Historical Materialism (2020) 1–25 brill.com/hima Luise Kautsky: The ‘Forgotten Soul’ of the Socialist Movement James Muldoon Lecturer in Political Science, Department of Politics, University of Exeter, Exeter, UK
[email protected] Abstract This article draws on archival research to recover the legacy of Luise Kautsky – journalist, editor, translator, politician and wife of Karl Kautsky – who has been over- looked as a leading member of the socialist movement. First, by adopting a feminist historical lens to reveal the unacknowledged intellectual labour of women, the article reassesses Luise Kautsky’s relationship to Karl Kautsky and his writings. The evidence suggests that Luise Kautsky was essential to the development, editing and dissemina- tion of the work of Karl Kautsky. Second, the article claims Luise Kautsky played an invaluable practical role as the hub of an international network of socialist scholars and activists, acting as mediator, translator and middle point through her extensive correspondence and by hosting members of this network at her house. Finally, the article recovers her labour as a writer, editor and translator and calls for renewed at- tention to her as an independent figure of historical analysis. Keywords Luise Kautsky – Karl Kautsky – socialism – feminism – Marxism 1 Introduction On 1 May 1928, in the Social-Democratic monthly newspaper, Die Frau, Marianne Pollak paid tribute to a leading member of the socialist movement, © James Muldoon, 2020 | doi:10.1163/1569206X-00001893 This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the CC BY 4.0Downloaded License. from Brill.com09/15/2020 02:58:11PM via University of Exeter 2 Muldoon a woman she described as a ‘living tradition of the [Socialist] International’.1 The article continues: There are people whose work lies in their essence.