Franz Borkenau

Infobox Person
name = Franz Borkenau


caption =
birth_date = Birth date|1900|12|15
birth_place = Vienna, Austria-Hungary
death_date = Death date and age|1957|05|22|1900|12|15
death_place = Zurich, Switzerland
other_names =
known_for = One of the pioneers of the totalitarianism theory.
occupation = Sociologist and journalist
nationality = Austrian.

Franz Borkenau (December 15, 1900-May 22, 1957) was an Austrian writer. Borkenau was born in Vienna, Austria, the son of a civil servant. As a university student in Leipzig, his main interests were Marxism and psychoanalysis. In 1921, Borkenau joined the Communist Party of Germany and was active as a Comintern agent until 1929 [Jones, William David "Toward a Theory of Totalitarianism: Franz Borkenau's Pareto" pages 455-466 from "Journal of the History of Ideas", Volume 53, Issue # 3, July - September 1992 page 457.] . After graduating from the University of Leipzig in 1924, Borkenau moved to Berlin. In the 1920s, Borkenau was described by Richard Löwenthal as a "sincere Marxist" who very much wanted a world revolution [Jones, William David "Toward a Theory of Totalitarianism: Franz Borkenau's Pareto" pages 455-466 from "Journal of the History of Ideas", Volume 53, Issue # 3, July - September 1992 page 457.] .. At the end of 1929, Borkenau resigned from both the Comintern and the KPD owing to his personal repulsion and disgust over the way the Communists operated, combined with an increasing horror over Stalinism [Jones, William David "Toward a Theory of Totalitarianism: Franz Borkenau's Pareto" pages 455-466 from "Journal of the History of Ideas", Volume 53, Issue # 3, July - September 1992 page 457.] .

Despite his break with Communism, Borkenau remained on the Left and worked as a researcher for the Institute for Social Research in Frankfurt, Germany. During his time at the Frankfurt Institute, Borkenau was a protégé of Carl Grünberg and his main interest was the relationship between capitalism and ideology. In 1933, the half-Jewish Borkenau fled from Germany and lived at various times in Vienna, Paris and Panama City. In the 1930s, Borkenau was involved in organzing support from abroad for the "Neu Beginnen" (New Beginnings) underground group, which was working for the overthrow of the Nazi regime [Jones, William David "Toward a Theory of Totalitarianism: Franz Borkenau's Pareto" pages 455-466 from "Journal of the History of Ideas", Volume 53, Issue # 3, July - September 1992 page 457.] . In a series of articles published in 1933-34 in the left-wing German language émigré press, Borkenau defended the "Neu Beginnen" group as the superior alternative to both the SPD and the KPD [Jones, William David "Toward a Theory of Totalitarianism: Franz Borkenau's Pareto" pages 455-466 from "Journal of the History of Ideas", Volume 53, Issue # 3, July - September 1992 page 457.] .

In his 1936 biography of the Italian socialogist Vilfredo Pareto, Borkenau offered up an early theory of totalitarianism from a Marxist perspective [Jones, William David "Toward a Theory of Totalitarianism: Franz Borkenau's Pareto" pages 455-466 from "Journal of the History of Ideas", Volume 53, Issue # 3, July - September 1992 page 461] . Through rather hostile towards Pareto, Borkenau was much impressed by his theory of the “circulation of elites”, under which the ablest individuals rose up to become members of the elite, thereby ensuring that the elites would always be re-energized and refreshed [Jones, William David "Toward a Theory of Totalitarianism: Franz Borkenau's Pareto" pages 455-466 from "Journal of the History of Ideas", Volume 53, Issue # 3, July - September 1992 page 459] . Writing from a Marxist vantage point, Borkenau contended that the “circulation of elites” theory explained both Communism and fascism [Jones, William David "Toward a Theory of Totalitarianism: Franz Borkenau's Pareto" pages 455-466 from "Journal of the History of Ideas", Volume 53, Issue # 3, July - September 1992 page 460] . Borkenau argued that the political-social-economic crises caused by World War I led to the strongest capitalists forming a “new economic elite” [Jones, William David "Toward a Theory of Totalitarianism: Franz Borkenau's Pareto" pages 455-466 from "Journal of the History of Ideas", Volume 53, Issue # 3, July - September 1992 page 460] . But as the “new economic elite” continually revitalized itself through every more destructive competition, more and more ordinary people felt the effects, thus leading to the State to step in [Jones, William David "Toward a Theory of Totalitarianism: Franz Borkenau's Pareto" pages 455-466 from "Journal of the History of Ideas", Volume 53, Issue # 3, July - September 1992 page 460] . But as the State become more involved in the economy, a “new political elite” emerged which superseded the previous economic elite, and claimed total power for itself in both the economy and politics [Jones, William David "Toward a Theory of Totalitarianism: Franz Borkenau's Pareto" pages 455-466 from "Journal of the History of Ideas", Volume 53, Issue # 3, July - September 1992 page 460] . In Borkenau's opinion, Fascism in Italy, National Socialism in Germany and Communism in Russia all in different ways reflected the unfolding of this process [Jones, William David "Toward a Theory of Totalitarianism: Franz Borkenau's Pareto" pages 455-466 from "Journal of the History of Ideas", Volume 53, Issue # 3, July - September 1992 page 460] . Borkenau argued that the Vladmir Lenin created the first totalitarian dictatorship with all power concentrated into the hands of the state, which was completely unconstrained by any class forces as all previous regimes had been [Jones, William David "Toward a Theory of Totalitarianism: Franz Borkenau's Pareto" pages 455-466 from "Journal of the History of Ideas", Volume 53, Issue # 3, July - September 1992 page 461] .

In September 1936, Borkenau paid a two-month visit to Spain, where he observed the effects of Spanish Civil War in Madrid, Barcelona and Valencia. In course of his Spanish trip, Borkenau was much disillusioned by the behavior of the agents of the Soviet secret police, the NKVD in Spain and of the Spanish Communist Party. In January 1937, Borkenau made a second visit to Spain, during which he was arrested by Spanish police before being released. Borkenau’s experience inspired his best-known book, "The Spanish Cockpit".

In 1939, Borkenau published "The New German Empire", where he warned that Adolf Hitler was intent upon world conquest. In particular, Borkenau advised against the idea popular in Great Britain in the 1930s where Britain would return the former German colonies in Africa in exchange for a German promise to respect the frontiers of Europe (Unknown to Borkenau, such a offer by the British had been secretly made to the Germans in early 1938) [Crozier, Andrew "Appeasement and Germany's Last Bid for Colonies", New York: St's Martin's Press, 1988 page 163.] . Borkenau argued that the Germans would never honor such a promise, that returning the former German colonies would only provide a new field of conflict, and that Hitler's determination to overthrow the Treaty of Versailles was "an almost insignificant incident on the road to unlimited expansion" [Crozier, Andrew "Appeasement and Germany's Last Bid for Colonies", New York: St's Martin's Press, 1988 page 163.] . Borkenau claimed that the German propaganda campaign for the former African colonies were "stepping stones to something else", the "acquisition of a wider colonial area" for Germany [Crozier, Andrew "Appeasement and Germany's Last Bid for Colonies", New York: St's Martin's Press, 1988 page 163.] . Borkenau asserted that the propaganda campaign for the return of the former German colonies in Africa was intended for their strategic value in helping to prepare the ground for a war against Britain and France, rather then the economic value, which Borkenau noted was very small [Crozier, Andrew "Appeasement and Germany's Last Bid for Colonies", New York: St's Martin's Press, 1988 page 163.] . Borkenau argued that the main German target in Africa was South Africa [Crozier, Andrew "Appeasement and Germany's Last Bid for Colonies", New York: St's Martin's Press, 1988 page 163.] . Borkenau contended that if Britain returned the former German colonies to the "Reich", then the Germans would stir up the anti-British elements within the Afrikaner population [Crozier, Andrew "Appeasement and Germany's Last Bid for Colonies", New York: St's Martin's Press, 1988 page 163.] . Once the anti-British Afrikaners became the politically dominant element "to the exclusion of everything British", then the Germans would transform South Africa into a German protectorate [Crozier, Andrew "Appeasement and Germany's Last Bid for Colonies", New York: St's Martin's Press, 1988 page 163.] . With control of South Africa, the Germans would be able to control the Cape route to India, plus the gold mines of the "Witwatersrand", which "would at one stroke get rid of all the limitations imposed on her [Germany] by the lack of free exchange" [Crozier, Andrew "Appeasement and Germany's Last Bid for Colonies", New York: St's Martin's Press, 1988 page 163.] .

According to Borkenau, the Nazi dictatorhship was a powerful revolutionary mass-dictatorship based on propaganda and terror, which to maintain itself and the associated "Wehrwirtschaft" (Defence Economy) required a policy of endless expansion in all directions [Herz, John Review of "The New German Empire" pages 361-362 from "The American Political Science Review", Volume 34, Issue # 2, April 1940] . In Borkenau's opinion, these powerful internal forces driving German foreign policy meant Nazi Germany could only aim at world conquest because without expansionism in all directions, the German dictatorship would collapse onto self [Herz, John Review of "The New German Empire" pages 361-362 from "The American Political Science Review", Volume 34, Issue # 2, April 1940] . In Borkenau's view, the closest historical counterpart was French expansionism during the French Revolution and the age of Napoleon [Herz, John Review of "The New German Empire" pages 361-362 from "The American Political Science Review", Volume 34, Issue # 2, April 1940] . Borkenau criticized those compared the Third Reich to the Second Reich, or who argued that National Socialism was just one of "ever-recurring waves of Teutonic nationalism", or the expression of "have-not imperialism" as engaging in a "deadly parallel" [Herz, John Review of "The New German Empire" pages 361-362 from "The American Political Science Review", Volume 34, Issue # 2, April 1940] . Borkenau’s portrayal of Nazi foreign policy being driven by powerful internal forces into a limitless expansionism was to strikingly configure the arguments made by German foreign policy by functionalist historians like Hans Mommsen and Martin Broszat, who similarly contended that Nazi foreign policy had no plans, but was rather “expansionism without objective” pushed by internal forces. However, Borkenau's work differed from the functionalists in that he maintained that the Nazi regime was a tightly organized totalitarian dictatorship. During World War II, Borkenau lived in London, and worked as a writer for Cyril Connolly's journal "Horizon".

In 1947, Borkenau returned to Germany to work as a professor at the University of Marburg. In June 1950, Borkenau attended the conference in Berlin together with other anti-Communist intellectuals such as Hugh Trevor-Roper, Ignazio Silone, Raymond Aron, Arthur Koestler, Sidney Hook and Melvin J. Lasky that led to the founding of the Congress for Cultural Freedom. At the conference, Borkenau delivered the keynote speech, where he spoke of the "meaninglessness" of the conflict between capitalism and socialism in a time of "ebbing revolution", and where the only conflict that mattered in the world was the one between Communism and democracy [Belfrage, Cedric "The American Inquisition", Innianapolis: Bobbs-Merill Comapany, 1973 pages 138-139.] . Left-wing crypto-communist intellecutals such as Cedric Belfrage, noting that Hitler often denounced Communism in Berlin, just like Borkenau did, compared his speech to the Nuremberg rallies, and went on to accuse Borkenau of being an sort of neo-Nazi [Belfrage, Cedric "The American Inquisition", Innianapolis: Bobbs-Merill Comapany, 1973 page 139.] .

Borkenau was very active in the Congress, and was often attacked by Marxist intellectuals such as Isaac Deutscher for his fierce anti-Communism. In turn, Borkenau was often critical of Deutscher's work. In 1949, Borkenau in a newspaper article attacked Deutscher for endorsing in his biography of Stalin the official Soviet version that Marshal Mikhail Tukhachevsky together with the rest of the Red Army high command been plotting a coup in collaboration with the intelligence services of Germany and Japan, thus justifying Stalin’s “liquation" of the Red Army leadership in 1937 [Borkenau, Franz "Stalin" im Schafspelz" pages 207-208 from "Der Monat", November 1949; Laqueur, Walter "The Fate of the Revolution", New York : Scribner, 1987 page 102.] . Borkenau took the view that Deutscher was engaging in an apologia for Stalin since his opinion there was nothing that supported Stalin's version of events about the alleged coup plot of 1937. Borkenau concluded that:

"Deutscher's perspective is utterly false...Napoleon's person could be detached from the destinies of France; and the achivements of the revolution, and of the Napolenoic period were indeed preserved. But it is more than doubtful whetever Russia's destiny can be separated from Stalinism, even if Stalin were ever to die a natural death. The inner law of Stalinist terror drives Stalin's Russia, not less, even if more slowly, the the law of Nazi terror Hitler's Germany, to conflict with the world and thereby to total catastrophe not only for the terroristic régime, but also for the nation ruled by it...The danger of Deutscher's book is that in place of this grave and anxious prospect it puts another one which is more normal and reassuring. According to Deutscher's conception there is nothing terrible to fear because in the main the terrors are already past. To this conception we oppose the opinion that the revolution of the twentieth century shows parallels to earlier revolutions only in its opening phrase, but that later it ushers in a régime of terror without end, of hostility towards everything human, of horrors which carry no remedy, and which can be cured only "ferro et igni" [Deutscher, Isaac "Stalin A Political Biography", New York: Oxford University Press, 1949, 1966, 1967, 1977 pages xii-xiii.]

. Likewise, Borkenau was often highly critical of the work of the pro-Soviet British historian E. H. Carr. In 1951, Borkenau wrote in the "Der Monat" newspaper of the first volume of Carr's "History of Soviet Russia" that for Carr: "Human suffering he seems to say, is not a historical factor; Carr belongs to those very cold people who always believe they think and act with the iciest calculation and therefore fail to understand why they are mistaken in their calculations time and time again" [Borkenau, Franz "Der Spoetter als Panegyriker" from "Der Monant", # 36, September 1951 page 614; Laqueur, Walter "The Fate of the Revolution", New York : Scribner, 1987 page 126.] . Borkenau was a leading advocate for the Totalitarianism school. Another historian whom Borkenau disliked (but for different reasons then was the case with Deutscher and Carr) was Arnold J. Toynbee. In the May 1955 issue of "Commentary", Borkenau accused Toynbee of being an anti-Semitic [Borkenau, Franz "Toynbee's Judgment of the Jews: Where the Historian Misread History", "Commentary" May 1955] .

In the 1950s, Borkenau was well-known as an expert on Communism and the Soviet Union. Borkenau was one of the founders of Sovietology. As a Kremlinologist, one of Borkenau's major interests was making predications about the future of the Communist world [Laqueur, Walter "The Fate of the Revolution", New York : Scribner, 1987 page 180.] . Some of Borkenau's predications such as his claim in the early 1950s about the coming Sino-Soviet split were confirmed by events, but others were not [Laqueur, Walter "The Fate of the Revolution", New York : Scribner, 1987 page 180.] . In an article in the April 1954 edition of Commentary (magazine)
"Commentary" entitled "Getting at the Facts Behind the Soviet Facade", Borkenau wrote that the Sino-Soviet alliance was highly unstable, and would last at a minimum for only a decade or so [Borkenau, Franz "Getting at the Facts Behind the Soviet Facade" from "Commentary", April 1954 page 399.] .

Borkenau argued that the key to understanding Soviet politics was under the Soviet regime's surface of unity lay fierce power struggles within the Soviet elite [Laqueur, Walter "The Fate of the Revolution", New York : Scribner, 1987 pages 180-181.] . Moreover, Borkenau contended that within the Soviet government there were vast "chefstvo" (patronage) networks extending down from the elite to the lowest levels of power [Laqueur, Walter "The Fate of the Revolution", New York : Scribner, 1987 page 181.] . Borkenau argued that the key to understanding Soviet politics was under the Soviet regime's surface of unity lay fierce power struggles within the Soviet elite, and hence throughout the Soviet regime as adherents of the "chefstvo" networks fought each other for supremacy [Laqueur, Walter "The Fate of the Revolution", New York : Scribner, 1987 page 181.] . Borkenau’s techniques were a minute analysis of official Soviet statements and the standing arrangement at the Kremlin on official occasions to determine what Soviet leader was in Joseph Stalin's favor and what leader was not [Laqueur, Walter "The Fate of the Revolution", New York : Scribner, 1987 page 181.] . In Borkenau's opinion, signs such as newspaper editorials, guest lists at formal occasions, obituaries in Soviet newspapers, and accounts of formal speeches were the key to finding out and identifying the standing of the various "chefstvo" networks [Laqueur, Walter "The Fate of the Revolution", New York : Scribner, 1987 page 181.] . Borkenau argued that even small changes in the formulistic language of the Soviet state could sometimes indicate important changes [Laqueur, Walter "The Fate of the Revolution", New York : Scribner, 1987 page 181.] . Borkenau wrote that: "Political issues must be interpreted in the light of formulas, political and otherwise, and their history; and such interpretation cannot be safely concluded until the whole history of the given formula has been established from its first enunciation on" [Laqueur, Walter "The Fate of the Revolution", New York : Scribner, 1987 page 181.] . On the basis of his method, in January 1953, Borkenau predicated Stalin's death would occur in the near-future [Laqueur, Walter "The Fate of the Revolution", New York : Scribner, 1987 page 181.] . In 1954, Borkenau wrote that he made that predication on the basis of a resolution of the SED on the "lessons of the Slansky case" [Laqueur, Walter "The Fate of the Revolution", New York : Scribner, 1987 page 181.] . Borkenau argued that because the resolution quoted Georgy Malenkov an number of times about the supposed lessons for the Communist world of Rudolf Slánský's supposed treason, that this was Walter Ulbricht's way of associating himself with Malenkov's "chefstvo" network as part of the preparation for the post-Stalin succession struggle [Laqueur, Walter "The Fate of the Revolution", New York : Scribner, 1987 page 181.] . Borkenau wrote that:

"Makenkov was quoted at inordinate length...By quoting him in his fashion and by adding his own yelp to the anti-Semitic chrous, Ulbricht, the animator of the resolution, proclaimed himself a Makenkov client. But even more important; while Malenkov was cited at length, Stalin was quoted with a mere half sentence dating from 1910. Such a deliberate affront could have been offered only by people sure of that tyrant's approaching downfall, or else out of reach of his retribution. Otherwise, it was sure suicide. It was primarily on the strength of the evidence found in this resolution that I then predicated, in print, Stalin's imminent death, which, sure enough, came seven weeks later" [Laqueur, Walter "The Fate of the Revolution", New York : Scribner, 1987 page 181.] .

Another area of interest for Borkenau was in engaging in an intellectual critique of Arnold J. Toynbee and Oswald Spengler's work over when and why civilizations decline and die. The latter critique was published posthumously by his friend Richard Löwenthal. Borkenau became increasing active as a free-lance author living in Paris, Rome and Zurich, where in the latter city he died suddenly of a heart attack in 1957.

Work

*"The Transition from the Feudal to the Bourgeois World View", 1934.
*"Pareto", New York : Wiley, 1936.
*"The Spanish Cockpit : an Eye-Witness Account of the Political and Social Conflicts of the Spanish Civil War", London : Faber and Faber, 1937.
*"Austria and After", London, Faber and Faber 1938.
*"The Communist International", London : Faber and Faber, 1938.
*"The New German Empire", New York, Viking, 1939
*"The Totalitarian Enemy", London, Faber and Faber 1940.
*"Socialism, National or International", London, G. Routledge 1942.
*"European Communism", New York : Harper, 1953.
*"World Communism; a History of the Communist International", Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press 1962.
*"End and Beginning : on the Generations of Cultures and the Origins of the West", edited with an introduction by Richard Lowenthal, New York : Columbia University Press, 1981.

Notes

References

*Abrams, Mark Review of "European Communism" page 500 from "International Affairs", Volume 29, Issue # 4, October 1953.
*Carroll , E. Malcolm Review of "The New German Empire" pages 195-196 from "Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science", Volume 20, March 1940.
*Carter, W. Horsfall Review of "The Spanish Cockpit" pages 452-453 from "International Affairs" Volume 17, Issue # 3,May-June 1938.
*Collins, Randell "Review: The Borkenau Thesis and the Origins of the West" pages 379-388 from "Sociological Forum", Volume 1, Issue # 2, Spring, 1986.
*Laqueur, Walter "The Fate of the Revolution : Interpretations of Soviet History from 1917 to the Present", New York : Scribner, 1987 ISBN 0-684-18903-8.
*Hartshorne, E.Y. Review of "Der Ubergang vom Feudalen zum Burgerlichen Weltbild" pages 476-478 from International "Journal of Ethics", Volume 45, Issue # 4, July 1935.
*Herz, John Review of "The New German Empire" pages 361-362 from "The American Political Science Review", Volume 34, Issue # 2, April 1940.
*Jones, William David "Toward a Theory of Totalitarianism: Franz Borkenau's "Pareto" pages 455-466 from "Journal of the History of Ideas", Volume 53, Issue # 3, July - September 1992
*Jones, William David "The Lost Debate: German Socialist Intellectuals and Totalitarianism", Urbana and Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 1999. ISBN 0-252-06796-7.
*Moore, Barrington Review of "End and Beginning: On the Generations of Cultures and the Origins of the West" pages 716-717 from "The American Journal of Sociology", Volume 92, Issue # 3, November 1986.
*Tashjean, John E “The Sino-Soviet Split: Borkenau's Predictive Analysis of 1952” pages 342-361 from "The China Quarterly", Volume 94, June 1983

External links

* [http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/SPborkenau.htm Franz Borkenau]
* [http://dannyreviews.com/h/The_Spanish_Cockpit.html Review of The Spanish Cockpit] .