Public Figure Profiles

Hannah Arendt

Hannah Arendt (14 October 1906 – 4 December 1975) was a political philosopher, author, and Holocaust survivor. She is widely considered to be one of the most influential political theorists of the 20th century.Arendt was born in Linden, which later became a district of Hanover, in 1906, to a Jewish family. At the age of three, her family moved to Königsberg, the capital of East Prussia, so that her father's syphilis could be treated. Paul Arendt had contracted the disease in his youth, and it was thought to be in remission when Arendt was born. He died when she was seven. Arendt was raised in a politically progressive, secular family. Her mother was an ardent supporter of the Social Democrats. After completing her secondary education in Berlin, she studied at the University of Marburg under Martin Heidegger, with whom she had a four-year affair. She obtained her doctorate in philosophy writing on Love and Saint Augustine at the University of Heidelberg in 1929 under the direction of the existentialist philosopher Karl Jaspers.

Hannah Arendt married Günther Stern in 1929, but soon began to encounter increasing anti-Jewish discrimination in 1930s Nazi Germany. In 1933, the year Adolf Hitler came to power, Arendt was arrested and briefly imprisoned by the Gestapo for performing illegal research into antisemitism in Nazi Germany. On release, she fled Germany, living in Czechoslovakia and Switzerland before settling in Paris. There she worked for Youth Aliyah, assisting young Jews to emigrate to the British Mandate of Palestine. Divorcing Stern in 1937, she married Heinrich Blücher in 1940, but when Germany invaded France in 1940 she was detained by the French as an alien, despite having been stripped of her German citizenship in 1937. She escaped and made her way to the United States in 1941 via Portugal. She settled in New York, which remained her principal residence for the rest of her life. She became a writer and editor and worked for the Jewish Cultural Reconstruction, becoming an American citizen in 1950. With the publication of The Origins of Totalitarianism in 1951, her reputation as a thinker and writer was established and a series of works followed. These included the books The Human Condition in 1958, as well as Eichmann in Jerusalem and On Revolution in 1963. She taught at many American universities, while declining tenure-track appointments. She died suddenly of a heart attack in 1975, at the age of 69, leaving her last work, The Life of the Mind, unfinished.

Her works cover a broad range of topics, but she is best known for those dealing with the nature of power and evil, as well as politics, direct democracy, authority, and totalitarianism. In the popular mind she is best remembered for the controversy surrounding the trial of Adolf Eichmann, her attempt to explain how ordinary people become actors in totalitarian systems, which was considered by some an apologia, and for the phrase "the banality of evil". She is commemorated by institutions and journals devoted to her thinking, the Hannah Arendt Prize for political thinking, and on stamps, street names and schools, amongst other things.

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Some of their strengths

Hannah Arendt has many admirable traits.

Based on spiritual traditions from around the world, they are someone who can be described as Intelligent, Passionate, Curious, Intuitive, Caring, Ambitious, and Diplomatic.

Intelligent and Inquisitive

According to Mysticism’s Astrology tradition, Hannah Arendt is someone who is an intelligent, inquisitive, and imaginative person, who is practical, considerate, kind, and diplomatic in dealings with others. A person who seems to identify with family, heritage and ancestry.

Charming and Sophisticated

Based on Daoism’s Ba-Zi or ‘Chinese Zodiac’ tradition, people who know Hannah Arendt well know them as someone who can be classy, glamorous, and worldly, like jewelry.

Inventive and Clever

According to Hinduism’s Jyotisha or ‘Vedic Astrology’ tradition, many would also describe Hannah Arendt as someone who is flexible, intelligent, and quick-witted.

A person who likes to be creative, and to be recognized for their artistic talents. Who possesses intelligence, mental discipline, and ambition, and who does well in relationships and partnerships.

Perceptive and Visionary

Based on the Mayan Tzolk’in or ‘Mayan Astrology’ tradition, Hannah Arendt is someone who has a natural awareness about what is going on in the surrounding environment and the world at large, and a refined vision of how to navigate it.

They are also someone who is intuitive, imaginative, and an agent of change, and who is always dreaming of life's great possibilities and partnering with people to try to achieve those possibilities.

Justice-seeking and Peaceful

According to Judaism’s Kabbalah tradition, Hannah Arendt tends to be someone who loves peace and is ready to go to any costs to achieve it. Who has a taste for the good things in life, tends to be a good organizer, has a thirst for knowledge, and who tends to have the respect of friends and acquaintances.

Some of Hannah Arendt's challenges

While Hannah Arendt has many strengths, nobody is perfect. They also have some challenging traits they need to manage.

For example, Hannah Arendt can be Emotional, Unrealistic, Hesitant, Narcissistic, Difficult, Perfectionist, and Standoffish.

Hesitant and Narcissistic

One of Hannah Arendt's key challenges is that they are someone who can be hesitant and narcissistic.

Hannah Arendt must also exercise caution as they can be excessive and unrealistic.

Unfocused and Indecisive

Hannah Arendt is someone who can be scattered, restless, and insensitive, be distracted by fluctuating professional interests, be a workaholic, and who can be arrogant and have difficulty accepting advice.

Pleasure-seeking and Indecisive

Finally, Hannah Arendt also can put others first too much, and hem-and-haw too much when making a decision.

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