[An inconvenient comrade: On Ernst Bloch’s Stasi File]

Ernst Bloch was the star in the philosophical firmament of the early GDR, a world-renowned Marxist utopian who welcomed the opportunity to contribute to the construction of real-existing socialism. The young state regarded his 1949 appointment to a philosophy chair at the University of Leipzig—ordered by the Saxony Ministry of Public Education against considerable internal resistance—as an indisputable coup. Within a few years, however, the relationship between Bloch and the state collapsed. Among other things, Bloch (privately) supported his old friend Georg Lukács during the Hungarian Revolution of 1956 and became embroiled in the show trial against his philosophical colleague Wolfgang Harich, who secretly denounced him. Once praised for his “radical engagement with the intellectual currents of modernity leading to fascism”, Bloch was accused of holding a “viewpoint that objectively promotes counterrevolution”. Based on Bloch’s previously unpublished file from the Ministry for State Security, this article details the astonishing machinations of the Stasi and the Party to destroy Bloch’s philosophy and reputation in the name of anti-fascism, as well as his futile attempts to defend himself as a champion of the same cause.