Günther Anders: Correspondence

This volume contains the previously unpublished correspondence of the philosopher, writer and disputatious intellectual Günther Anders (1902-1992) with philosophers of a related philosophical tradition. Some of the letters date from the pre-war period of the 1920s and 1930s, the majority dates from the post-war period up to the 1970s. Anders shared numerous philosophical interests and biographical similarities with the representatives of critical theory Max Horkheimer, Theodor W. Adorno and Herbert Marcuse as well as with Ernst Bloch and Helmuth Plessner. Like his correspondents, Anders came from an upper-class Jewish milieu and shared the experience of exile and the Shoah with them. Philosophically influenced by his academic teachers Edmund Husserl and Martin Heidegger, Anders was interested in a concrete philosophy that should include the concrete existence and social reality in the philosophical reflection. Thereby Anders increasingly turned to the theories of Karl Marx and became a cultural and social critic. Based on the correspondence of this volume, Anders intellectual and biographical development from an academic philosopher to a politically engaged thinker and activist can be traced. These letters make it clear that he was part of an intellectual network that included numerous important philosophers, writers and activists of the 20th century. Numerous topics such as the relationship between theory and practice, language and philosophy, society and politics, but also art and music are discussed in this correspondence. Those are also a contemporary historical document and illustrate a part of German history of philosophy of the 20th century. The letters of this volume were carefully edited and annotated by the editors Reinhard Ellensohn and Kerstin Putz. A comprehensive afterword provides the necessary background information on the historical context and the biographies of Günther Anders and his correspondents. The volume is published as part of the series of selected works of Günther Anders at C.H. Beck publishers, Munich.