Barbara von Bechtolsheim

A couple could hardly be more different: Arendt from an educated middle-class Jewish family, a student of Heidegger and Jaspers, and ultimately a controversial thinker who still triggers controversy today. Blücher, from a proletarian background, fascinated students and creative minds as a professor of philosophy. For over thirty years, they gave each other ideas, argued and cultivated friendships with artists and intellectuals. Their experiences as refugees and immigrants continued to shape their political thinking and actions.

Through letters, writings and lectures by the couple as well as conversations with contemporary witnesses, Barbara von Bechtolsheim conveys an impression of the philosophical workshop in New York in the post-war years up to Arendt’s reporting on the Eichmann trial.

Barbara von Bechtolsheim studied literature and psychology in Munich and Stanford. She teaches literature and cultural studies at various universities and researches the creativity of couples. Her translations include novels by Toni Morrison and Joyce Carol Oates.