Felix Weil (1898 - 1975)

Felix Weil was born on February 8, 1898 in Buenos Aires, Argentina as son of Hermann Weil (1868 - 1927) and his wife Rosa née Weismann (1871 - 1912). At the age of 9 he was sent to attend school in Germany at the Goethe-Gymnasium, Frankfurt.

He then studied at the University of Tübingen and the University of Frankfurt, where he graduated with a doctoral degree in political science. While at these universities he became increasingly interested in socialism and Marxism. His thesis was on "Socialization: An Attempt at a Conceptual Foundation, with a Critique of the Plans for Socialization".

In 1921 he married Käthe Bachert and moved to Argentina for one year. The couple was married until 1929. Felix married another four times: Margot Jacoby, Lucille Jacobowitz (1939), Helen Knopping (1942) and Anne Dacharry (1950)

In 1923 he financed the Erste Marxistische Arbeitswoche ("First Marxist Work Week"), a conference in the German town of Ilmenau. The event was attended by figures such as Georg Lukács, Karl Korsch, Richard Sorge, Friedrich Pollock, and Karl August Wittfogel. The success of this event led him and his friend Friedrich Pollock to found the Institute for Social Research in Frankfurt in 1924 for which he provided the fonds.

Weil himself was an orthodox Marxist, who saw Marxism as scientific; the role of the Institut would be social and historical research mainly on the workers' movement. Indeed, in its early years, the Institut did fairly orthodox historical research. However, one of Weil's central objectives was also cross-disciplinary research, something which the German University system made impossible 𝅘𝅥𝅮.

He died September 18, 1975 in Dover, Delaware

Felix Weil acted as Chief Representative when his father Hermann Weil stopped the financing of the Kochschule in Steinsfurt, since the budget had been exceeded by far and the architect Eugen Jack did not follow his instructions.