Chapter 7
Re/WritingWorkers’Emotions
The modern workerdoes not live on breadalone; he cannot be reduced to his working life.
He is, toalarge percentage,aspiritual being, livesinanimaginary world, and because of
that,also inaspiritual sphere.Adolf Levenstein,Ausder TiefeAdolf Levenstein (18 70 – 1942) introduces his 1909 anthologyofworkers ’letters
by makingacompellingcasefor the importance of psychological studies on
the workingclass.Welcomed by social reformers,labor activists, and sociologists
for its innovative approach, his book with the lengthytitleAusder Tiefe. Arbei-
terbriefe:Beiträgezur Seelen-Analyse moderner Arbeiter(Out of the Depth. Letters
fromWorkers:Contributionsto the PsychologyofModernWorkers) promised
privileged access to workers’emotional lives, theiranger,hopelessness,resent-
ment,and aboveall, their needto be recognizedashuman beings.¹Confirming
the continuing influenceofemotional socialism, Levenstein wanted to commu-
nicate the“spiritual being”of“themodern worker”to educatedreaderscon-
cerned about the social question and receptive to psychological explanations.
Threeyears afterOutofthe Depth,Levenstein publishedDie Arbeiterfrage
(1912,The Worker Question), the resultofalarge-scale questionnaire about the
sociopsychological effects of industrial labor on the workingclass. Hewasespe-
ciallyinterested in workers’individual strategies of accommodation and resist-
ance, includingtheir emotions. In his solicitationletter, Levenstein wrote:
“Dear friend,Iwant to askyouabig favor. Iwant to know moreaboutyour feel-
ing and thinking,how work affectsyou, what kinds of hopes and desiresyou
have.[...]Just write freelystraight fromyour heart.”²Questions such as“How
Adolf Levenstein, ed.,Ausder Tiefe. Arbeiterbriefe:Beiträgezur Seelen-Analysemoderner Ar-
beiter(Berlin: Morgen, 1909), 1–2. On Levenstein, see Klaus M.Beier,“‘Individuum’und‘Ge-
meinschaft’:Adolf Levenstein und die Anfänge der sozialpsychologischenUmfrageinder arbei-
terpsychologischenForschung,”Internationale wissenschaftlicheKorrespondenzzurGeschichte
der deutschen Arbeiterbewegung24.2 (1988): 157–171.
Adolf Levenstein,Die Arbeiterfrage, mit besonderer Berücksichtigung der sozialpsychologischen
Seite des modernen Grossbetriebes und der psychophysischen Einwirkungenauf die Arbeiter(Mu-
nich: E. Reinhardt,1912),5. Reprinted by Arno Press in 1975.Onthe Levenstein project,see Den-
nis Sweeney,“Cu ltural Practiceand Utopian DesireinGerman Social Democracy: ReadingAdolf
Levenstein’sArbeiterfrage(1912),”Social History28.2 (2003): 174 – 201. On theLevenstein and
Göhreprojects as contribution to the public demand for social justice and expression of
https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110550863-011