Henri Lefebvre’s 1939 book on Nietzsche and the ‘Liste Otto’ – which books of his were banned?

About twenty years ago, in an essay on Henri Lefebvre, I said that his book on Nietzsche (1939) was on the prohibited ‘Liste Otto’. These were books that had to be removed from sale, and existing copies destroyed, after the German occupation of France. For other reasons now I’ve recently looking at the list – the 1940 version is here – and discover that this is not one of the books on the list. Mea culpa.

As far as I can tell, only two books written by Lefebvre are on the list – there are various iterations from 1940 and through the occupation. The books are Hitler au pouvoir (1938) and Le Matérialisme dialectique (1940). So too was Ca­hiers de Lé­nine sur la dia­lec­tique de He­gel (1938) and Karl Marx’s Morceaux choisis (1934), both of which Lefebvre and Norbert Guterman had edited.

Guterman was Jewish, so this alone would have been enough for inclusion on this list. But Lefebvre’s book on Nietzsche, his Le Nationalisme contre les Nations (1937) and the collection of texts by Hegel he and Guterman had edited (1938) are not on the lists I’ve seen, and nor is their co-authored book La conscience mystifiée (1936).

There is therefore something of an arbitrary nature of the list – there are obviously reasons why the Nazi occupiers would object to those they did include, but those reasons would also seem to apply to ones they did not. The Nietzsche book, for example, is very much written as a challenge to the fascist appropriation.

In looking further into this, though, I went back to the original edition of Critique de la vie quotidienne from 1946. On the page ‘Du même auteur’, Lefebvre lists his previous publications.

There he distinguishes three ways his books were suppressed.

1. seized and destroyed by the [Édouard] Daladier government in October 1939
2. seized and destroyed by the publisher at the beginning of 1940
3. seized and destroyed by the occupying authority, on the ‘Liste Otto’ at the end of 1940.

Interestingly, he says Le Nationalisme was in the first category; Hitler and Nietzsche in the second; Le matérialisme dialectique and the collections on Lenin and Hegel were in the third. From the lists I’ve seen, this isn’t entirely correct either for category three, but it explains why the Nietzsche book was indeed removed from sale shortly after publication, and why copies are so hard to find today. And presumably the ‘Liste Otto’ did not need to proscribe books that were already banned.

The list of books by Lefebvre ‘En préparation’ is also interesting – only a few of these were ever published, but that’s another story, some of which also concerns censorship.

I hope what I’ve reported here is accurate, but happy to receive additions or corrections.

Incidentally, my 2004 book on Lefebvre has long been available as print-on-demand only, and keeps going up in price. Someone has uploaded a version here though…

Translation and the Archive in the Continental Tradition workshop, Senate House, London, 19 May 2023 – organised by Henry Somers-Hall with Julia Ng, Alan Schrift, Daniel Smith, Charles Stivale and Stuart Elden

On 19 May 2023 I’ll speaking at a workshop on Translation and the Archive in the Continental Tradition, organised by Henry Somers-Hall for Royal Holloway, University of London. It will be held in central London at Senate House. Registration is free, but required via Eventbrite.

The other speakers are Alan Schrift on Nietzsche, Daniel Smith and Charles Stivale on Deleuze and Julia Ng on Benjamin. My talk will be “From the Archive to the Edited Translation: Lefebvre, Foucault, Dumézil”.

We have put together this workshop to explore those aspects of the project of philosophy that are often seen as simply the groundwork or condition for the philosophical project itself, namely those processes of translating, editing, compiling, and those of the archive, both its constitution and consultation. This workshop will explore themes of the nature and operation of these processes in the continental tradition, both in terms of how they constitute the territory of philosophical thought, but also the ways in which the specificity of continental philosophy affects the process of translation, and how these projects of translation have affected the philosophical work of the translators themselves. 

The workshop brings together a number of internationally recognised researchers to discuss the role of these themes in their own work, both as translators and editors, and as thinkers. 

The workshop will take place in Senate House, Central London, on May 19th, 2023. 

Julian Roche, Marxism and Real Estate: Taking Lefebvre Seriously – Routledge, September 2023

Julian Roche, Marxism and Real Estate: Taking Lefebvre Seriously – Routledge, September 2023

Intriguing, but a truly ridiculous price of £140!

This book straddles two worlds and attempts to bring them together: that of Lefebvre’s Marxism on the one hand, and that of real estate development on the other. Lefebvre has now become a household name amongst many contemporary Marxists, especially those with an interest in urban planning and certain quarters of the architectural profession, however his work is far less well known by real estate professionals, whether investors, developers, brokers or indeed policymakers. 

Marxism and Real Estate: Taking Lefebvre Seriously has both a large scope and a very bold aim – to use an explication and analysis of the work of Henri Lefebvre not only to present a critique of development, but on the contrary to draw these two worlds together. It therefore aims first, to present the arguments of this increasingly well-known French Marxist philosopher, sociologist, and pioneer of urban studies. Second, to situate contemporary real estate development in the light of Lefebvre’s work. And third, to analyse the potential application of Lefebvre’s work to each of the major components of contemporary real estate, to use Lefebvre’s work in order to recommend practical action for developers, working alongside planners and architects, to influence the future of global real estate.

As well as its direction at developers themselves, this book should be of interest to economists, real estate researchers and professionals, planners, urban studies scholars and, of course, to those interested in the application of Lefebvre’s work to real estate.