By Erich Fromm
Psychological study of German workers
Subject
Themes
Between 1929 and 1931, Erich Fromm and his colleagues at the Frankfurt Institute for Social Research conducted an unprecedented survey of German workers' political attitudes and personality structures. Using a comprehensive questionnaire with 271 items distributed to 3,300 workers and white-collar employees, they collected detailed responses from over 1,100 individuals about their views on democracy, authority, social justice, and political power. This pioneering study combined psychoanalytic theory with empirical social research to investigate why the German working class, despite its numerical strength and organization, seemed increasingly vulnerable to authoritarian movements during the final years of the Weimar Republic.
Between 1929 and 1931, Erich Fromm and his colleagues at the Frankfurt Institute for Social Research conducted an unprecedented survey of German workers' political attitudes and personality structures. Using a comprehensive questionnaire with 271 items distributed to 3,300 workers and white-collar…
Fromm's study occupies unique position in critical theory and empirical social research history. Conceived during the Weimar Republic's final crisis years, conducted between 1929 and 1931, yet unpublished until 1980, the work gained tragic prescience from intervening historical catastrophe. When…
Fromm's central theoretical contribution lay in identifying how capitalist social relations systematically produced authoritarian personality structures amongst workers, even those who consciously embraced left-wing politics. This psychological formation occurred through the hierarchical…
Fromm's study represented groundbreaking methodological innovation, combining quantitative survey techniques with qualitative psychoanalytic interpretation to achieve unprecedented depth in understanding workers' consciousness. Previous surveys of working-class conditions focused primarily on…
The survey documented profound erosion of democratic legitimacy amongst German workers during the Weimar Republic's final years. Despite formal democratic structures (universal suffrage, parliamentary government, constitutional rights), most workers believed real power resided elsewhere. Fully 56…
Fromm's survey revealed significant stratification within the ostensibly unified German working class, with occupation, income, employment status, and age creating distinct subgroups holding divergent political attitudes and personality structures. The traditional Marxist conception of an…
Fromm's study provided crucial insights into psychological mechanisms enabling totalitarian movements to attract mass support despite explicitly anti-democratic, irrational, and violent programmes. Traditional political analysis focused on economic crisis, institutional weakness, or elite…
The Frankfurt Institute for Social Research initiated this groundbreaking survey in 1929 under Erich Fromm's direction, with Hilde Weiss conducting much of the practical work. The primary research goal combined empirical investigation with theoretical development of materialist social analysis.…
The survey respondents' demographic characteristics provided essential context for interpreting their attitudes and opinions. Personal data revealed typical working-class profiles: predominantly male, concentrated in urban industrial regions (particularly Saxony and Hesse-Nassau including…
The third chapter analysed respondents' attitudes across five major problem areas, revealing complex relationships between political orientation, economic status, and worldviews. Political themes included questions about state power, ideal government forms, judiciary assessment, war prevention, and…
The fourth chapter presented Fromm's central theoretical contribution: identifying three main personality types (authoritarian, rebellious, and ambivalent) through systematic analysis of response patterns across multiple question domains. This analysis moved beyond merely cataloguing political…
By Erich Fromm
Subject
Themes
Between 1929 and 1931, Erich Fromm and his colleagues at the Frankfurt Institute for Social Research conducted an unprecedented survey of German workers' political attitudes and personality structures. Using a comprehensive questionnaire with 271 items distributed to 3,300 workers and white-collar employees, they collected detailed responses from over 1,100 individuals about their views on democracy, authority, social justice, and political power. This pioneering study combined psychoanalytic theory with empirical social research to investigate why the German working class, despite its numerical strength and organization, seemed increasingly vulnerable to authoritarian movements during the final years of the Weimar Republic.