Der absolute Leser

Hans Blumenberg's thinking is closely linked to his own lifetime and to the society of the old Federal Republic. Persecuted under National Socialism because of his Jewish mother, influenced by his father's Catholic milieu and an elite humanist high school in the Hanseatic city of Lübeck, he was an obsessive reader from his earliest youth, absorbing literature, philosophy, theology, natural sciences, and contemporary history in equal measure and creating an outstanding body of work from them. In his richly illustrated book, Rüdiger Zill draws on previously untapped archival sources to uncover the life-historical roots of this work and shows that it is by no means as monolithic as it appears at first glance. Rather, it can only be understood by tracing its paths and detours, as well as its interconnections with the sciences in the second half of the 20th century. For the first time, the absolute reader is granted a comprehensive insight into the workshop of an author who has meticulously documented the development of his work like no other. To look over Hans Blumenberg's shoulder as he read, drafted, and formulated over decades is also to learn something about the fascinating craft of thinking itself.