July 8: The Utopian Socialist

German Marxist philosopher Ernest Bloch was born on this date in 1885. He was an exile in the United States during the World War II before returning to East Germany as a celebrated Marxist philosopher. Following Khrushchev’s earth-shaking 1956 speech about Stalinism, however, Bloch’s liberalized thought, his open-mindedness about Marxist-Christian dialogue and artistic freedom, and his other heresies from orthodox communism led to his being barred from teaching and publishing. Visiting West Germany in 1962 when the Berlin Wall was erected, he remained there at the University of Tubingen. Bloch wrote in heady language about the utopian elements of both fascist and communist ideology, about capitalist and post-capitalist culture and life, about the interaction of various oppressions in the shaping of human consciousness, and about the formation and influence of hope and utopian longings. His many books include the three-volume The Principle of Hope (1938-1947), Freedom and Order (1947), and Atheism in Christianity (1968). Bloch became an important influence upon New Left intellectuals, and in the years leading up to his death in 1977 he remained politically active, supporting the various oppositional Marxist currents in the East while denouncing U.S. imperialism.
“Ernst Bloch is the one mainly responsible for restoring honour to the word ‘utopia’.” —Theodor Adorno