Hannah Arendt

A topical political issue every year

A memorial plaque at Lindener Marktplatz 2 commemorates the house where Hannah Arendt was born on 14 October 1906. Every year around her birthday, the city of Hanover, together with Leibniz University and the Volkswagen Foundation, organises the "Hannah Arendt Days" in honour of the daughter of a Jewish family from Königsberg. Each event focuses on a different current political and social issue. A board of trustees from the fields of science, politics, art, foundations and administration chooses the theme. The Lord Mayor chairs the committee. The main target audience is young people. A scholarship bearing her name is also awarded. The theme is flight and persecution. People from Belarus, Zimbabwe, Syria and Iraq have been sponsored so far.

She helped to save Jewish children in France

The philosopher, political scientist and writer Hannah Arendt contributed to political issues in many different ways. She lived in New York for a long time, where she died on 4 December 1975. She studied philosophy in Marburg with Martin Heidegger, in Freiburg with Edmund Husserl and in Heidelberg with Karl Jaspers.

In 1928, she wrote her doctoral thesis on "Augustin's concept of love". She experienced totalitarian rule first-hand: she was arrested in Berlin in 1933 for "activity for the Zionist Association for Germany", but was soon released. She fled via Prague to Paris, where she worked as Secretary General of the refugee organisation Jugend-Alijah. She rescued Jewish children. After being interned in a camp in the Pyrenees, she managed to escape to the USA via Lisbon with her husband Heinrich Blücher in 1941. She later followed the trial of Adolf Eichmann on behalf of "The New Yorker" magazine. She held several guest professorships at American universities and shortly before her death was awarded the Danish "Sonning Prize" for contributions to European culture.

Your name in the city - from the square in front of the state parliament to the chair

In Hanover, the square in front of the Lower Saxony State Parliament, a vocational school on Lavesallee and a path near the New Town Hall are named after her. The grammar school in Barsinghausen bears her name. There is a room in the Hanover City Library with many memories of her. In particular, there are photos of her friend Fred Stein. There is a chair bearing her name at the Helene Lange School. There, it is now possible to take an A-level examination in philosophy.

www.hannah-arendt-hannover.de