Paul Massing
Encyclopedia
Paul Wilhelm Massing was a German
sociologist.
in the Rhine Province
, he attended school in Cologne
, and later studied economics and social sciences at Frankfurt University, when Franz Neumann
was there and at Cologne
Handelshochschule (a business college). He graduated in 1926 as a Diplom-Kaufmann (MBA). A year later he studied for one term at the Sorbonne
in Paris
and prepared his dissertation on agrarian conditions of France
in 19th century and the agrarian program of the French socialist parties. In 1928, he returned to Frankfurt University to study with Dr. Wilhelm Gerloff and attained a doctorate
with his thesis.
From Frankfurt Massing, followed by his future wife Hede (then, Hede Gumperz), a longtime communist and recently recruited Soviet spy, went to Moscow
, where he worked until 1931 at the International Agrarian Institute. When he returned to Germany in 1931, Paul Massing was active with the illegial M-section of the Communist Party of Germany
(KPD) in Berlin
. He also helped his later wife with her GRU work. In 1933 Massing was arrested by the National Socialists under the Enabling Act. Freed by an amnesty after five-month solitary confinement in Sachsenhausen
, Massing wrote his autobiographic novel Schutzhäftling 880, published in 1935 under his pseudonym Karl Billinger, dedicated to all comrade
s in concentration camps. In the United States, this book was published in part in the New Masses. Massing continued to write about Hitler insisting that Hitler is no Fool!.
After his release, he left Germany for Paris and then the United States
, but was sent back to Germany and other European countries from time to time to work for the communist resistance. Time spent in Joseph Stalin
's Moscow
and barely survived led to the later strong criticism of soviet communism. Back in the U.S., the Massings lived in an old farmhouse Quakertown, Pennsylvania
. When the FBI questioned Hede Massing
about Gerhart Eisler
, her first husband from 1919 to 1923, who had been an illegal immigrant and an agent for the Comintern
to the U.S. in the 1930s, but was now (from 1941) a legal refugee, both began slowly to confess their soviet work. Hede's memoir of their life in Communist intelligence, This Deception was published in 1951. It shows the hardships they had had to endure and their strange life working first for the GRU
and later, the KGB
. Paul Massing later left Hede for sociologist Herta Herzog
.
In 1942 Massing worked at the Institute of Social Research at Columbia University
in New York. He was part of the soviet infiltration of the Office of Strategic Services
, when Franz Neumann was recruited to Hede Massings NKVD
Redhead group. From 1948 and for many years, Paul Massing taught political sociology at Rutgers University
in New Jersey
. His most important work is Rehearsal for Destruction: A Study Of Political Anti-Semitism in Imperial Germany (1949), translated into German in 1959 this Prehistory of Political Anti-Semitism was published with a preface of Max Horkheimer
and Theodor Adorno. In 1977, he returned to Grumbach with Herta Herzog-Massing, but had only two years to live. He is buried at the family plot at Grumbach.
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
sociologist.
Biography
Born in GrumbachGrumbach
Grumbach is a municipality in the district of Kusel, in Rhineland-Palatinate, western Germany....
in the Rhine Province
Rhine Province
The Rhine Province , also known as Rhenish Prussia or synonymous to the Rhineland , was the westernmost province of the Kingdom of Prussia and the Free State of Prussia, within the German Reich, from 1822-1946. It was created from the provinces of the Lower Rhine and Jülich-Cleves-Berg...
, he attended school in Cologne
Cologne
Cologne is Germany's fourth-largest city , and is the largest city both in the Germany Federal State of North Rhine-Westphalia and within the Rhine-Ruhr Metropolitan Area, one of the major European metropolitan areas with more than ten million inhabitants.Cologne is located on both sides of the...
, and later studied economics and social sciences at Frankfurt University, when Franz Neumann
Franz Leopold Neumann
Franz Leopold Neumann was a German-Jewish left-wing political activist, Marxist theorist and labor lawyer, who became a political scientist in exile and is best known for his theoretical analyses of National Socialism. He studied in Germany and the United Kingdom, and spent the last phase of...
was there and at Cologne
Cologne
Cologne is Germany's fourth-largest city , and is the largest city both in the Germany Federal State of North Rhine-Westphalia and within the Rhine-Ruhr Metropolitan Area, one of the major European metropolitan areas with more than ten million inhabitants.Cologne is located on both sides of the...
Handelshochschule (a business college). He graduated in 1926 as a Diplom-Kaufmann (MBA). A year later he studied for one term at the Sorbonne
University of Paris
The University of Paris was a university located in Paris, France and one of the earliest to be established in Europe. It was founded in the mid 12th century, and officially recognized as a university probably between 1160 and 1250...
in Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
and prepared his dissertation on agrarian conditions of France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
in 19th century and the agrarian program of the French socialist parties. In 1928, he returned to Frankfurt University to study with Dr. Wilhelm Gerloff and attained a doctorate
Doctorate
A doctorate is an academic degree or professional degree that in most countries refers to a class of degrees which qualify the holder to teach in a specific field, A doctorate is an academic degree or professional degree that in most countries refers to a class of degrees which qualify the holder...
with his thesis.
From Frankfurt Massing, followed by his future wife Hede (then, Hede Gumperz), a longtime communist and recently recruited Soviet spy, went to Moscow
Moscow
Moscow is the capital, the most populous city, and the most populous federal subject of Russia. The city is a major political, economic, cultural, scientific, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the continent...
, where he worked until 1931 at the International Agrarian Institute. When he returned to Germany in 1931, Paul Massing was active with the illegial M-section of the Communist Party of Germany
Communist Party of Germany
The Communist Party of Germany was a major political party in Germany between 1918 and 1933, and a minor party in West Germany in the postwar period until it was banned in 1956...
(KPD) in Berlin
Berlin
Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...
. He also helped his later wife with her GRU work. In 1933 Massing was arrested by the National Socialists under the Enabling Act. Freed by an amnesty after five-month solitary confinement in Sachsenhausen
Sachsenhausen concentration camp
Sachsenhausen or Sachsenhausen-Oranienburg was a Nazi concentration camp in Oranienburg, Germany, used primarily for political prisoners from 1936 to the end of the Third Reich in May, 1945. After World War II, when Oranienburg was in the Soviet Occupation Zone, the structure was used as an NKVD...
, Massing wrote his autobiographic novel Schutzhäftling 880, published in 1935 under his pseudonym Karl Billinger, dedicated to all comrade
Comrade
Comrade means "friend", "colleague", or "ally". The word comes from French camarade. The term is frequently used by left-wing organizations around the globe. "Comrade" has often become a stock phrase and form of address. This word has its regional equivalents available in many...
s in concentration camps. In the United States, this book was published in part in the New Masses. Massing continued to write about Hitler insisting that Hitler is no Fool!.
After his release, he left Germany for Paris and then the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, but was sent back to Germany and other European countries from time to time to work for the communist resistance. Time spent in Joseph Stalin
Joseph Stalin
Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin was the Premier of the Soviet Union from 6 May 1941 to 5 March 1953. He was among the Bolshevik revolutionaries who brought about the October Revolution and had held the position of first General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union's Central Committee...
's Moscow
Moscow
Moscow is the capital, the most populous city, and the most populous federal subject of Russia. The city is a major political, economic, cultural, scientific, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the continent...
and barely survived led to the later strong criticism of soviet communism. Back in the U.S., the Massings lived in an old farmhouse Quakertown, Pennsylvania
Quakertown, Pennsylvania
Quakertown is a borough in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, in the United States. As of the 2010 census, it had a population of 8,979. The borough is south of Bethlehem and north of Philadelphia, making Quakertown a border town of both the Delaware Valley and Lehigh Valley metropolitan areas...
. When the FBI questioned Hede Massing
Hede Massing
Hede Massing, née "Hedwig Tune" was an Austrian actress in Vienna and Berlin, communist, and Soviet intelligence operative in Europe and the United States during the 1930s and 1940s. After the World War II, she defected from the Soviet underground...
about Gerhart Eisler
Gerhart Eisler
Gerhart Eisler was a German politician. Along with his sister Ruth Fischer, he was a very early member of the Austrian German Communist Party and then a prominent member of the Communist Party of Germany during the Weimar Republic...
, her first husband from 1919 to 1923, who had been an illegal immigrant and an agent for the Comintern
Comintern
The Communist International, abbreviated as Comintern, also known as the Third International, was an international communist organization initiated in Moscow during March 1919...
to the U.S. in the 1930s, but was now (from 1941) a legal refugee, both began slowly to confess their soviet work. Hede's memoir of their life in Communist intelligence, This Deception was published in 1951. It shows the hardships they had had to endure and their strange life working first for the GRU
State Political Directorate
The State Political Directorate was the secret police of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic and the Soviet Union from 1922 until 1934...
and later, the KGB
KGB
The KGB was the commonly used acronym for the . It was the national security agency of the Soviet Union from 1954 until 1991, and was the premier internal security, intelligence, and secret police organization during that time.The State Security Agency of the Republic of Belarus currently uses the...
. Paul Massing later left Hede for sociologist Herta Herzog
Herta Herzog
Herta Herzog-Massing was an Austrian-American social scientist specializing in communication studies. Her most prominent contribution to the field, an article entitled "What Do We Really Know About Daytime Serial Listeners?", is considered a pioneering work of the uses-and-gratifications approach...
.
In 1942 Massing worked at the Institute of Social Research at Columbia University
Columbia University
Columbia University in the City of New York is a private, Ivy League university in Manhattan, New York City. Columbia is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York, the fifth oldest in the United States, and one of the country's nine Colonial Colleges founded before the...
in New York. He was part of the soviet infiltration of the Office of Strategic Services
Office of Strategic Services
The Office of Strategic Services was a United States intelligence agency formed during World War II. It was the wartime intelligence agency, and it was a predecessor of the Central Intelligence Agency...
, when Franz Neumann was recruited to Hede Massings NKVD
NKVD
The People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs was the public and secret police organization of the Soviet Union that directly executed the rule of power of the Soviets, including political repression, during the era of Joseph Stalin....
Redhead group. From 1948 and for many years, Paul Massing taught political sociology at Rutgers University
Rutgers University
Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey , is the largest institution for higher education in New Jersey, United States. It was originally chartered as Queen's College in 1766. It is the eighth-oldest college in the United States and one of the nine Colonial colleges founded before the American...
in New Jersey
New Jersey
New Jersey is a state in the Northeastern and Middle Atlantic regions of the United States. , its population was 8,791,894. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York, on the southeast and south by the Atlantic Ocean, on the west by Pennsylvania and on the southwest by Delaware...
. His most important work is Rehearsal for Destruction: A Study Of Political Anti-Semitism in Imperial Germany (1949), translated into German in 1959 this Prehistory of Political Anti-Semitism was published with a preface of Max Horkheimer
Max Horkheimer
Max Horkheimer was a German-Jewish philosopher-sociologist, famous for his work in critical theory as a member of the 'Frankfurt School' of social research. His most important works include The Eclipse of Reason and, in collaboration with Theodor Adorno, The Dialectic of Enlightenment...
and Theodor Adorno. In 1977, he returned to Grumbach with Herta Herzog-Massing, but had only two years to live. He is buried at the family plot at Grumbach.
As Karl Billinger
- All Quiet in Germany (1935) UK title
- Fatherland (1935) (forward by Lincoln SteffensLincoln Steffens-Biography:Steffens was born April 6, 1866, in San Francisco. He grew up in a wealthy family and attended a military academy. He studied in France and Germany after graduating from the University of California....
US title. - Hitler is No Fool (1939)
As Paul W. Massing
- Rehearsal for Destruction: A Study of Political Antisemitism in Imperial Germany (1949, 1967)
External links
- Massing, Hede, Chapter 4:.The Routine of an Underground Agent, from This Deception. New York, NY: Duell, Sloan and Pearce, (1951), pp. 335.