Julian Gumperz studied political economy at
Halle University. He left university as a committed Marxist and published an anti-war magazine called
Der Gegner. One of its contributors was George Grosz. Gumperz married
Hede Massing. In her autobiography she described him as being refined, soft-spoken, and a sensitive young man, not hardened by politics although he too then belonged to the left circle." Julian Gumperz was an assistant at the
Institute for Social Research (
Institut für Sozialforschung) at
Frankfurt am Main in
Germany, one of the lesser known communist proponents of the
Frankfurt School. His work there focused on economics. Gumperz married Hede Eisler (born Hedwig Thune, later
Hede Massing) in 1927, but the marriage did not last. In the summer of 1922, he attended the Institute's "Erste Marxistische Arbeitswoche" (First Marxist Week) in Ilmenau, Thuringia. Among the participants at the week-long session were
Georg Lukács,
Karl Korsch,
Richard Sorge,
Friedrich Pollock,
Karl August Wittfogel,
Bela Fogarasi, Karl Schmuckle, and
Konstantin Zetkin, the younger of the two sons of socialist leader and feminist
Clara Zetkin. In 1933, due to political persecution in Germany, the institute sent Gumperz to the U.S. to explore the situation. Gumperz had been a student of Pollock’s since 1929 and a Communist Party member, but he gave it all up and became a
stockbroker. He worked as a
publicist and
translator and later wrote an anti-communist book. Gumperz returned to Germany with a favorable report, assuring
Max Horkheimer and the others that the Institute’s endowment, which still brought in about $30,000 a year, would be enough to guarantee survival in
depression era America. == Publicist ==