Felix Weil

Who was Felix Weil?

Felix Weil was a German Marxist, who provided the funds to found the Institute for Social Research in Frankfurt am Main, Germany.

He was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina and was the son of the wealthy grain merchant Hermann Weil and his wife Rosa Weil. At the age of 9 he was sent to attend school in Germany at the Goethe-Gymnasium, Frankfurt.

He attended the University of Tübingen and the University of Frankfurt, where he graduated with a doctoral degree in political science. While at these universities he became increasingly interested in socialism and Marxism. His thesis topic was "Socialization: An Attempt at a Conceptual Foundation, with a Critique of the Plans for Socialization".

In 1923 he financed the Erste Marxistische Arbeitswoche, a conference in the German town of Ilmenau. The event was attended by figures such as Georg Lukács, Karl Korsch, Richard Sorge, Friedrich Pollock, and Karl August Wittfogel. The success of this event led him and his friend Friedrich Pollock to found the Institute for Social Research in 1924.