Rüdiger Safranski

Rüdiger Safranski was born in 1945 in Rottweil, Baden-Württemberg. From 1965 he studied philosophy (under Theodor W. Adorno among others), German studies, history and art history in Frankfurt am Main and Berlin. From 1972 to 1977 he worked as a research assistant at the Free University of Berlin. Safranski received his doctorate in 1976 with a thesis on "Studies on the Development of Workers' Literature in the Federal Republic". Afterwards he was co-editor and editor of the "Berliner Hefte". From 1977 Safranski worked for three years as a lecturer in adult education, before he settled in 1987 as a freelance writer in Berlin. Safranski lives in Berlin and Munich. Especially through his monographs of Schiller, E. T. A. Hoffmann, Schopenhauer, Nietzsche and Heidegger the author became known. In 2005, he married his long-time partner Gisela Nicklaus. Since 1999, Safranski has been a member of the PEN Center and a member of the German Academy of Language and Literature in Darmstadt. From 2002 to 2012, together with the philosopher Peter Sloterdijk, he moderated the program "Philosophical Quartet" on ZDF. In 2009 he was awarded the Corine literary prize for his life's work. Since 2009 he lives in Badenweiler, Baden-Württemberg.