Hans Jonas - Biography

Biography

Jonas was born in Mönchengladbach, on May 10, 1903. He studied philosophy and theology in Freiburg, Berlin and Heidelberg, and finally achieved his Doctor of Philosophy at Marburg where he studied under Edmund Husserl, Martin Heidegger, and Rudolf Bultmann. In Marburg he met Hannah Arendt, who was also pursuing her PhD there, and the two of them were to remain friends for the rest of their lives.

In 1933, Heidegger joined the German Nazi party, which Jonas took personally as he was of Jewish descent and an active Zionist. He left Germany for England in the same year, and from England he moved to Palestine in 1934. There he met Lore Weiner, to whom he became betrothed. In 1940 he returned to Europe to join the British Army, who had been arranging a special brigade for German Jews wanting to fight against Hitler (See The Jewish Brigade). He was sent to Italy, and in the last phase of the war moved into Germany. Thus, he kept his promise that he would return only as a soldier in the victorious army. In this time he wrote several letters to Lore about philosophy as well as love. They finally married in 1943.

Immediately after the war he returned to Mönchengladbach to search for his mother, but found that she had been sent to the gas chambers in the Auschwitz concentration camp. Having heard this, he refused to live in Germany again. So he returned to Palestine and took part in Israel's war of independence in 1948. However, he felt that his destiny was not to live as a Zionist, but to teach philosophy. Jonas taught briefly at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem before moving to North America. In 1950 he left for Canada, teaching at Carleton University. From there he moved in 1955 to New York City, where he was to live for the rest of his life. He was a fellow of the Hastings Center and Professor of Philosophy at New School for Social Research 1955 to 1976 (where he was Alvin Johnson Professor). From 1982 to 1983 Jonas held the Eric Voegelin Visiting Professorship at the University of Munich. He died at his home in New Rochelle, N.Y., on February 5, 1993, aged 89.