10 questions · Society & Everyday
Hannah Arendt is born into a Jewish family in Germany in 1906 and studies under the greatest philosophers of her time, including Martin Heidegger and Karl Jaspers. When the Nazis come to power in 1933, she is briefly imprisoned as a Jew and a political target. She flees: first to France, later, by roundabout routes, to the United States, where she eventually becomes a citizen and one of the most important political thinkers of the 20th century. Arendt spends her life trying to understand how modern societies can descend into barbarism. In her major work 'The Origins of Totalitarianism' she examines the roots of Nazism and Stalinism: how totalitarian systems function and strip people of their agency. She does not write in a detached way, but seeks to make comprehensible what happened. She becomes world-famous and, at the same time, controversial through her reporting on the trial of the Nazi criminal Adolf Eichmann in Jerusalem in 1961. Instead of a demonic monster she sees there a frighteningly ordinary bureaucrat and coins for it the famous phrase "the banality of evil": the insight that horrific crimes can be committed by unremarkable people who fail to think for themselves. This thesis triggers fierce debates that continue to this day. Arendt remains an uncomfortable, independent thinker who submits to no ideology. Her questions about freedom, responsibility and the value of independent thought make her one of the most important voices in political philosophy: especially in times when democracy comes under pressure.
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political theorist / philosopher
She is regarded as one of the most important political thinkers of the 20th century.
💡 Did you know? Arendt is regarded as one of the most important political thinkers of the 20th century: though she preferred „theorist“ to „philosopher.“
the banality of evil
It means: horrific crimes can be committed by unremarkable people who fail to think for themselves.
💡 Did you know? By „the banality of evil“ Arendt meant that horrific crimes are often committed not by monsters but by thoughtless bureaucrats.
Eichmann trial in Jerusalem
In 1961 Arendt reported for a magazine on the trial of the Nazi criminal Adolf Eichmann in Jerusalem.
💡 Did you know? Instead of a demonic monster, Arendt saw a frighteningly ordinary bureaucrat.
totalitarianism
Her work is titled 'The Origins of Totalitarianism'.
💡 Did you know? In „The Origins of Totalitarianism“ Arendt examined how Nazism and Stalinism worked: a standard work to this day.
persecution as a Jew (Nazi era)
She fled via France to the United States, where she became a citizen.
💡 Did you know? Arendt was briefly arrested by the Gestapo in 1933, fled to France and in 1941 on to the US.
Heidegger and Jaspers
Karl Jaspers remained her lifelong friend and interlocutor.
💡 Did you know? Arendt did more than study under Martin Heidegger: the two shared a complicated, lifelong relationship still debated today.
freedom, responsibility, thought
Arendt's thought revolves around freedom, political action, responsibility and what it means to truly think.
💡 Did you know? She warned against surrendering one's own judgement to ideologies.
USA
There she became a citizen and taught at several universities.
💡 Did you know? In the US Arendt became a professor and, in 1951, an American citizen: after years as a stateless refugee.
Foto: Barbara Niggl Radloff · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons
Hannah Arendt
Hannah Arendt (1906 to 1975) was a German-American political theorist, famous for her analyses of totalitarianism and the „banality of evil.“
💡 Did you know? Arendt's report on the Eichmann trial ignited one of the fiercest intellectual disputes of the 20th century.
1906
Born: 14 October 1906 in Hanover
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