Photo (detail): © Suhrkamp Verlag
Hans Blumenberg
(born 13 July 1920 in Lübeck, Germany; died 28 March 1996 in Altenberg, Germany); philosopher
Hans Blumenberg studied Theology in Paderborn, Germany. Because of his Jewish origins, he was forced to abandon his studies under the Nazi regime. Blumenberg was enrolled in the workforce, detained for a short time, but was later released and went into hiding until the end of the war. In 1945, he started studying Philosophy, German Studies and Classical Philology at the University of Hamburg where he obtained a PhD in Philosophy followed by a Habilitation, the highest university degree. Blumenberg was professor of Philosophy at the universities of Giessen, Bochum and Münster in Germany. He published a number of philosophical works, with some published posthumously. Hans Blumenberg was awarded the Kuno Fischer Award by the University of Heidelberg (1974), the Sigmund Freud Prize for Academic Prose (1980), and received an honorary doctorate from the University of Giessen (1982).