Rudolf Hilferding

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Until his death in a Gestapo prison cell, Rudolf Hilferding was a prominent socialist theorist and politician in Europe. A key economic thinker within the socialist movement and a significant figure in the German Social Democratic Party, he served as Weimar finance minister during the 1923 inflation crisis and again at the onset of the 1928 depression. Amidst Germany's ongoing economic and political turmoil, he led efforts to strengthen the republic and achieve socialist goals. This intellectual biography reveals how Hilferding's personal and intellectual journey mirrored the failures of social democracy in confronting nazism and communism. After Hitler's rise in 1933, he continued to resist the Nazis from exile. However, in 1940, he was arrested by Vichy authorities and handed over to the Gestapo. Throughout his life, Hilferding analyzed critical issues in modern socialism, such as finance capitalism, imperialism, the path to socialism, and the organization of socialist parties. He believed that democratic freedom was central to socialism and contributed significantly to discussions on totalitarianism by rejecting both communism and fascism. His insights into Marxist theory and practice remain essential for understanding the evolution of socialism in the twentieth century.