She studied philosophy, theology and Greek at the University of Marburg, where she met Martin Heidegger, and continued her studies under Karl Jaspers at the University of Heidelberg, where she earned her doctorate in 1929 with a dissertation on the concept of love in the works of Augustine.
After the Nazis’ electoral victory in Germany in 1933, Arendt was forced to flee to Paris, where she worked for Jewish refugee organisations. In 1940, she was briefly detained in an internment camp in France before she managed to escape to the United States with her husband Heinrich Blücher and her mother. Upon arriving, Arendt worked as a writer and editor, including for Jewish Frontier magazine and the publishing house Schocken Books.
After 1945, Arendt devoted herself intensively to researching and analysing totalitarian systems. Her book The Origins of Totalitarianism examines the rise of totalitarianism and its roots in antisemitism, imperialism and the disregard for human rights. In Eichmann in Jerusalem: A Report on the Banality of Evil, she reported on the trial of Nazi war criminal Adolf Eichmann in Jerusalem and introduced the concept of “the banality of evil”, the notion that profound atrocities often stem from ordinary, thoughtless actions. Arendt’s philosophical work delves into the nature of human existence and behaviour, exploring the nature of power and violence, as well as the possibilities for freedom and democracy in the contemporary world.
Challenges of rescuing cultural property
Parallel to her theoretical work, Hannah Arendt was deeply committed to rescuing Jewish cultural heritage looted by the Nazis. In her role as the executive director of Jewish Cultural Reconstruction, Inc. (JCR), she played a key role after the Second World War in identifying and restituting these looted cultural artefacts. During her visits to Germany, she conducted a detailed assessment of the recovered collections, describing and tabulating her results in five official reports for the JCR. Arendt’s work was riddled with challenges: she encountered significant resistance from both German authorities and local Jewish communities who wanted to be recognised as the properties rightful heirs. Her efforts highlight the complex obstacles faced by efforts to restore justice and preserve Jewish heritage during the post-war period.
“The danger of losing historical continuity as such, along with the treasures of the past was obvious; the fear of being robbed of the specifically human background of the past, of becoming an abstract ghost like the man without a shadow.”