Dirk Braunstein and Alexander Valerius (eds.) | Felix J. Weil’s »The Social Function of the Race Philosophy in Nazi Germany« An introduced facsimile edition

This IfS Working Paper presents Felix J. Weil’s The Social Function of the Race Philosophy in Nazi Germany, an unpublished manuscript from 1946 which was recently found in the archive of the Institute for Social Research (Institut für Sozialforschung; IfS) in Frankfurt am Main. The manuscript is probably the only existing copy of this study that had previously been considered lost. The Institute for Social Research has decided to make the study available to researchers in the form of a facsimile edition. This means that readers not only can view the fair copy, but due to Weil’s consistently legible hand-written corrections they can also study the document for what it is: a revised manuscript that was ready to be typeset, but never was, let alone published. The facsimile is introduced by Alexander Valerius whose research sheds light on the academic work of Felix J. Weil and states that Weil was not only the financier of the IfS, but an economist and political scientist also engaged with legal questions and antisemitism. Valerius describes the development and failure of The Social Function of the Race Philosophy in Nazi Germany within the framework of a “Treatise on Antisemitism” which was envisaged by the American Jewish Committee (AJC) and the IfS in exile during the 1940s.