklungstendenzen in der zweiten Hälfte des zwanzigsten Jahrhunderts ). Cologne
• 1959 - Militaristic and industrial revolution ( Die militärische und die industrielle Revolution ). Berlin / Frankfurt
• 1961 - Who rules in the second half of the XX century? ( Wer beherrscht die zweite Hälfte des 20. Jahrhunderts? ) Cologne / Berlin.
• 1963 - Poet and mind. The memory of Bertolt Brecht. ( Der Dichter und die Ratio. Erinnerungen an Bertolt Brecht ). Göttingen .
• 1965 - Anmerkungen zu Marx - heute . Frankfurt am Main 1965.