Friedrich Pollock

Friedrich Pollock (May 22, 1894 – 1970) was a German social scientist and philosopher. He was one of the founders of the Institute for Social Research in Frankfurt am Main, and a member of the Frankfurt School of neo-Marxist theory.

Life
Friedrich Pollock was born to a factory worker in Freiburg im Breisgau. He was educated in finance 1911 to 1915. During this time he met Max Horkheimer, with whom he became a lifelong friend. He then studied economy, sociology and philosophy in Frankfurt am Main, where he wrote his thesis on Marx's Labor theory of value and received his doctorate in 1923.

The Institute for Social Research was founded in 1924 by Pollock and fellow Marxist Felix Weil, who funded the group. Weil was inspired to found the institute after the success of his week long conference, the First Marxist Workweek, in 1922. Weil's goal was to bring together different schools of Marxism, and included Gyorgy Lukács, Karl Korsch, Karl August Wittfogel, and Friedrich Pollock.

In 1927/1928 Pollock travelled to the Soviet Union in honor of the tenth anniversary of the October Revolution. His research there led to his treatise: Attempts at Planned Economy in the Soviet Union 1917-1927. Thereafter he took a post as lecturer at the University of Frankfurt and he replaced the ill Carl Grünberg as Director of the institute from 1928-1930.

After the Nazis took power in 1933, Pollock and Horkheimer fled in exile, first to London, Geneve, Paris, and finally New York. In 1950, he was finally able to return to Frankfurt, taking part in the reestablishment of the Institute, again taking the role of director. From 1951 to 1958 he was professor of national economy and sociology at the University of Frankfurt.

In 1959, Pollock and Horkheimer moved to Montagnola, Tessin, although Pollock held a position as professor Emeritus at the University of Frankfurt until 1963. He died in Montagnola, Tessin in 1970.

Selected works

 * Werner Sombart's "Refutation" of Marxism, Leipzig, 1926
 * Attempts at Planned Economy in the Soviet Union 1917-1927, Leipzig, 1929
 * Group Experiments : A Study by Friedrich Pollock, Frankfurt a.M., 1955
 * Automation : Materials for the Evaluation of the Economic and Social Consequences, Frankfurt a. M., 1956
 * Possibilities and Borders of Social Planning in Capitalism, 1973