György/Georg Lukács (1885–1971) was a Hungarian philosopher, one of the leading theorists of Western Marxism. Born in 1885 Budapest, he spent long stretches before and during World War I in Heidelberg, Germany, on the fringes of Max Weber's intellectual circle. Lukács returned to Hungary in 1917 and joined the newly formed Communist Party in 1918. In 1919, he became responsible for cultural affairs during the short-lived Hungarian Soviet Republic. After the collapse of the Hungarian Soviet Republic, he emigrated to Vienna, Berlin, and after 1933 to Moscow. Following the sharp condemnation of his theoretical and political views by the Comintern in 1928, he completely withdrew from direct political activity. He returned to Hungary in 1945, but with the consolidation of the Stalinist regime there, he ...