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Hannah Arendt , born Johanna Arendt the October 14th 1906 with Linden, Hanover (Germany) and deceased it December 4th 1975 with New York (the United States), is a German academic naturalized American known for its work on the political activity, the Totalitarisme and the Modernité from a philosophical point of view and historical.

Often qualified Philosopher , it indicated itself according to its profession: political professor of theory, or political theorist . Its refusal of philosophy is in particular evoked in Condition of the modern man where she considers that “the major part of political philosophy since Plato would be easily interpreted like a series of tests in order to discover the theoretical bases and the practical means of a final escape from the policy. ”

Its works on the totalitarian phenomenon are studied in the whole world and its political and philosophical thought occupy an important place in the contemporary reflection. Its most famous books are the Origins of totalitarianism (1951), Condition of the modern man (1958) and the Crisis of the culture (1961).

Biography

His/her father was engineer of formation and his/her mother practiced French and the music. On the two sides, the grandparents were Juif S reformed. His/her father dies in 1913 of the Syphilis.

In 1924, after having passed its Abitur - equivalent of the Baccalaureat to Germany - as a free candidate with one year in advance, it studies the Philosophie, the Théologie and the traditional Philologie at the universities of Marbourg, Freiburg-in-Brisgau and Heidelberg. Raise Heidegger, of Husserl then of Karl Jaspers, it reveals a brilliant intelligence and a nonconformism still not very common.

In 1925, its meeting with Heidegger will be an major event of its life, as well on the intellectual level as sentimental. It is very young and dedicates an admiration without terminals with its Master, fifteen years his elder. This one, however accustomed to conquer its coeds, falls under the charm. It is the beginning of a secret, impassioned and unreasoned relation, which will leave traces at Hannah all its life. But if the thought of the Master impresses it, the ambiguous position of Heidegger with regard to the Judaïsme leads it soon to stop their relation. She will move with Freiburg-in-Brisgau to become the pupil of Husserl, but probably also to move away from her former lover. Then it will follow the teaching of Karl Jaspers to Heidelberg under the direction of which it writes its thesis on the Concept of love at Saint Augustin . It will remain faithful to the thought of Heidegger, beyond the war and the exile, and will be made the untiring promoter of the philosopher, as eminent as discussed, in the United States.

In 1929, it marries Günther Stern (named Günther Anders later), a young German philosopher met in the academic world. The same year, it obtains a grant which enables him to work until in 1933 with a biography of Rahel Varnhagen, Jewish allemande of the time of the Romantisme, which will appear only in 1958. Under the influence of Kurt Blumenfeld, president of the organization Zionist, it becomes aware of his Jewish identity, whereas Jaspers claimed to make it adhere to “the German gasoline” of max Weber. Charged by Blumenfeld with collecting testimonys of the Propaganda anti-semite, it is stopped by the Gestapo and is slackened for lack of proof.

In 1933, it leaves the Germany for the France where it takes part in the reception of the refugees fleeing the Nazisme. Since Paris, it militates for the creation of an entity judéo-Arabic in Palestine. It facilitates the immigration of the young Jews towards the Palestine. Divorced in 1937, it remarie on January 16th, 1940 with Heinrich Blücher a German, old refugee Spartakiste.

In May 1940, because of advanced the flash of Wehrmacht in France, it is interned with the Camp of Gurs (Yrénées-Atlantiques) with other stateless people. She manages to flee with Montauban, then to gain Marseilles where she obtains a visa for the Portugal thanks to the American Center urgently of Varian Fry.

She leaves by train for this country and then lives with Lisbon in the hope to embark for America, which she manages to do in May 1941, thanks to the intervention of the American diplomat Hiram Bingham, who delivers illegally a visa to him of entry in the United States, like with approximately 2.500 other Jewish refugees.

At the conclusion of a testing crossing, it settles in New York. In a situation of total destitution, it must absolutely earn its living, and finds an use of assistance to residence in the Massachusetts and plans to become social worker. But it finally decides to regain New York and collaborates in it in several newspapers, of which the weekly magazine Aufbau .

After the Second world war, it turns over to Germany, working for an association of assistance to the Jewish survivors. It renews contact with Heidegger, testifying in favor of the philosopher at the time of his lawsuit in denazification. It also joins again with the couple Jaspers of which it becomes an intimate friend.

In 1951, it is naturalized citizen of the United States of America. She starts a university career like lecturer and professor invited in political Philosophie in various universities: Berkeley, Princeton (where it becomes the first named woman professor), Columbia, Brooklyn College, Aberdeen, Weyslan…

In 1951, it publishes its book origins of totalitarianism , then Condition of the modern man in 1958, and the compilation of texts entitled the Crisis of the culture in 1961.

After these three fundamental books, it covers with Jerusalem the lawsuit of the person in charge Nazi Adolf Eichmann, in whom it sees the incarnation of the “Banalité of the evil”. The articles which she writes then, joins together in a book in 1963, nourish an important polemic. The same year, it publishes Essai on the Revolution .

From 1963, it becomes titular pulpit of political science at the university of Chicago, before being named a professor in New School for Social Research (New York) in 1967, where it will remain until its death.

In 1966, it gave its support for the play of German Rolf Hochhuth, “the Vicar”, works who started a violent controversy by criticizing the action of the pope Pie XII vis-a-vis the Holocauste.

In 1973, it begins conference series in Aberdeen on “the thought”, and “to want It”: they are the first two parts of its posthumous book the Life of the spirit , of which it did not have time to write the third and last part, “To judge”.

She dies the December 4th 1975 with New York. She is buried with the Hand-barrow College of Annandale-one-Hudson, where her husband had taught during many years. At the time of funerals, his/her friend Hans Jonas after having pronounced the Kaddish will say to him: “With your death you left the world a little more frozen than it was not. ”

Presentation of its thought

The political action and the role of the thought

The thought of Hannah Arendt is before all a new design of the political action, developed in Condition of the modern man and the Crisis of the culture. She also wondered, in particular in the Life of the spirit, about the role of the thought compared to the action.

In addition, she denounces the massification of the culture and the transformation of art into object of consumption in her test on the crisis of the culture . August 1st

Polemical topics

The political reflection of Hannah Arendt, supported on the question of modernity, i.e. of the rupture of the wire of the tradition (cf the Crisis of the culture), led it to discuss the contemporary world, in particular on very polemical subjects, like the totalitarianism and the lawsuit of Adolf Eichmann. This standpoint made it very famous, with the risk sometimes to occult the bottom of its thought.

The question of totalitarianism

Eichmann and the Banality of the evil

Although she worked of many years within an organization Zionist (at the time of his stay in Paris), Hannah Arendt evolved/moved gradually about Israel, and expressed its constant opposition to all enfermement Nationaliste. It was favorable in a mixed Federal state judéo-Arabic.

It entered in conflict with the Israeli press at the time of its cover of the lawsuit of Eichmann to Jerusalem to the beginning of the year 1960.

After having followed for ten months, on behalf of the American newspaper " The New Yorker" , the lawsuit of Adolf Eichmann, Hannah Arendt published, indeed, " Eichmann with Jérusalem" , report of the lawsuit of that which was regarded by the hierarchy Nazi as the " specialist in the juive" question;. This work is, in fact, much more than one simple report of lawsuit, it is actually about a study on the evil, or rather on the springs of the Evil which made the concentration camps possible. Besides Hannah Arendt decided for this reason to give to this work, the subtitle d'" Study on the banality of Mal".

The polemic which was done day the shortly after the publication of Eichmann in Jerusalem related to the declarations of Hannah Arendt on, on the one hand, the " sympathies" supposed of Adolph Eichmann for the Zionism and, in addition, on the behavior of the Jewish populations off-set at the place of their torturers. It, indeed, was wrongfully reproached Hannah Arendt for having not only presented Adolf Eichmann like a Zionist but as, and especially, to have made the reproach with the populations off-set not to be itself sufficiently revolted against the terrible fate as the leaders Nazis their reserved. These criticisms perfectly unfounded, which result from an erroneous reading of the work of Hannah Arendt, were largely rejected by the author.

Hannah Arendt does not reproach, indeed, in Eichmann in Jerusalem at any time with the deportees to be itself shown passive. Besides she denounces on several occasions in her work the behavior of the prosecutor of the court of Jerusalem, Gideon Hausner, which in a way repeated at the time of the lawsuit of Adolf Eichmann required of the surviving witnesses concentration camps Nazis, why they had not revolted…. Underlining " the ignominie and the bêtise" of such a question, it shows, moreover, in Eichmann in Jerusalem that the horror of the system Nazi resided, inter alia, in its aptitude to destroy the will of the individuals.

As for the second made criticism with Hannah Arendt at the time of the publication of Eichmann in Jerusalem , which related to the " sionisme" of Adolf Eichmann - that it was supposed to have wanted to put into front, it proves that as preceding this criticism was perfectly unfounded. Hannah Arendt never makes, in its report of the lawsuit of Adolf Eichmann, a Zionist of the " specialist in the juive" question;. Besides she endeavors, very often, to turn into ridiculous the declared sympathy of Adolph Eichmann to the Zionism, whereas this one, intellectually poor individual, were unaware of of it the bases, the principles and the range.

On the basis of work important of documentation, Hannah Arendt, which always asserted a real independence of mind, denounced in Eichmann in Jerusalem the behavior of the members of some " Judenräte" (Jewish councils), in particular that of Theresienstadt, which was brought to collaborate with the authorities Nazis. These charges, which had already been formulated by others, caused an important polemic.

Hannah Arendt was wounded by the charges to which it had to face the shortly after the publication of Eichmann in Jerusalem the more so as in its eyes the aforementioned charges concerned the lawsuit of intention.

On the human rights

In its chapter of the Impérialisme on “perplexities of the human rights”, it shows the process which identified the Human rights with the national identity, the States excluding from these rights the non-national ones.

Works

Works published of alive sound: (chronological order of publication of the original edition)

the concept of love at Augustin , Shores, 1999 ( Der Liebesbegriff EIB Augustin , Springer, Berlin, 1929)
Hannah Arendt and Günther Anders, the Elegies of Duino of Rilke , in To groove Maria Rilke, Elegies of Duino , Shores, 2007 (article initially published in 1930)
Origins of totalitarianism ( The Origins off Totalitarianism ), 3 volumes ( Antisemitism , Imperialism , Totalitarianism ), 1951; new editions in 1958,1966,1973. French translation in three separate works:
# On the anti-semitism , translation by Micheline Pouteau (1973) revised by Helene Frappat, the Threshold (collection Points/Tests , nº 360), 2005
# Impérialisme , translation by Martine Leiris (1982) revised by Helene Frappat, the Threshold (collection Points/Tests , nº 356), 2006
# the totalitarian System , translation by Jean-Louis Le Bourget, Robert Davreu and Patrick Levy (1972) revised by Helene Frappat (2002), the Threshold (collection Points/Tests , nº 307), 2005
Condition of the modern man , French translation G. Fradier, Calmann-Levy, 1961, 1983, republished with a foreword of Paul Ricœur - Pocket, 1988, 1992 ( The Human Condition , London, Chicago, University off Chicago Near, 1958).
Rahel Varnhagen. Life of Jewish allemande at the time of the romanticism , translation by Hanri Plard, Third, 1986, Pocket republication, 1994 ( Rahel Varnhagen: The Life off has Jewess , 1958)
the Crisis of the culture , translation French P. Levy, Gallimard, 1972, 1989 ( Between Past and Future: Six Exercises in Political Thought , New York, 1961, increased of two tests in 1968)
Eichmann in Jerusalem. Report/ratio on the banality of the evil , French translation A. Guérin, Gallimard, 1966 - Folio, 1991 ( Eichmann in Jerusalem: With Carryforward one the Banality off Evil , New York, The Vinking Near, 1963) - Work report of the lawsuit of the person in charge Nazi on the occasion of which she invented the expression “Banalité of the evil” and questions the action of the Jewish Councils in the deportation.
Test on the revolution , French translation Mr. Chrestien, Gallimard, 1967 - Such, 1985 (One Revolution, New York, The Vinking Near, 1963)
Political lives , French translation E. Adda, Gallimard, 1974 - Such, 1986 ( Men in Dark Times , 1968, edition increased in 1971)
Of the lie to violence. Tests of contemporary policy , French translation G. Durand, Calmann-Levy, 1972 - Pocket, 1989 ( Crisis off the Republic , 1972)

Works published in posthumous title:

the hidden Tradition , French translation S. Curtain-Denamy, Christian Bourgois, 1987 - 10/18, 1997.
Life of the spirit: I. the thought, II. To want , French translation L. Lotringer, P.U.F, 1981 (1992) and 1983 (1999) Life off the Mind (1 Thinking; 2 Willing) '', New York, Harcourt Barce Jovanovich, 1978-1981, or ED. PUF, Collection Quadriga, 571 pages.
Considerations morals , 1970, translated from the English by Marc Ducassou, Shores Pocket, 1996.
Interest for the policy in the contemporary European philosophical thought , the Books of Philosophy, n° 4, Lille, 1987.
To judge , Threshold, 1991 ( Readings one Kant' S Political Philosophy )
To think the event , French translation Cl. Habib, Belin 1989.
the nature of totalitarianism , French translation Michelle-Irene Brudny de Launay, Payot, 1990.
Responsibility and judgment , translation of Jean-Luc Fidel - ED. Payot - text on the duty to judge heard like principal parking freedom.
Newspaper of thought (1950-1973) , published in 2005: it is about the transcription of 23 books handwritten of reflections and not intended for a publication, written between 1950 and 1973.
philosophy is not completely innocent Hannah Arendt, Karl Jaspers, Briefwechsel (correspondence); translated from German by Éliane Kaufholz-Messmer; letters chosen by Jean-Luc Fidel. Paris: ED. Payot & Shores, 2006 Collection: Small library Payot No 608 (Extracted: only letters since 1945)
To build a world Interventions 1971-1975 , Paris, Threshold, " traces écrites" , 2007.

Correspondences:

Correspondence 1949-1975 , Hannah Arendt and Mary McCarthy, Stock, 1996 (2004)
Correspondence Hannah Arendt - Karl Jaspers, 1926-1969 , Payot, 1995
Hannah Arendt - Heinrich Blücher, Correspondence 1936-1968 , Calmann-Levy, 1999
Hannah Arendt - Kurt Blümenfeld, Correspondence 1933-1963 , Desclée de Brouwer, 1998
Hannah Arendt - Martin Heidegger, Letters and other documents , Gallimard, 2001.

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