Abstract

Neue Marx Lektüre was probably the most popular school of Marxism in Germany at the time of the 150th Anniversary of Capital and the Bicentennial of Marx’s Birth in 2017–18. In its reading of Capital, Neue Marx Lektüre emphasizes Marx’s theory of commodity fetishism instead of the theory of surplus value. This reading of Capital was formulated by the students of the first generation of the Frankfurt School around the centennial anniversary of Capital and 150th anniversary of Marx’s birth in 1967–68. It will be argued that an interpretation of Capital that emphasized the concept of fetishism and impersonal domination in Marx’s theory of capitalism, instead of class rule, answered the problems encountered by some readers of Capital in Frankfurt in the late 1960s better than a more traditional reading. It will be argued, however, that these ideas are becoming more and more anachronistic, as the world has changed from what it was in 1968. It is claimed that a more traditional reading, in which the concept of fetishism can only be understood correctly in connection to the theory of surplus value, is a more topical reading of Capital, and it answers better the problems of today.