HANNAH ARENDT – A Life

Hannah Arendt lived through the entire history of the 20th century. Born into a bourgeois and intellectual family in the city of Königsberg, she studied at the University of Marburg, where the intellectual breakthroughs and productivity of the 1920s were uniquely condensed. There, she fell in love with the charismatic philosopher Martin Heidegger. Hitler’s rise to power forced her into exile, leading to internment in France before escaping to New York, where she started anew. She became a political theorist, writing in English, thinking in German, and always identifying as a Jew.

Without her unpublished letters which are analysed here for the first time, it is impossible to understand Hannah Arendt as a whole, or the century reflected in her. They are just as important as her works. In an engaging and vivid account, Willi Winkler narrates Hannah Arendt’s life as the story of a woman full of contradictions – someone who, after persecution and displacement, builds a new identity in America. With her sharp intellect, she outshines the men around her, yet always remains the "girl from afar", as she referred to herself. This biography offers a fascinating glimpse into the life of one of the most iconic intellectuals and a brilliant observer of her time.

"The result is a complex, multifaceted, and incredibly vivid picture of this remarkable woman navigating a male-dominated field ... a must-read." Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung