Preface to the New Edition(967) IN an old autobiographical sketch(of 1933) I called the story of my early development My Road to Marx. The writings collected in this volume encompass my years of apprenticeship in Marxism. In publishing again the most important documents of this (1918-1930)my intention is to emphasise their experimental nature and on no account to suggest that they have any topical mportance in the current controversies about the true nature of Marxism. In view of the great uncertainty prevailing with re ard to its essential content and its methodological validity, it is ecessary to state this quite firmly in the interests of intellectual integrity. On the other hand, if both they and the contemporary situation are scrutinised critically these essays will still be found to have a certain documentary value in the present debates. Hence the writings assembled here do more than simply illuminate the stages of my personal development; they also show the path taken by intellectual events generally and as long as they are viewed critically they will not be lacking in significance for an under- standing of the present Of course, I cannot possibly Marxism around 1918 without bricfly mentioning my carlier development. As I emphasised in the sketch I have just referred to. i frst read Marx while I was still at school. Later, around 1908 I made a study of Capital in order to lay a sociologic oundation for my monograph on modern drama. At the time then, it was Marx the'sociologist' that attracted me-and I saw him through spectacles tinged by Simmel and Max Weber. I resumed my studies of Marx during world War I, but this time was So the influence of Hegel rather than any contemporary thinker Of course, even Hegel's effect upon me was highly ambiguous. For, on the one hand, Kierkegaard had played a significant role in my early development and in the immediate pre-war years in Heidelberg I even planned an essay on his criticism of Hegel On the other hand, the contradictions in my social and p