Revolution & Gnade. Simone Weil als politische Denkerin

Eighty years after her death, Simone Weil has become a myth, a symbol for unconditional commitment. However, the popular image of a saint and martyr obfuscates the radical contemporaneity of her genuinely political life. The two-day conference attempts to approach the tension between activism and contemplation, between class struggle and love of God, such characteristic tensions for her thinking, in different ways.

A reading panel at Freie Universität on the 26th of October focusses on two essential texts by Weil that shed light on both the political dimension as well as the development of her thought: On the one hand, there is her travelogue Deutschland wartet (Germany waits) in which Weil starts from her Berlin journey in the summer of 1932 to formulate astute analyses on the rise of National Socialism and the defeats of Antifascism. On the other hand, there is the widely read exile paper On the Abolition of All Political Parties which Weil wrote shortly before her death in 1943. Here, she revisits and builds upon the anarcho-syndicalist impulses from her time as an activist in France’s trade union movement. If you want to attend the reading panel, please register in advance by mail (frankreichzentrum@fu-berlin.de). The discussed texts will be made available to all participants in advance.

The reading panel will be followed by a public evening event in which Weil’s original, but by no means singular thinking will be situated against the background of her time and contemporaries: A mix of reading and lecture opens up a panorama of diverse positions that were taken by a number of thinkers of almost the same age (including Simone de Beauvoir, Jean-Paul Sartre, Maurice Merleau-Ponty, and Hannah Arendt) on the different wars and revolutions of their lives and times.

In addition to the different crises and catastrophes of the 20th century, Weil’s Berlin journey became a particularly incisive experience. To make perceptible the moods, problems, and issues of this time, the Rosa Kollektiv, which was founded in 2021, will present excerpts from Gustav von Wangenheim’s play Die Mausefalle (The Mouse Trap) which he wrote in 1932 for the theater collective “Truppe 31” as Weil passed through Berlin.

The 27th of October will offer a daylong workshop in the newly opened spaces of the ZfL. In this context, we will discuss Weil’s connection to the political from different perspectives and in various constellations. What can be gained today from her analysis of party politics, the trade union movement, war, capitalism, fascism, and the modern control of nature? Can a way of thinking so entangled in its own time be of any use to present-day society at all? What does Simon Weil’s later turning towards religion mean before the background of her political engagement? In addition to lectures by international experts from numerous disciplines, a lot of time will be devoted to discussions and talks surrounding Simone Weil, her multilayered work, and her time period.

A cooperation between the Institute of Philosophy at Freie Universität Berlin and the ZfL with support by the Women’s and Equal Opportunity Officer of the Department of Philosophy and Humanities and the Frankreichzentrum at Freie Universität Berlin.