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Theodor LessingGerman-Jewish philosopher and publicist.
Date of Birth: 08.02.1872
Country:  Czech |
Content:
Biography of Theodor Lessing
Early Life and EducationTheodor Lessing was a German-Jewish philosopher and publicist. He was born into an assimilated Jewish family in a prosperous bourgeoisie. His father was a doctor, and his mother was the daughter of a banker. Lessing described his school years as an unhappy period in his life, as he struggled academically and only managed to gain admission to a Hanoverian gymnasium in 1892. It was during this time that he befriended Ludwig Klages, although their friendship ended in 1899, possibly due to Klages' anti-Semitism. Nonetheless, Lessing's philosophy of life had a significant influence on Klages.
After completing gymnasium, Lessing began studying medicine at the University of Bonn and later at the University of Munich. However, his interests gradually shifted towards literature, philosophy, and psychology. He completed his studies in philosophy with a dissertation on the logic of Russian philosopher Afrikan Alexandrovich Spir.
Career and Activism
Lessing faced many challenges in his academic career. His planned habilitation at the Dresden University of Technology was unsuccessful due to resistance faced as a result of his Jewish background, socialist beliefs, and open support for feminism. As a result, he spent several years without a fixed teaching position and worked as a lecturer. It was during this time that he familiarized himself with contemporary philosophy while waiting at the Dresden train station.
In 1907, Lessing returned to Hanover and obtained a position as a private lecturer at the Hanover Polytechnic Institute, where philosophy was not a major subject. With the outbreak of World War I, Lessing, who had studied medicine during his student years, volunteered as a military doctor. He served in a field hospital and worked as a teacher. During this time, he wrote his work "History as the Giving of Meaning to the Meaningless," but its publication was hindered by censorship due to Lessing's strong anti-war stance. The book was eventually published in 1919.
After the war, Lessing returned to Hanover and continued his work as a private lecturer. Together with his second wife, Ada, he organized a People's University and actively engaged in publicist activities. He contributed articles, essays, glosses, and feuilletons to republican-democratic newspapers such as Prager Tagblatt and Dortmunder Generalanzeiger. Through his writings, Lessing became one of the most prominent political writers in the Weimar Republic. Particularly notable was his description of the trial against serial killer Fritz Haarmann, in which he criticized the questionable role of the Hanoverian police, as Haarmann served as an informant, hindering his capture.
Persecution and Death
Lessing's articles stirred hatred among German National Socialists. Students formed the "Committee to Fight against Lessing" and called for boycotts of his lectures, his dismissal, and his removal from the university. Anti-Semitic undertones were prominent in these protests. Lessing found little support among his university colleagues, with most of them siding with his opponents. In June 1926, he was forced to cease teaching and went on indefinite leave, which was approved by the Minister of Culture and Education, Karl Becker.
After the Nazis came to power on January 30, 1933, Lessing began preparing to leave Germany. On March 1, he and his wife Ada fled to Czechoslovakia and settled near the famous spa resort of Marianske Lazne. He continued his publicist activities and published articles in German-language foreign newspapers, criticizing the political regime in Germany.
On August 30, Lessing was fatally wounded by a political assassin who shot him through the window of his office. He passed away in the hospital the following day at the age of sixty-one. Lessing's views were similar to those of Oswald Spengler and Ludwig Klages in the tradition of philosophical pessimism and the metaphysics of will, derived from Arthur Schopenhauer. Deprivation and suffering were regarded as experiences of man in the world. However, unlike Schopenhauer and contrary to personal gain, Lessing's response to this experience was a philosophy of action rather than escaping from the world or leading a private life.
