Karl Jaspers
Karl Jaspers, an exceedingly influential German philosopher, was born in February of 1883 and lived through the rein of the Third Reich as one half of an intermarried couple. His wife, Gertrud Mayer was a Jewish woman, born in February of 1879. The couple wed in 1910, while Mayer was working under psychiatrist Oskar Kohnstamms at a sanatorium as an assistant. Jaspers was, at the time, a research assistant at the University of Heidelberg in the psychiatric clinic, having received an M.D a year previously.
Jaspers himself was well known by the time the Nazi regime came to power in 1933. Born in Oldenburg, Germany to banker and representative of parliament Carl Wilhelm Jaspers and mother Henriette Tantzen, his early years were influenced by North German liberalist politics and North German Protestantism. As a child, Jaspers was affected by chronic bronchiectasis, which limited his physical ability and shaped his view on human suffering. Although starting out as a law student at University of Heidelberg, he ultimately, and quite famously, switched tracks to the medical field, where he studied with/under well-known psychiatrists Nissil, Willmanned, Gruhle, and more. By 1913, Jaspers had published General psychopathology, earned a second doctorate in psychology, and worked as an Associate Professor of Psychology at the University of Heidelberg.
It was this growing reputation that ultimately allowed Jaspers and his wife to remain alive during the Nazi era. His marriage to a Jewish woman placed him in a position as an “enemy of the state”, and his unwillingness to promote or approve of National Socialist ideology resulted in his ban from publication. In 1937, he was removed from his role as full professorial chair of philosophy at Heidelberg, a spot he held since 1922. Before 1937, he had managed to publish multiple works. In 1935, he published Vernunft und Existenz (Reason and Existence), Nietzsche: An Introduction to the Understanding of his Philosophical Activity in 1936, and essay Descartes und die Philosophie in the Journal of Philosophy in 1937.
In realizing the dangers of remaining in Germany as an intermarried couple, Karl and Gertrud applied for emigration Switzerland. In 1942, permission was granted- but with the stipulation that Gertrud remain in Germany. Jaspers refused to leave without his wife, and the couple remained in Germany as a consequence. Worrying about arrest, the couple’s friends hid Gertrud until emigration became possible. By 1945, they were told that their deportation date was set in April; this was futile, however, as March 1945 saw the occupation by Americans in Heidelburg. After the completion of the war, Jaspers continued to produce works for his field, such as Von der Wahrheit (“Of Truth”), published 1946 and 1947. He once again worked at University of Heidelberg and hoped to bring about a “moral and political rebirth” of Germany. His goal was to rebuild and reassert Heidelburg as an institution and to completely erase traces of Nazism. In 1946, he published Die Idee der Universität (The Idea of the University, 1959), and Die Schuldfrage (The Question of German Guilt; 1947). In 1948, Jaspers accepted a position as Professor of Philosophy in Basel, Switzerland. In 1969, Jaspers died. At his death, his written/published books numbered at 30. He was considered a Swiss citizen, as he turned in his German passport in 1967.Gertrud Jaspers passed away in 1974.
Written by Carmelina Moersch