Thursday, February 22, 2018

Remembering the White Rose and the Only German Philosopher Who Opposed Hitler

Today is the 75th anniversary of the Nazi execution in Germany of the leaders of the White Rose resistance movement.  They were beheaded.  Richard Hurowitz has a good article on this in the New York Times.

The young students at the University of Munich who led this small group of students calling for resistance to Hitler's Nazism were inspired by Kurt Huber, their philosophy professor at Munich, who was the only German philosopher in Germany who resisted Hitler and Nazi rule.  It is disturbing to realize that almost all German philosophers either supported Hitler or remained silent.  It is also disturbing to remember that the German people ignored the call to resistance coming from the White Rose students.

I have written about Huber and about the tradition of philosophers supporting Hitler's Nazism here and here.

I have also written here about how the Darwinian aristocratic liberalism of Nietzsche's middle writings warned against the illiberal authoritarian traditions in Germany that supported Hitler and the Nazis.

No comments: