Gustav Landauer and Early German Anarchism
Booktalk by Gabriel Kuhn
7pm 4th May 2011

The Cowley Club, 12 London Road, Brighton
www.cowleyclub.org.uk
Brighton’s collectively run libertarian social centre

"Landauer is the most important agitator of the radical and
revolutionary movement in the entire country." This is how Gustav
Landauer is described in a German police file from 1893. Twenty-six
years later, Landauer would die at the hands of reactionary soldiers
who overthrew the Bavarian Council Republic, a three-week attempt to
realize libertarian socialism amidst the turmoil of post-World War I
Germany.

Gabriel Kuhn – who recently published the first comprehensive
translation of the writings of Landauer into English - will be
talking about his ideas and life. The texts in Revolution and other
Writings cover Landauer's entire political biography, from his early
anarchism of the 1890s to his philosophical reflections at the turn of
the century, the subsequent establishment of the Socialist Bund, his
tireless agitation against the war, and the final days among the
revolutionaries in Munich. Additional chapters collect Landauer's
articles on radical politics in the US and Mexico, and illustrate the
scope of his writing with texts on corporate capital, language,
education, and Judaism.

“If there were any justice in this world--at least as far as historical memory goes--then Gustav Landauer would be remembered, right along with Bakunin and Kropotkin, as one of anarchism's most brilliant and original theorists. Instead, history has abetted the crime of his murderers, burying his work in silence. With this anthology, Gabriel Kuhn has single-handedly redressed one of the cruelest gaps in Anglo-American anarchist literature: the absence of almost any English translations of Landauer.”
--Jesse Cohn, author of Anarchism and the Crisis of Representation: Hermeneutics, Aesthetics, Politics

"Gustav Landauer was, without doubt, one of the brightest intellectual lights within the revolutionary circles of fin de siècle Europe. In this remarkable anthology, Gabriel Kuhn brings together an extensive and splendidly chosen collection of Landauer’s most important writings, presenting them for the first time in English translation. With Landauer’s ideas coming of age today perhaps more than ever before, Kuhn’s work is a valuable and timely piece of scholarship, and one which should be required reading for anyone with an interest in radical social change."
--James Horrox, author of A Living Revolution: Anarchism in the Kibbutz Movement

“At once an individualist and a socialist, a Romantic and a mystic, a militant and an advocate of passive resistance… He was also the most influential German anarchist intellectual of the twentieth century.”
--Paul Avrich, author of Anarchist Voices

About Gustav Landauer:

Gustav Landauer is one of the key figures of German Anarchism, and his influence can be seen in the work of many prominent authors including Martin Buber, Walter Benjamin and Hermann Hesse. Born in 1870, by the 1890s he was Germany's most prominent anarchist author and agitator. After several prison sentences and increasing tensions within the country's anarchist movement, Landauer focused on translations, literary criticism, and philosophical writing. In 1908 he returned to political activism by founding the Socialist Bund and reviving the journal Sozialist. Both were forced to an end by World War I, which Landauer campaigned against unwaveringly. After the end of the war, he became involved in the Bavarian Revolution and played a decisive role in the proclamation of its council republic in April 1919. When this experiment in radical democracy was crushed by military force three weeks later, reactionary soldiers murdered Landauer.

About the Editor / Translator:
Gabriel Kuhn’s publications in German include the award-winning
'Neuer Anarchismus' in den USA: Seattle und die Folgen (2008). His
publications with PM Press include Life Under the Jolly Roger:
Reflections on Golden Age Piracy (2010), Sober Living for the
Revolution: Hardcore Punk, Straight Edge, and Radical Politics
(editor, 2010), Gustav Landauer: Revolution and Other Writings
(editor/translator, 2010), Erich Mühsam: Liberating Society from the
State and Other Writings (editor/translator, 2011) and Soccer vs. the
State: Tackling Football and Radical Politics (2011).

Product Details:

Gustav Landauer: Revolution and Other Writings
Edited and Translated by: Gabriel Kuhn
Publisher: PM Press
Published: June 2010
ISBN: 978-1-60486-054-2
Format: Paperback
Page Count: 360
Subjects: Politics, Anarchism, Essays