“simply the notion of being involved in something historic, grandiose, unique.”
- #wikipedia
- #quote
- #trusted-source
- #nytimes.com
- #corroborated

Figure timeline
Hannah Arendt was a German and American historian and philosopher. She was one of the most influential political theorists of the twentieth century.
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
culture · German and American historian and philosopher (1906–1975) · philosopher · historian · writer · political scientist · essayist · university teacher · sociologist · political theorist · resistance fighter · also Hannah Arendt, Hanna Arendt, Johanna "Hannah" Arendt, Johanna "Hannah" Cohn Arendt, Hannah Arendt Blücher, Johanna Arendt
Born 14 October 1906 · Died 4 December 1975 · Q60025
103 published statements · 0 followers
See & hear
14 photos · 1 audio · 1 video
Video
Ikusgela - Hannah Arendt
Listen
De-Hannah Arendt
Media from Wikimedia Commons, hotlinked at the source under its own licence — see each file for author and terms.
Live now
Pulling headlines from trusted outlets — this usually takes a few seconds
Checking the wires…
Feed scan
These are live links, not archived citations — they only join the timeline once a collect run verifies and archives them.
Live pulse
Most recent outstanding titles, awards, and quotes
“simply the notion of being involved in something historic, grandiose, unique.”
“dull-witted clerk or a robotic bureaucrat.”
“obedience and support are the same.”
“did not mean merely to stress the extent to which he was under orders, and ready to obey them; he meant to show what an ‘idealist’ he had always been.”
“Thoughts on Politics and Revolution: A Commentary”
“The result of a consistent and total substitution of lies for factual truth is not that the lies will now be accepted as truth, and the truth be defamed as lies, but that the sense by which we take our bearings in the real world... is being destroyed.”
“The totalitarian mass leaders based their propaganda on the correct psychological assumption that (if found to be lies, many) would protest that they had known all along that the statement was a lie and would admire the leaders for their superior tactical cleverness.”
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
“my very closest woman friend, unfortunately dead a hundred years now”
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
WhatsOnStage: The Banality of Evil: Hannah Arendt, France, 1940 in London: Theatre tickets, show details, cast, and more
Gazeta Express: When One Ceases to Think: Hannah Arendt's Warning on the Banality of Evil
ArchDaily: Galería de Escuela Subterránea Hanna Arendt / Cleaa Claudio Lucchin & architetti associati - 4
La Vanguardia: Hannah Arendt en Ceuta
The Economic Times: Quote of the day by Hannah Arendt: 'The sad truth is that most evil is done by people who never make up th
The Guardian: Mrs Stern Wanders the Prussian State Library review – interrogating Hannah Arendt
The Times: The escape of Hannah Arendt — how the philosopher fled the Nazis
Literary Hub: As Hitler Loomed, Hannah Arendt Undertook a Deep Analysis of German Antisemitism
The New York Times: A Dense Life of Hannah Arendt Doesn’t Justify Its Prodigious Research
Crónica Global: Hannah Arendt, la inclusión del ‘otro’
El Economista: Hannah Arendt: libertad política como garantía del mercado
The New Yorker: Hannah Arendt’s American Education
Clarin.com: Hannah Arendt: por qué la filósofa que desafió al nazismo sostenía que "nadie tiene derecho a obedecer"
El Mostrador: ¿Dónde construimos el puente? Hannah Arendt, los cabildos y el sentido de la política
The Local: Hannah Arendt: What you need to know about the German philosopher's life and work
Its 'Obey' meaning was altered using Arendt's original phrasing, less the attribution, projected upon it in the three official languages of the region
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
A journal, Arendt Studies, was launched to publish articles related to the study of her life, work, and legacy
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
New Republic: The Hannah Arendt Guide to Friendship
The filmmaker Ada Ushpiz produced a documentary on Hannah Arendt, Vita Activa: The Spirit of Hannah Arendt
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
The German film, Hannah Arendt, directed by Margarethe von Trotta was released
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Followed by The Promise of Politics in 2005 there appeared a new interest in Arendtiana
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
And holds a large collection of her work (Hannah Arendt Archiv), and administers the internet portal HannahArendt
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
The French feminist philosopher Catherine Clément wrote a novel, Martin and Hannah, speculating on the triangular relationship between Heidegger and the two women in his life, Arendt and Heidegger's wife Elfriede Petri
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
And that number has continued to grow, as have the number of scholarly articles, estimated as 1000 at that time
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Walter Laqueur stated "No twentieth-century philosopher and political thinker has at the present time as wide an echo", as philosopher, historian, sociologist and also journalist
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
And includes approximately 4,000 books, ephemera, and pamphlets from Arendt's last apartment as well as her desk (in McCarthy House)
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Died 1975-12-04.
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Awarded Sonning Prize (1975).
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Awarded Benjamin E. Lippincott Award for The Human Condition (1975).
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
“Ludzie, jeśli wykraczają poza zwierzęce reakcje oraz wypełnianie określonych funkcji, są dla reżimów totalitarnych zupełnie zbędni. Totalitaryzm nie zmierza do despotycznego panowania nad ludźmi, ale do stworzenia takiego systemu, w którym ludzie będą zbędni.”
“O conservadorismo, no sentido da conservação, faz parte da essência da atividade educacional, cuja tarefa é sempre abrigar e proteger alguma coisa”
For Contributions to European Civilization
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Shortly before Arendt's death
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Her essays and notes have continued to be collected, edited and published posthumously by friends and colleagues, mainly under the editorship of Jerome Kohn, including those that give some insight into the unfinished thi
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Leaving her last work, The Life of the Mind, unfinished
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Their last meeting was in Tegna, Switzerland in 1975, shortly before Arendt's death.
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
“It is well known that the most radical revolutionary will become a conservative on the day after the revolution. (ang.)”
“Prawdziwe rozumienie nie nuży się nie kończącym się dialogiem i „błędnymi kołami”, ponieważ wierzy ono, że wyobraźnia uchwyci w końcu przynajmniej przebłysk zawsze przerażającego światła prawdy.”
“A educação é o ponto em que decidimos se amamos o mundo o bastante para assumirmos a responsabilidade por ele”
“A função da escola é ensinar às crianças como o mundo é, e não instruí-las na arte de viver”
“Nie ma czegoś takiego jak posłuszeństwo w sprawach moralnych i politycznych.”
“A escola não é de modo algum o mundo, nem deve ser tomada como tal; é antes a instituição que se interpõe entre o mundo e o domínio privado do lar”
“Forgiveness is the key to action and freedom.”
“Nie istnieją strefy zapomnienia. Przynajmniej jeden człowiek zawsze utrzyma się przy życiu i zda relację.”
“Akt oskarżenia oparty był bowiem na tym, co przecierpieli Żydzi, nie zaś na tym, co popełnił Eichmann.”
“Jedynie obserwator, nigdy zaś aktor, nie może rozumieć i wiedzieć, co dokonuje się w widowisku. (…) Podstawowe jest tu przekonanie, że wyłącznie obserwator posiada miejsce, które umożliwia oglądanie całości sztuki.”
“The law of progress holds that everything now must be better than what was there before. Don’t you see if you want something better, and better, and better, you lose the good? The good is no longer even being measured.”
Arendt was instrumental in the creation of Structured Liberal Education (SLE) at Stanford University
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Discussing women's liberation, she observed "the real question to ask is, what will we lose if we win
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
After the war, Arendt was able to return to Germany and renew her relationship with Weil, who made several visits to New York, especially after Blücher's death in 1970.
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Won Emerson-Thoreau Medal (1969).
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Awarded Sigmund Freud Prize (1967).
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Arendt was asked about Eichmann's defense that he had made Kant's principle of the duty of obedience his guiding principle all his life
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
“Life without him would be unthinkable”
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Awarded Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (1962).
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
And a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters in 1964
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
While covering the trial of Adolf Eichmann in Jerusalem, Arendt wrote a letter to Karl Jaspers that Adam Kirsch described as reflecting "pure racism" toward Sephardic Jews from the Middle East and Ashkenazi Jews from Eas
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Traveled to Jerusalem to report on Eichmann's trial for The New Yorker
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
On hearing of Adolf Eichmann's capture and plans for his trial, Hannah Arendt contacted The New Yorker and offered to travel to Israel to cover it when it opened on 11 April 1961
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
“whether writing his memoirs in Argentina or in Jerusalem,”
As well as Eichmann in Jerusalem and On Revolution in 1963
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
The media were much engaged in this exceptional achievement, but she never wanted to be seen as an exception, either as a woman (an "exception woman") or a Jew, stating emphatically "I am not disturbed at all about being
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Awarded Guggenheim Fellowship (1952).
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
To see herself as a "cover girl" on the newsstands
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Her reputation as a thinker and writer was established, and a series of works followed
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Her cultural roots remained European, and her language remained her German "Muttersprache" (mother tongue)
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Became engaged with the campaign of Judah Magnes for a solution to the Israeli–Palestinian conflict
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
In an effort to forestall partition did she support a binational one-state solution
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
When she became the director of research and executive director for the newly emerging Commission on European Jewish Cultural Reconstruction, a project of the Conference on Jewish Relations
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
By Fred Stein (see image), whose work she greatly admired, has become iconic, and has been described as better known than the photographer himself, having appeared on a German postage stamp
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Paris was flooded with refugees, and she became the special agent for the rescue of the children from those countries
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
But not published till 1957, in the United Kingdom by East and West Library, part of the Leo Baeck Institute
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Arendt completed her biography of Rahel Varnhagen, although this was not published until 1957
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Arendt was stripped of her German citizenship and she and Stern divorced
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Arendt met the self-educated Berlin poet and Marxist philosopher Heinrich Blücher in Paris
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Arendt joined Youth Aliyah (Youth immigration), an organization similar to Agriculture et Artisanat that was founded in Berlin on the day Hitler seized power
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Her work for Blumenfeld and the Zionists in Germany brought her into contact with the wealthy philanthropist Baroness Germaine Alice de Rothschild (born Halphen, 1884–1975), wife of Édouard Alphonse James de Rothschild,
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Accompanying one of these groups and meeting with her cousin Ernst Fürst there
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Started working for the Zionist-funded outreach program Agriculture et Artisanat, giving lectures and organizing clothing, documents, medications and education for Jewish youth seeking to emigrate to the British Mand
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Arendt was briefly imprisoned by the Gestapo for performing illegal research into antisemitism
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Their marriage existed in name only, with their having separated in Berlin
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
And turned instead to Rahel Varnhagen and the question of assimilation
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
And attracted critical interest, although an English translation did not appear until 1996
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Arendt met Günther Stern again, this time in Berlin at a New Year's masked ball, and began a relationship with him
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Studied at Heidelberg University, doctorate (1928).
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
And Kant und das Problem der Metaphysik (1929)
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Studied at University of Marburg (1924–1926).
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Moved to the University of Heidelberg, completing her dissertation in 1928 under Karl Jaspers
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Studied at Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin (1922–1923).
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
And they were one of the few things she took with her on her flight from Berlin and escape to the United States
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
At the age of 15, for leading a boycott of a teacher who insulted her
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Martha Cohn married Martin Beerwald, an ironmonger and widower of four years, and they moved to his home, two blocks away, at Busoldstrasse 6, providing Hannah with improved social and financial security
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Born 1906-10-14.
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Hannah Arendt was born Johanna Arendt in 1906, in the Wilhelmine period.
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
As refugees from antisemitism, and made their living as tea importers, J
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Connections