After the lecture had to be canceled in 2024 due to illness, we have included it again in the program of the lecture series for 2025.

Marx’s writings are like an iceberg. During his lifetime, only a small tip was visible. Not only is there a vast amount of preparatory work for his unfinished “Capital”—he published only the first volume in 1867—but Marx also excerpted enormous quantities of literature from various disciplines over decades. These excerpts are being published Academy of Sciences and Humanities in Section IV of the Marx-Engels Collected Works at the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and Humanities . They are not only extraordinarily extensive (a total of 32 volumes, 13 of which are still pending), but also contain a wealth of surprises that give cause to revise our understanding of Marx. Not least, they raise the question of how Marx actually arrived at his insights.

About the author: Dr . Timm Graßmann studied social sciences in Berlin and Warsaw and earned his doctorate at the University of Osnabrück with a dissertation on Marx’s theory of crisis. Since 2014, he has been a research fellow at the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and Humanities an editor for the Marx-Engels Collected Works. In October 2024, Schmetterling Verlag published his book “Marx Against Moscow: On the Foreign Policy of the Working Class.”

About the lecture series: For over 20 years now, this public lecture series has been taking place, featuring presentations by scholars from the Heidelberg Academy of Sciences and Humanities well Academy of Sciences and Humanities from its seven sister academies. The lectures are aimed at a broad audience and are designed to provide insights into the research being conducted. Afterward, there will be an opportunity to chat with the scholars over pretzels and wine in the Academy’s courtyard garden.

The series is held in cooperation with vhs Heidelberg.