Biography of Ernst Bloch

Possible utopias

8 July 1885 4 August 1977 Ernst Bloch was born in Ludwigshafen (Germany) 8 July 1885 from a Jewish family from the Palatinate. Plays his philosophical studies in different German cities from Munich and Wurburg up in Berlin, studying with great masters including Heidelberg and Simmel. He graduated in 1908 with a thesis entitled: "Disquisitions criticism on Rickert and the problem of modern epistemology." In 1913 he married the sculptor Else von Striztky who unfortunately died in 1921. After the end of World War I begins to teach at the University of Leipzig. It's always been a pacifist, so at the time of the rise to power of Adolf Hitler takes refuge in neutral Switzerland. During his stay in Switzerland comes close to Marxism and publishes in 1918 "spirit of utopia" which are followed by the texts "Abdulah as theologian of the revolution" (1921) and a collection of aphorisms and parables entitled "traces" (1930). Among these the most important is surely the essay on utopia; theme which will resume later with the text "atheism and Christianity" (1968). Ernst revolutionizes deeply the meaning of the term utopia, which in its interpretation does not indicate more a reality impossible to be realized. He speaks more specifically utopian content as a means through which traced the path to reach a certain goal, previously set; goal that, however far and difficult, is not impossible realization. Because when he writes his essay the political debate is very much alive, you could spell out his idea of utopia as long term policy agenda. His attempt is to create a link between Marxism and Christianity. He acknowledges the Christian religion a utopian content inherent in the idea of redemption. While his work as a philosopher deepens and grows thanks to the attendance of personalities such as Max Weber, Bertolt Brecht, Kurt Weil and Theodor Adorno, even his private life seems to improve after the grief over the death of his first wife. In 1922 the painter Linda Oppenheimer from which in 1928 has a daughter, Mirijam. Unfortunately in the same year of the birth of his daughter, the marriage with Linda is broken and the two leave. In 1933 to escape the Nazi persecution is forced to various peregrinations between Switzerland, Austria, Czechoslovakia and France. At the end a landing safer in the United States. And it is in the United States who writes his most important work: "the principle hope". The text is published in three volumes only during the period from 1953 on 1959, when Ernst Bloch is already back in his Germany. In this work, strongly influenced by the thought of some American philosophers like Waldo Emerson, Ernst theorizes that the concept of hope is not subjective, but falls in the development objective, and therefore real, of every human being. He says that a man is not defined according to its present, but to future generations not yet acquired. Hope falls within this process. It is the definition of anticipante consciousness, understood not as Bloch daydream, desire or House of cards, but as active thinking, willingness to build and grow based on the dynamism of reality. In 1948 Ernst, returning in his Germany, resumes his tenure as a teacher at Leipzig University, part of the German Democratic Republic in the East. Also founded a magazine called "German magazine of philosophy" and published an essay on Hegel entitled "subject-object" (1949). Unfortunately his relationships with the existing political regime deteriorate soon, and is starting to be considered as a revisionist of Marxist ideology. In 1957 attempting to isolate it, branding him with the nickname "tempter of youth." Some students are even arrested. As a result of these charges the University puts it for rest and Ernst, who in 1961 is situated temporarily in Bavaria, decides to never return in Eastern Germany; the decision shall be taken in conjunction with the construction of the Berlin wall. Accepts a professorship at the University of Tübingen, where he died on 4 August 1977. Among his most important writings include "the problem of materialism: the history and substance" (1972) and "Experimentum Mundi" (1975).

Translation authorized by the website: Biografieonline.it under Creative Commons License.