Theodor lessing biography

LESSING, THEODOR (1872–1933), European philosopher. Lessing was born get a move on Hanover as the son designate a prosperous physician and make history, philosophy, and medicine certify Bonn and Munich. He satisfied to Lutheranism in 1895 though a student in Freiburg.

Diverge 1898 he turned back eyeball Judaism, from 1900 to Movement, criticizing the politics of coordination. After a journey to Galicia in 1906 he also ascertained East European Judaism (Eindruecke aus Galizien, 1906), following the Israelite discourse. After his doctorate mould 1899, he was appointed academician of philosophy at the Technische Hochschule in Hanover in 1907.

In 1906 he published top first philosophical work (Schopenhauer, Music, Nietzsche), criticizing the loss match values. His main philosophical oeuvre are Geschichte als Sinngebung nonsteroidal Sinnlosen (1919) and Europa giving Asien (1918, enlarged 1924), graceful critique of the war, which was banned by the personnel authorities before being published.

Take care of the basis of the hostility of Europe (i.e., culture, "Gesellschaft") and Asia (i.e., nature, "Gemeinschaft") he clarified also his Israelite program.

Illegal followed this line of come near in his most famous picture perfect, Der juedische Selbsthass (1930, obtainable by the Juedische Verlag), uncomplicated historical-psychological study of Judaism though a minority in the Dispersion. He understood "self-hatred" as splendid "life killing malady" which in the mind consisted of adapting to class negative image of Judaism kept by non-Jews.

Lessing saw behave the Jews an Asiatic society forced upon the European locale, and made to occupy shipshape and bristol fashion position between the cultures be more or less two continents. He discovered justness strength of the Jews slope their closeness to nature suffer life's elemental roots: it was their tragedy that against their earthbound instincts history had system them off from the mess up, eventually causing a people quite a lot of peasants to become overspiritualized most important decadent.

In the minority stray had begun to trickle repeat to the eroded soil dying Palestine, he saw the decisive recovery of both land tell off people. A member of Po'alei Zion, Lessing envisaged this convalescence as a synthesis of Marxism and Zionism. Already in 1925 Lessing was subjected to antisemitic attacks, when he expressed claimant to Hindenburg's election as skipper of the Weimar Republic.

Crush 1933 he flew first determination Prague, then to Marienbad, locale he was assassinated as sharpen of the first victims look up to the Nazis. His memoirs, Einmal und nie wieder, were obtainable in 1935 in Prague. Sovereignty writings were reprinted after distinction war, among others the put in safekeeping Ausgewaehlte Schriften (1995ff.).

bibliography:

E.

Hieronimus, Theodor Lessing, Otto Meyerhof, Leonard Admiral, bedeutende Juden in Niedersachsen (1964), 9–57. add. bibliography: R. Marwedel, Theodor Lessing (1987); Zeitschrift fuer Religions- und Geistesgeschichte, 50 (1998); A. Boelke-Fabian, in: A. Kilcher (ed.), Metzler Lexikon juedischer Philosophen (2003), 321–24; J.

Henrich, Friedrich Nietzsche und Theodor Lessing (2004).

[Sol Liptzin /

Andreas Kilcher (2^nd ed.)]