[German Version]

(Jan 29, 1904, Leipzig – Jan 30, 1976, Hamburg), philosopher and sociologist who taught at Leipzig (1934), Königsberg (Kaliningrad; 1938), Vienna (1940), Speyer (1947), and Aachen (1962). His habilitation thesis stands under the influence of phenomenology and existential philosophy; subsequently he took his lead from German Idealism (J.G. Fichte). In 1936 he turned to philosophical anthropology, for which he also made use of empirical (biological) research: as “deficient” but acting beings, human beings transform nature into culture. …