University ArchivesUniversität Heidelberg Receives Transcripts of Lectures by Karl Jaspers
26 June 2024
The two notebooks come from the Jewish philosophy student Eva Hildesheimer, who left Germany to flee National Socialism
The Heidelberg University Archives have received transcripts of two lectures by the philosopher Karl Jaspers from 1932 and 1933. They came from the Jewish student Eva Hildesheimer, who had to abandon her studies in 1933 and left Germany when the National Socialists came to power. The two notebooks, each containing around 50 pages, were presented to the Rector of Heidelberg University, Prof. Dr Frauke Melchior, by her son Giora Teltsch at a small ceremony. The lectures by Karl Jaspers that Eva Hildesheimer documented are a course on the “History of Modern Philosophy” from the summer semester of 1932 and a lecture on the philosopher Immanuel Kant from the winter semester of 1932/1933.
“Eva Hildesheimer’s notebooks are a reminder of both a former student at our university and the Heidelberg philosopher Karl Jaspers. But they also remind us of how frighteningly quickly Heidelberg University, which was considered liberal, became a university shaped by National Socialism during this time,” said Prof. Melchior, thanking the family for providing the documents. Giora Teltsch emphasised that the notebooks clearly meant a lot to his mother. They were most recently kept by the German philologist and Heidelberg alumna, Dr Christa Geitner, a stepdaughter of Eva Hildesheimer’s brother, who was also present for the donation. Dr Ingo Runde, the head of the University Archives, showcased the work of his institution during the ceremony, and his deputy Gabriel Meyer spoke about the importance of student sources. Eva Hildesheimer’s two notebooks, as Dr Runde explained, can now be academically evaluated.
Eva Hildesheimer (1914-2010), who graduated from high school in Mannheim, initially enrolled in the summer semester of 1932 at Heidelberg University to study natural sciences, but later switched to philosophy. After the winter semester of 1932/33 – Adolf Hitler had been appointed Chancellor at this point – she ended her studies at Heidelberg University early, emigrating to Palestine via London with her parents and her younger brother Wolfgang, who later made a name for himself as a writer and Mozart biographer. In the 1960s, Eva Hildesheimer, who had since adopted the name Hava and her husband’s surname Teltsch, worked in the Israeli Foreign Ministry, among other places. After her retirement, she intensified her voluntary activities in the social and cultural spheres.
Karl Jaspers (1883-1969) is considered one of the most important German-speaking philosophers of the 20th century. He lived in Heidelberg from 1906 to 1948 and was Professor of Philosophy at Heidelberg University from 1922 until his dismissal by the Nazi regime in 1937. His wife Gertrud came from a Jewish merchant family and was only able to survive thanks to her marriage to Jaspers, despite considerable reprisals faced by both of them. After the war, Karl Jaspers was a member of the so-called Committee of Thirteen, who organised the rebuilding of Heidelberg University. He resumed his academic work at the university, which awarded him the title of Honorary Senator in 1946. Partly due to disappointment with the political developments in the immediate post-war period, which saw no serious discussion of the Nazi era, Jaspers moved to the University of Basel in 1948, becoming a Swiss citizen in 1967.