Hannah Arendt Timeline

(1906 - 1975)

Hannah Arendt (1906–1975) was a German-born Jewish political philosopher who fled Nazi Germany and became one of the most influential thinkers of the 20th century. Her major works include 'The Origins of Totalitarianism' (1951), 'The Human Condition' (1958), and 'Eichmann in Jerusalem' (1963), in which she coined the phrase 'the banality of evil.' She taught at several American universities and shaped modern debates on power, authority, revolution, and political action. More Less

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Early Life and Education

Hannah Arendt is born in Linden, Germany

Oct 14, 1906

Hannah Arendt was born into a secular Jewish family in Linden, a district of Hanover, Germany. Her parents were Paul Arendt, an engineer, and Martha Cohn. The family soon moved to Königsberg, East Prussia (now Kaliningrad), where she spent her childhood.

Image source: Hannah Arendt

Arendt's father dies of syphilis-related illness

1913

Paul Arendt died when Hannah was only seven years old, after suffering from progressive paralysis caused by syphilis contracted years earlier. This loss deeply affected her childhood and left her mother as her sole parent during the turbulent years of World War I.

Arendt studies at the University of Marburg under Martin Heidegger

1924 - 1926

Arendt began her university studies in theology and philosophy at Marburg, where she became the student and lover of philosopher Martin Heidegger, who was married. Their intense relationship profoundly influenced her intellectual development and continued intermittently for years.

Image source: Martin Heidegger

Arendt completes doctoral dissertation on Augustine

1929

Under Karl Jaspers at the University of Heidelberg, Arendt completed her doctoral dissertation on the concept of love in the thought of Saint Augustine, later published as 'Love and Saint Augustine.' The work explored themes of natality, worldliness, and sociality that would recur throughout her career.

Image source: Love and Saint Augustine

Arendt marries Günther Stern

Sep 16, 1929

Arendt married her fellow philosophy student and writer Günther Stern, who later took the pen name Günther Anders. The marriage ended in divorce in 1937 as both their lives were upended by the rise of Nazism.

Image source: Günther Anders

Arendt flees Germany and emigrates to Paris

1933

Arendt fled Nazi Germany without papers, traveling via Czechoslovakia and Switzerland to France, where she lived in exile for eight years. In Paris she worked for Jewish refugee organizations, including Youth Aliyah, helping young Jews emigrate to Palestine.

Nazi seizure of power forces Arendt to begin anti-Nazi work

Jan 30, 1933

After Hitler came to power, Arendt, working with the German Zionist movement, gathered evidence of antisemitic propaganda for underground networks. She was briefly arrested by the Gestapo but released, after which she decided she could no longer remain in Germany.

Image source: Adolf Hitler's rise to power

Arendt marries Heinrich Blücher

Jan 16, 1940

Arendt married Heinrich Blücher, a former Spartacist and self-educated German philosopher and poet. Blücher became her lifelong intellectual companion, and their marriage lasted until his death in 1970.

Image source: Heinrich Blücher

Arendt interned at Gurs camp, escapes and reaches New York

May 1940 - May 22, 1941

After France fell, Arendt was interned as an enemy alien at the Gurs camp in Vichy France. She escaped amid the chaos following the armistice, obtained emergency visas, and fled via Portugal to the United States, arriving in New York with her husband and mother.

Image source: Gurs internment camp

Death of Heinrich Blücher

Oct 31, 1970

Heinrich Blücher died of a heart attack after decades of marriage. Arendt was devastated by the loss of her closest intellectual partner and confidant, and friends noted she never fully recovered from his death.

Major Works

Publication of 'The Origins of Totalitarianism'

1951

Her first major book traced antisemitism, imperialism, and totalitarianism, arguing that Stalinism and Nazism were novel forms of government rooted in terror and ideology. The work established her international reputation as one of the foremost political thinkers of her era.

Image source: The Origins of Totalitarianism

Publication of 'The Origins of Totalitarianism'

Publication of 'The Human Condition'

1958

In this landmark work, Arendt analyzed labor, work, and action within the vita activa, arguing for the recovery of public political action against modern society's absorption in labor and consumption. She introduced influential concepts such as natality and the public realm.

Image source: Human condition

Publication of 'Between Past and Future'

1961

This collection of essays, subtitled 'Six Exercises in Political Thought,' examined topics including tradition, authority, freedom, education, and culture, exploring how modernity broke with the Western tradition of political thought.

Publication of 'On Revolution'

1963

Arendt compared the American and French Revolutions, arguing that the American Revolution succeeded because it focused on founding freedom and constitutional government, while the French Revolution collapsed into violence driven by social questions and compassion turned to rage.

Image source: On Revolution

Arendt publishes 'Eichmann in Jerusalem' articles in The New Yorker

Feb 1963

Reporting on Adolf Eichmann's trial in Jerusalem for The New Yorker, Arendt introduced her controversial concept of 'the banality of evil,' portraying Eichmann as a thoughtless bureaucrat rather than a demonic monster. The reports provoked fierce debate in Jewish and intellectual circles.

Image source: Eichmann in Jerusalem

Publication of 'Men in Dark Times'

1968

A collection of portraits of intellectuals including Walter Benjamin, Bertolt Brecht, Rosa Luxemburg, and Karl Jaspers, reflecting Arendt's conviction that even in dark times, individuals can illuminate the world through thought and speech.

Image source: Dark Phoenix (film)

Publication of 'Crises of the Republic'

1972

This collection brought together Arendt's essays on civil disobedience, violence, lying in politics, and the Pentagon Papers, offering penetrating analyses of American political crises in the late 1960s and early 1970s, including the Vietnam War era.

Image source: Crises of the Republic

Intellectual Career

Arendt becomes a US citizen and works for Jewish Cultural Reconstruction

Dec 10, 1951

Arendt naturalized as a United States citizen and served as executive director of Jewish Cultural Reconstruction, an organization that salvaged and redistributed heirless Jewish cultural property in Europe after the Holocaust.

Arendt awarded Guggenheim Fellowship

1952

The Guggenheim Fellowship enabled Arendt to pursue research on Marxist thought and totalitarianism, supporting the studies that would eventually produce 'The Human Condition' and other major writings.

Arendt lectures at Princeton, Berkeley, and Chicago

1959 - 1967

Arendt taught as a visiting professor at several leading American universities, becoming the first woman appointed full professor at Princeton in 1959, and holding positions at Berkeley and the University of Chicago's Committee on Social Thought.

Image source: University of Chicago

Arendt becomes University Professor at the New School

1967 - 1975

Arendt held a distinguished professorship at the Graduate Faculty of Political and Social Science of the New School for Social Research in New York until her death, teaching generations of students in the institution founded by exiled scholars.

Image source: The New School

Arendt testifies and writes on Pentagon Papers and civil disobedience

1971 - 1972

Amid the Pentagon Papers controversy, Arendt published influential essays on lying in politics and wrote widely cited reflections on civil disobedience, contributing a distinct theoretical voice to debates about dissent in American democracy.

Image source: Pentagon Papers

Arendt delivers Gifford Lectures on thinking

1973 - 1974

At the University of Aberdeen, Arendt delivered two series of Gifford Lectures titled 'Thinking and Moral Considerations' material that formed the basis of her unfinished final work, 'The Life of the Mind,' examining thinking, willing, and judging.

Image source: Gifford Lectures

Legacy

Arendt receives Peace Prize of the German Book Trade

1968

Arendt accepted this major German award in Frankfurt, delivering an address on Lessing and friendship, marking her complicated reconciliation with postwar Germany and its cultural establishment.

Image source: Friedenspreis des Deutschen Buchhandels

Arendt awarded Sonning Prize

1975

Arendt received Denmark's prestigious Sonning Prize for contributions to European civilization, recognizing her stature as one of the twentieth century's most important political thinkers shortly before her death.

Hannah Arendt dies in New York City

Dec 4, 1975

Arendt died of a heart attack at age 69 in her New York apartment while finishing 'The Life of the Mind.' She was buried alongside Heinrich Blücher at Bard College Cemetery, near Annandale-on-Hudson, New York.

Arendt's papers archived at the Library of Congress

1976

Arendt's personal papers, manuscripts, and correspondence were deposited at the Library of Congress, establishing a permanent scholarly archive that has supported decades of research on her life and work.

Image source: Library of Congress

Posthumous publication of 'The Life of the Mind'

1978

Her friend Mary McCarthy edited and published the unfinished two volumes on Thinking and Willing; the planned third volume on Judging remained unwritten. The work cemented Arendt's late-career turn toward the life of the mind and its moral implications.

Image source: The Life of the Mind

Elisabeth Young-Bruehl publishes definitive biography of Arendt

1982

Young-Bruehl's 'Hannah Arendt: For Love of the World' became the standard biography, drawing on extensive archival sources and interviews to chronicle Arendt's life from Königsberg through her exile to her American career.

Image source: Hannah Arendt

German edition of Arendt–Blumenthal correspondence sparks reappraisal

1995

Ongoing publications of Arendt's letters and papers, including correspondence with figures like Mary McCarthy and Karl Jaspers, fueled renewed scholarly interest and reassessment of her life and ideas in the 1990s.

Margarethe von Trotta releases film 'Hannah Arendt'

2012

Von Trotta's biographical film starring Barbara Sukowa dramatized the Eichmann trial period of Arendt's life and the controversies surrounding 'Eichmann in Jerusalem,' introducing her story to new international audiences.

Image source: Hannah Arendt (film)

Key Facts

Hannah Arendt was born in Linden, Germany (now part of Hanover) on October 14, 1906, and grew up in Königsberg.
She studied philosophy under Martin Heidegger and Karl Jaspers, earning her doctorate from Heidelberg University in 1929 with a dissertation on Augustine's concept of love.
As a German Jew, she fled Nazi Germany in 1933, later escaping France to the United States in 1941, where she became a naturalized citizen in 1951.
Her 1963 book 'Eichmann in Jerusalem: A Report on the Banality of Evil,' based on her reporting of Adolf Eichmann's trial, sparked major controversy and introduced the concept of the 'banality of evil.'
She became the first woman appointed as a full professor at Princeton University in 1959 and died in New York City on December 4, 1975.

Source

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