Hannah Arendt: Difference between revisions

She escaped from Europe during the [[Holocaust]], becoming an [[United States|American]] citizen. Her works deal with the nature of [[power (sociology)|power]] and the subjects of politics, [[direct democracy]], [[authority]], and [[totalitarianism]]. The [[Hannah Arendt Prize]] is named in her honor.

 

Arendt was born into a secular family of German Jews in Linden (now a part of [[Hanover]]), the daughter of Martha (born Cohn) and Paul Arendt.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=VsbCymMbcvoC&pg=PA1&lpg=PA1&dq=Paul+and+Martha+Arendt&source=bl&ots=Kz3uvnPo1u&sig=ZiLgRZTfqH60lPImgJj6IVwfPoQ|title=Hannah Arendt: An Introduction|author=John McGowan|publisher=University of Minnesota Press|date=15 December 1997}}</ref> She grew up in {{lang|de|[[Königsberg]]}} (renamed [[Kaliningrad]] when it was annexed to the [[Soviet Union]] in 1946) and Berlin. Arendt's family was thoroughly assimilated and she later remembered: "With us from Germany, the word 'assimilation' received a 'deep' philosophical meaning. You can hardly realize how serious we were about it."<ref name="newyorker">{{cite web |last=Kirsch |first=Adam |title=Beware of Pity: Hannah Arendt and the power of the impersonal |work=[[The New Yorker]] |date=12 January 2009 |url=http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2009/01/12/beware-of-pity |accessdate=2015-09-09}}</ref>

 

After completing her high school studies in 1924, she enrolled at the [[University of Marburg]], where she spent a year studying philosophy with {{lang|de|[[Martin Heidegger]]}}. According to {{lang|de|[[Hans Jonas]]}}, her only German-Jewish classmate, in her year at the University of Marburg Arendt embarked on a long and highly problematic romantic relationship with Heidegger, for which she was later criticized because of {{lang|de|Heidegger}}'s support for the [[Nazi Party]] when he was rector at the [[University of Freiburg]]. After a year at Marburg, Arendt spent a semester at Freiburg University attending the lectures of [[Edmund Husserl]].<ref name="d'Entreves"/> In 1926 she moved to the [[University of Heidelberg]], where in 1929 she completed her [[dissertation]] under the existentialist philosopher-psychologist [[Karl Jaspers]]; her thesis title was ''{{Interlanguage link multi|Der Liebesbegriff bei Augustin|de|3=Der Liebesbegriff bei Augustin|lt=Der Liebesbegriff bei Augustin: Versuch einer philosophischen Interpretation}}'' ("On the concept of love in the thought of [[Augustine of Hippo|Saint Augustine]]: Attempt at a philosophical interpretation").

 

In 1929, in Berlin, she married {{lang|de|Günther Stern}}, later known as {{lang|de|[[Günther Anders]]}}. They divorced in 1937. The dissertation was published in 1929. In 1932, Arendt was deeply troubled by reports that {{lang|de|Heidegger}} was speaking at National Socialist meetings, and wrote to him asking him to deny that he was attracted to National Socialism. {{lang|de|Heidegger}} wrote back to her and in his letter did not seek to deny the rumors (which were true), and merely assured her that his feelings for her were unchanged.<ref name=newyorker/> Arendt was prevented from [[habilitation|habilitating]] because she was Jewish. She researched [[antisemitism]] for some time before being arrested and briefly imprisoned by the [[Gestapo]] in 1933.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://biography.yourdictionary.com/hannah-arendt|title=Hannah Arendt Facts|publisher=|accessdate=15 April 2017}}</ref>