Max Horkheimer: Politics and Philosophy during His Exile

Just as tensions were reaching their peak in the United States, Horkheimer and Adorno began a profound rethinking of their philosophical and social views. Most surprising is the positive assessment of democracy proposed in the version of the draft on anti-Semitism prepared one month before the host country's entry into the war. Here the Frankfurters were influenced by the political conditioning of the foundations and institutions that were supposed to fund their studies. The police surveillance itself, and the social and psychological mechanisms that it set in motion, can be seen as part of this dynamic. According to available sources, the security services did not interfere with American foundations to block grants for the Institute's research projects, however the investigations they conducted affected its political reputation and this had an impact on its theoretical work. When Horkheimer's inner circle became aware of the control, they linked it to the difficulties in obtaining grants and prepared an adaptable strategy of argument and communication that led, among other things, to a reformulation of the idea of democracy.