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Rahel Varnhagen

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First published: 1957
Pages: 234

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About this book

Hannah Arendt, a political philosopher wrote a book-length biography titled "Rahel Varnhagen The Life of a Jewess." Arendt finished what was originally intended to be her Habilitationsschrift while living in exile as a refugee; however, the East and West Library did not publish it in English until 1957 in London, United Kingdom. The book explores the life of Jewish socialite Rahel Varnhagen in the nineteenth century.

Arendt explores the delusion of a genuine German-Jewish "symbiosis" and the endangered status of her subject against the backdrop of the devastating destruction of German-Jewish civilization. Arendt's personal experience as a German Jewish lady expelled from her own culture and forced to live as a stateless person is also reflected in the book.

About the author

Hannah Arendt

Arendt fled Germany in 1933 after a brief arrest for researching propaganda against Jews, was interned by the French at Gurs in 1940, escaped, and reached New York in 1941 stateless. The Origins of Totalitarianism argues that the two totalitarian systems were a new kind of state rather than old tyranny scaled up.