Conrad Schmidt (25 November 1863 – 14 October 1932) was a German economist, philosopher, and journalist of the

Social Democratic Party The name Social Democratic Party or Social Democrats has been used by many political parties in various countries around the world. Such parties are most commonly aligned to social democracy as their political ideology. Active parties Form ...

(SPD).

Biography

Conrad Schmidt was born in to a family active in the SPD. He was the older brother of the painter

Käthe Kollwitz Käthe Kollwitz ( born Schmidt; 8 July 186722 April 1945) was a German artist who worked with painting, printmaking (including etching, lithography and woodcuts) and sculpture. Her most famous art cycles, including ''The Weavers'' and ''The Peasa ...

. In the mid-1880s, he studied in Berlin and in 1887 he defended his doctoral dissertation in Leipzig on "Natural Wages", in which he compared the theories of wages and exploitation of

Johann Karl Rodbertus Johann Karl Rodbertus (August 12, 1805, in Greifswald, Swedish Pomerania – December 6, 1875, in Jagetzow), also known as Karl Rodbertus-Jagetzow, was a German economist and socialist and a leading member of the ''Linkes Zentrum'' (centre-lef ...

and

Karl Marx Karl Marx (; 5 May 1818 – 14 March 1883) was a German philosopher, political theorist, economist, journalist, and revolutionary socialist. He is best-known for the 1848 pamphlet '' The Communist Manifesto'' (written with Friedrich Engels) ...

. Schmidt dismissed Marx's theory as an unproven hypothesis in favor of Rodbertus' theory, which was based on the recognition of natural rights. However, after a closer examination of Marx's writings, Schmidt revised his sentence and became an adherent of

Marxism Marxism is a political philosophy and method of socioeconomic analysis. It uses a dialectical and materialist interpretation of historical development, better known as historical materialism, to analyse class relations, social conflict, ...

. Schmidt dealt with the

transformation problem In 20th-century discussions of Karl Marx's economics, the transformation problem is the problem of finding a general rule by which to transform the "values" of commodities (based on their socially necessary labour content, according to his labo ...

that

Friedrich Engels Friedrich Engels ( ;"Engels"
''Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary''.Das Kapital ''Capital: A Critique of Political Economy'' (), also known as ''Capital'' or (), is the most significant work by Karl Marx and the cornerstone of Marxian economics, published in three volumes in 1867, 1885, and 1894. The culmination of his ...

''. Schmidt proposed his solution to Engels; with the support of Engels and

Karl Kautsky Karl Johann Kautsky (; ; 16 October 1854 – 17 October 1938) was a Czech-Austrian Marxism, Marxist theorist. A leading theorist of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) and the Second International, Kautsky advocated orthodox Marxism, a ...

, he published in 1889 the work "Average Profit Based on Marx's Law of Value". He became close to Engels and often spent evenings at his house. Schmidt and Engels maintained a lively correspondence. Engels' letter to Schmidt on 27 October 1890, is considered an important document in the history of Marxism. In 1890, on the advice of Engels, Schmidt accepted a position as editor of the Swiss newspaper ''Züricher Post''. Schmidt turned on what he perceived to be

economic determinism Economic determinism is a socioeconomic theory that economic relationships (such as being an owner or capitalist or being a worker or proletarian) are the foundation upon which all other societal and political arrangements in society are based. T ...

in Engels' position and switched to

neo-Kantian In late modern philosophy, neo-Kantianism () was a revival of the 18th-century philosophy of Immanuel Kant. The neo-Kantians sought to develop and clarify Kant's theories, particularly his concept of the thing-in-itself and his moral philosophy ...

positions. He emphasized the ethical aspects of the labor movement such as sacrifice, consciousness and party loyalty. According to Schmidt, these qualities arise from the primary animal superegoistic instincts that are formed in every living being in the course of evolution to preserve the species and become more conscious and rational in humans in order to be realized in the working class. The philosophical works of Schmidt, in which he proposed to combine Marxism with the philosophy of

Immanuel Kant Immanuel Kant (born Emanuel Kant; 22 April 1724 – 12 February 1804) was a German Philosophy, philosopher and one of the central Age of Enlightenment, Enlightenment thinkers. Born in Königsberg, Kant's comprehensive and systematic works ...

, served as an ideological source of

Marxist revisionism In Marxist philosophy, revisionism, otherwise known as Marxist reformism, represents various ideas, principles, and theories that are based on a reform or revision of Marxism. According to their critics, this involves a significant revision of ...

espoused by

Eduard Bernstein Eduard Bernstein (; 6 January 1850 – 18 December 1932) was a German Marxist theorist and politician. A prominent member of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD), he has been both condemned and praised as a "Revisionism (Marxism), revisi ...

B-Friedrichsfelde Zentralfriedhof 03-2015 img22 Kaethe Kollwitz

Since Schmidt saw no possibility of an academic career in Switzerland for himself, he returned to Berlin in 1895, where he worked for the social democratic weekly newspaper ''

Vorwärts ( ; "Forward") is a newspaper published by the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD). Founded in 1876, it was the central organ of the SPD for many decades. Following the party's Halle Congress (1891), it was published daily as the success ...

''. He was chairman of the Freie Volksbühne from 1897 to 1918. In 1919,

Konrad Haenisch Benno Fritz Paul Alexander Konrad Haenisch (13 March 1876 – 28 April 1925) was a German Social Democratic Party politician and part of "the radical Marxist Left" of German politics. He was a friend and follower (''Parvulus'' in his own words) of ...

appointed him professor at the Berlin Polylitechnikum. Schmidt and his wife Anna were buried in the artists' department of Berlin's

Friedrichsfelde Central Cemetery The Friedrichsfelde Central Cemetery () is a cemetery in the borough of Lichtenberg in Berlin. It was the cemetery used for many of Berlin's Socialists, Communists, and anti-fascist fighters. History When the cemetery was founded in 1881 it ...

. His sister Käthe Kollwitz created the tombstone.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Schmidt, Conrad 1863 births 1932 deaths Social Democratic Party of Germany politicians 19th-century German economists 19th-century German philosophers 19th-century German journalists German Marxists Critics of dialectical materialism Humboldt University of Berlin alumni