For a long time after the Second World War Sohn-Rethel was not really able to continue his theoretical work. He made a living teaching French. He joined the Communist Party and despite his disillusionment he was a member until 1972. The 1968 movement created a new interest in his work. At the funeral of Adorno he met the editor Unseld who encouraged him to crystallize his ideas in his major work "Intellectual and manual labor". In 1978 Sohn-Rethel was appointed Professor for Social Philosophy at Bremen University. He died in Bremen in 1990.