Rudolph Hilferding

About the Author

Rudolph Hilferding (1877-1941) was an Austrian-born Marxist economist, journalist, and politician whose groundbreaking analyses of capitalism profoundly influenced socialist thought in the early 20th century. A key figure in the Austro-Marxist movement, Hilferding served as a prominent leader in the Social Democratic Party of Germany and briefly as Finance Minister during the Weimar Republic. His seminal work, Finance Capital: A Study in the Latest Phase of Capitalist Development, published in 1910, meticulously dissects the fusion of industrial and banking capital, offering a prescient critique of imperialism and monopoly capitalism that shaped Lenin's theories and remains essential reading for understanding modern economic structures. Despite his intellectual legacy, Hilferding's life ended tragically in Nazi-occupied Paris, where he took his own life to evade capture.