History Creator / DietrichVonHildebrand

-->''"Philosophical questioning is neither an intellectual luxury nor a mere interest in an academic area but a fundamental component of the human spirit."''

Until he was fifteen, Hildebrand had private tutors, only attending the Theresien Gymnasium in Munich the last three months before making his Abitur. At this age, he developed a lifelong interest in philosophy. He enrolled at the University of Munich two years later, taking the courses of Theodor Lipps, a philosopher of aesthetics. Hildebrand joined a circle of students who initially followed Lipps's ideas, but they eventually were won over by the phenomenology of Edmund Husserl. In this circle, Hildebrand met Max Scheler and became good friends; though he did not formally study under him, Hildebrand credited Scheler for playing a significant role in his intellectual development and eventual conversion. Sadly, this friendship ended when Scheler left the Church in 1924 and eventually committed himself to pantheism.

Hildebrand was born in Florence, in the Kingdom of Italy, to sculptor Adolf von Hildebrand and Irene Schaueffelen, and lived in a former Minim friary-turned-villa on the outskirts of Florence (visitors included Music/RichardWagner, Creator/RainerMariaRilke, and Richard Strauss, the last of whom visited the Hildebrands when Dietrich was born); he was their only son and the youngest of six children. The personalities of the Hildebrands profoundly shaped Dietrich as much as the beauty of Italy, art, and music. On the other hand, the Hildebrands were ethical relativists and, being liberal Protestants, believed that Jesus Christ was merely an extraordinary man; Dietrich rejected his family's ethical relativism and accepted the divinity of Christ, even in his childhood. That said, his family respected whatever interest spontaneously arose from their children's souls and never tried to shake him out of his convictions.

Until he was fifteen, Hildebrand had private tutors, only attending the Theresien Gymnasium in Munich the last three months before making his Abitur. At this age, he developed a lifelong interest in philosophy. He enrolled at the University of Munich two years later, taking the courses of Theodor Lipps, a philosopher of aesthetics. Hildebrand joined a circle of students who initially followed Lipps's ideas, but they eventually were won over by the phenomenology of Edmund Husserl. In this circle, Hildebrand met Max Scheler and became good friends with him; though he did not formally study under him, Hildebrand credited Scheler for playing a significant role in his intellectual development and eventual conversion. Sadly, this friendship ended when Scheler left the Church in 1924 and eventually committed himself to pantheism.

Hildebrand's conversion took place in 1914, a year after assisting the first holy communion of one of his five sisters, in the Catacombs of St Calixtus in Rome. He married Margarete "Gretchen" Denck in 1912, and she was received into the Church with him.

On March 13, 1933, Hildebrand and Margarete ultimately resolved to leave Germany for good, first to Italy, then to Vienna. There, he founded the anti-Nazi weekly paper, ''The Christian Corporative State'', with the support of Chancellor Engelbert Dollfuß, and wrote some seventy articles condemning Nazism. He was also appointed a professor of philosophy at the University of Vienna in 1935, but then he learned that the Nazis sentenced him to death in absentia.

* ''What is Philosophy?'' (1960): An epistemological treatise, showcasing his phenomenological roots. He analyzes the receptivity proper to all kinds of knowledge and shows how the mind does not impose its terms on the object known, but rather receives the object on the object's own terms.

* ''Morality and Situation Ethics'' (1966): Hildebrand's critique of the concept of "situation ethics", which aims to show that morality depends on perspective and the external circumstances. Hildebrand takes care to mind the special circumstances of the individual's lives, but he ultimately shows that there are actions that are always and in every situation wrong.

Hildebrand was born in Florence, in the Kingdom of Italy, to sculptor Adolf von Hildebrand and Irene Schaueffelen, and lived in a former Minim friary-turned-villa on the outskirts of Florence (visitors included Music/RichardWagner, Creator/RainerMariaRilke, and Richard Strauss, the last of whom visited the Hildebrands when Dietrich was born); he was their only son and the youngest of six children. The family was nominally Protestant, and religion played no role in the lives of his five older sisters at this period, but a strong sense of beauty and value permeated everything. On the other hand, Dietrich also developed a strong sense of the sacred and came to believe in the divinity of Jesus Christ at the age of five; his parents, who respected whatever interest spontaneously arose from their children's souls, never tried to shake him out of his convictions.

* ''The Art of Living (1965): A book on everyday ethics, rooted in his value-based ethics.

* ''Trojan Horse in the City of God'' (1967): Hildebrand's critique of the many ways the Second Vatican Council was implemented, specifically by the so-called progressives, and its disastrous consequences, forcing Catholics to either accept the secularization of the Church or deny the authority of the Council. His answer is [[TakeAThirdOption simply to interpret the documents in continuity with tradition]], hoping that such an interpretation will result in a renewal of the spirit of Christ in the Church, which was the primary aim of the Second Vatican Council.

* ''Aesthetics'' (Vol. 1 1977, Vol. 2 1984): One of the last works that Hildebrand wrote. The first volume argues that beauty, rather than being a purely subjective phenomenon, is objective and can point to the true, the good, and ultimately the divine. The second volume applies his theory of the beautiful, using many examples from architecture, sculpture, painting, literature, and music.

Until he was fifteen, Hildebrand had private tutors, only attending the Theresien Gymnasium in Munich the last three months before making his Abitur. At this age, he developed a lifelong interest in philosophy. He enrolled at the University of Munich two years later, taking the courses of Theodor Lipps, a philosopher of aesthetics. Hildebrand joined a circle of students who initially followed Lipps's ideas, but they eventually were won over by the phenomenology of Edmund Husserl. In this circle, Hildebrand met Max Scheler and became good friends with him; though he did not formally study under him, Hildebrand credited Scheler for playing a significant role in his eventual conversion. Sadly, this friendship ended when Scheler left the Church in 1924 and eventually committed himself to pantheism.

Hildebrand was born in Florence, in the Kingdom of Italy, to sculptor Adolf von Hildebrand and Irene Schaueffelen, and lived in a former Minim friary on the outskirts of Florence; he was their only son and the youngest of six children. The family was nominally Protestant, and religion played no role in the lives of his five older sisters at this period, but a strong sense of beauty and value permeated everything. On the other hand, Dietrich also developed a strong sense of the sacred and came to believe in the divinity of Jesus Christ at the age of five; his parents, who respected whatever interest spontaneously arose from their children's souls, never tried to shake him out of his convictions.

Hildebrand retired from teaching in 1960 and spent the last years of his life writing multiple books, both in German and in English. He was very critical of the many ways in which the Second Vatican Council was implemented into the Church, especially the liturgy (the Mass of Paul VI, or the Ordinary Form); he promoted appreciation and attendance of the Tridentine Mass (the Extraordinary Form), even founding Una Voce America, an American Branch of the traditionalist Catholic federation Una Voce. That said, his work, especially that on marriage, Christian philosophy, the evil of anti-Semitism, and the inherent value of the human person, shaped many aspects of the Second Vatican Council's teachings, and Hildebrand stressed reading the council's documents in continuity with Church tradition. He also wrote in 1968 ''The Encyclical Humanae Vitae: A Sign of Contradiction'', defending the eponymous encyclical's reaffirmation of its stance on marriage and against artificial birth control.

* ''The Concept of Moral Action'' (1916): Hildebrand's dissertation, written under the direction of Husserl, who gave it a distinction of opus eximium. Hildebrand would revisit this theme with ''The Heart''.
* ''In Defense of Purity'' {1927): Hildebrand's

* ''What is Philosophy?'' (1960): An epistemological treatise, showcasing his phenomenological roots. He analyzes the receptivity proper to all kinds of knowledge, and shows how the mind does not impose its terms on the object known, but rather receives the object on the object's own terms.

* ''Morality and Situation Ethics'' (1966): Hildebrand's critique of "situation ethics", which aims to show that morality depends on perspective and external circumstances. Hildebrand takes care to mind the special circumstances of the individual's lives, but he ultimately shows that there are actions that are always and in every situation wrong.

* ''On Gratitude'' (1980):
* ''My Battle Against Hitler'' (2014): A collection of writings chronicling his struggles against Nazism, published long after his death. The first part is a memoir he wrote at the request of his second wife Alice, who was over thirty years his junior, and details his life from childhood to his escape from Vienna. The second part is a selection of his essays against Nazism.

* ''The Concept of Moral Action'' (1916): Hildebrand's dissertation, which earned the distinction opus eximium from Edmund Husserl. Hildebrand would revisit this theme with ''The Heart''.
* ''In Defense of Purity'' {1927):

* ''Liturgy and Personality'' (1933):
* ''Transformation in Christ'' (1940)
* ''Ethics'' (1953):
* ''The New Tower of Babel'' (1953):
* ''Graven Images: Substitutes for True Morality'' (1957):
* ''What is Philosophy?'' (1960):
* ''The Heart'' (1965):
* ''The Art of Living (1965):
* ''Morality and Situation Ethics'' (1966):

* ''Aesthetics'' (Vol. 1 1977, Vol. 2 1984):
* ''Jaws of Death: Gate of Heaven'' (1980):

* ''My Battle Against Hitler'' (2014):

Pope St John Paul II greatly admired the philosophical work of Hildebrand, and he once told his widow Alice: "Your husband is one of the great ethicists of the twentieth century." Pope Benedict XVI, whom Hildebrand knew as a young priest in Munich, remarked: "I am personally convinced that when, at some point in the future, the intellectual history of the Catholic Church in the twentieth century is written, the name of Dietrich von Hildebrand will be most prominent among the figures of our time."

Until he was fifteen, Hildebrand had private tutors, only attending the Theresien Gymnasium in Munich the last three months before making his Abitur. At this age, he developed a lifelong interest in philosophy. He enrolled at the University of Munich two years later, taking the courses of Theodor Lipps, a philosopher of aesthetics. Hildebrand joined a circle of students who initially followed Lipps's ideas, but they eventually were won over by the phenomenology of Edmund Husserl. In this circle, Hildebrand met Max Scheler and became good friends with him; though he did not formally study under him, Hildebrand credited Scheler for playing a significant role in his eventual conversion in 1914. Sadly, this friendship ended when Scheler left the Church in 1924 and eventually committed himself to pantheism.

As early as 1921, Hildebrand was a staunch critic of the Nazi Party, which had formed a year prior. He examined its intellectual and spiritual roots and condemned it for being anti-Christian and contrary to true philosophical views, leading the Nazi Party to blacklist him. After Adolf Hitler's Putsch in 1923, Hildebrand was forced to flee from Munich, but Hitler's rise to power in 1933 made Hildebrand realize that he should either keep silent while witnessing Nazi persecution or face imprisonment in a concentration camp.

Hildebrand retired from teaching in 1960 and spent the last years of his life writing multiple books, both in German and in English. He was a staunch critic of the many ways in which the Second Vatican Council was implemented into the Church, especially the liturgy (the Mass of Paul VI, or the Ordinary Form); he promoted appreciation and attendance of the Tridentine Mass (the Extraordinary Form), even founding Una Voce America, an American Branch of the traditionalist Catholic federation Una Voce. That said, his work, especially that on marriage, Christian philosophy, the evil of anti-Semitism, and the inherent value of the human person, shaped many aspects of the Second Vatican Council's teachings, and Hildebrand stressed reading the council's documents in continuity with Church tradition.

On July 29, 1957, Margarete died, and Hildebrand married Alice Marie Jourdain, a philosopher and theologian who was a student of his at Fordham, two years later. In the meantime, Hildebrand also wrote more works, including ''Ethics'' (1952), ''The New Tower of Babel'' (1953), and ''Graven Images: Substitutes for True Morality'' (1955), which he co-wrote with Alice. He also wrote a memoir to Alice chronicling his life before

Hildebrand retired from teaching in 1960 and spent the last years of his life writing multiple books, both in German and in English. He was a staunch critic of the many ways in which the Second Vatican Council was implemented into the Church, especially the liturgy (the Mass of Paul VI); he promoted appreciation and attendance of the Tridentine Mass, even founding Una Voce America, an American Branch of the traditionalist Catholic federation Una Voce. That said, his work, especially that on marriage, Christian philosophy, the evil of anti-Semitism, and the inherent value of the human person, shaped many aspects of the Second Vatican Council's teachings, and Hildebrand stressed reading the council's texts in continuity with Church tradition.

Hildebrand was born in Florence, in the Kingdom of Italy, to sculptor Adolf von Hildebrand and Irene Schaueffelen, and lived in a former Minim friary on the outskirts of Florence. He was their only son and the youngest of six children. The family was nominally Protestant, and religion played no role in the lives of his five older sisters at this period, but a strong sense of beauty and value permeated everything. On the other hand, Hildebrand developed a strong sense of the sacred as well and came to believe in the divinity of Jesus Christ at the age of five; his parents, who respected whatever interest spontaneously rouse from their children's souls, never tried to shake him out of his convictions.

Until he was fifteen, Hildebrand had private tutors, only attending the Theresien Gymnasium in Munich the last three months before making his Abitur. At this age, he developed a lifelong interest in philosophy. He enrolled at the University of Munich two years later, taking the courses of Theodor Lipps, a philosopher of aesthetics. Hildebrand joined a circle of students who initially followed Lipps' ideas, but they eventually were won over by the phenomenology of Edmund Husserl. In this circle, Hildebrand met Max Scheler and became good friends with him; though he did not formally study under him, Hildebrand credited Scheler for playing a significant role in his conversion (Hildebrand married his first wife, Margarete "Gretchen" Denck, in 1912, and the couple was received into the Church in 1914). Sadly, this friendship ended when Scheler left the Church in 1924 and eventually committed himself to pantheism.

On March 13, 1933, Hildebrand and his wife ultimately resolved to leave Germany for good, first to Italy, then to Vienna. There, he founded the anti-Nazi weekly paper, ''The Christian Corporative State'', with the support of Chancellor Engelbert Dollfuß, and wrote some seventy articles condemning Nazism. He was also appointed a professor of philosophy at the University of Vienna in 1935, but then he learned that the Nazis sentenced him to death in absentia.

In 1938, Hitler annexed Austria, and Hildebrand was forced to flee again; he, after the members of the Austrian government, was at the top of the Gestapo's list of arrests, which he considered an honor. On March 11, Hildebrand and his wife fled to the border of Czechoslovakia; the Gestapo raided Hildebrand's apartment five hours later, only to find it empty. Hildebrand then fled to Switzerland, then moved to France, where he became a professor at the Catholic University of Toulouse at the invitation of its rector, Msgr. Bruno de Solages.

Hildebrand retired from teaching in 1960 and spent the last years of his life writing multiple books, both in German and in English. He was a staunch critic of the many ways in which the Second Vatican Council was implemented into the Church, especially the liturgy (the Mass of Paul VI); he promoted appreciation and attendance of the Tridentine Mass, even founding Una Voce America, an American Branch of the traditionalist Catholic federation Una Voce. That said, his work, especially that on marriage, Christian philosophy, the evil of anti-Semitism, and especially the inherent value of the human person, shaped many aspects of the Second Vatican Council's teachings, and Hildebrand stressed reading the council's texts in continuity with Church tradition.

Hildebrand was born in Florence, in the Kingdom of Italy, to sculptor Adolf von Hildebrand and Irene Schaueffelen; he was their only son and the youngest of six children. The family lived in a former Minim friary on the outskirts of Florence, and everything was nourished by a strong sense of the beautiful. The family was nominally Protestant, and religion played no role in the lives of his five older sisters at this period, but Hildebrand developed a deep sense of beauty, value, and the sacred from an early age and came to believe in the divinity of Jesus Christ at the age of five; his parents, who respected whatever interest spontaneously rouse from their children's souls, never tried to shake him out of his convictions.

In 1938, Hitler annexed Austria, and Hildebrand was forced to flee again; he, after the members of the Austrian government, was at the top of their list of arrests, which he considered an honor. On March 11, Hildebrand and his wife fled to the border of Czechoslovakia; the Gestapo raided Hildebrand's apartment five hours later, only to find it empty. Hildebrand then fled to Switzerland, then moved to France, where he became a professor at the Catholic University of Toulouse at the invitation of its rector, Msgr. Bruno de Solages.

Hildebrand was a staunch critic of Nazism as early as 1921, when the Nazi Party was at its most nascent stages. He condemned it for being anti-Christian and contrary to true philosophical views, leading the Nazi Party to blacklist him. After Adolf Hitler's Putsch in 1923, Hildebrand was forced to flee from Munich, but Hitler's rise to power in 1933 made Hildebrand realize that he should either keep silent while witnessing Nazi persecution or face imprisonment in a concentration camp. Hildebrand and his wife ultimately resolved to leave Germany on March 13, 1933, first to Italy, then to Vienna.

When he came to Vienna, he founded the anti-Nazi weekly paper, ''The Christian Corporative State'', with the support of Chancellor Engelbert Dollfuß, and wrote some seventy articles condemning Nazism. He was also appointed a professor of philosophy at the University of Vienna in 1935, but then he learned that the Nazis sentenced him to death in absentia.

In 1938, Hitler annexed Austria, and Hildebrand was forced to flee again; he, after the members of the Austrian government, was at the top of their list of arrests, which he considered an honor. On March 11, Hildebrand and his wife fled to the border of Czechoslovakia; the Gestapo raided Hildebrand's apartment five hours later, only to find it empty. Hildebrand then fled to Switzerland, then moved to France, where he became a professor at the Catholic University of Tolouse at the invitation of its rector, Msgr. Bruno de Solages.

When the Nazis invaded France in 1940, Hildebrand was forced into hiding, but after many hardships, he, with the heroic aid of Frenchmen, including French Minister of Justice Edmond Michelet, the Dominicans at Marseilles, and the American journalist Varian Fry, got an exit visa on September 7, 1940. When he arrived in Lisbon, Hildebrand received a letter stating that he was one of the hundred European scholars invited by a Professor Alvin Johnson to come to the United States. From there, he traveled by ship to Brazil, then to New York on December 23, 1940. He learned that he was appointed a member of the faculty of the Graduate School of Fordham University, and taught there since February of 1941.

On July 29, 1957, Margarete died; Hildebrand married Alice Marie Jourdain, a philosopher and theologian who was a student of his at Fordham, two years later. In the meantime, Hildebrand also wrote more works, including ''Ethics'' (1952), ''The New Tower of Babel'' (1953), and ''Graven Images: Substitutes for True Morality'' (1955), which he co-wrote with Alice.

Hildebrand retired from teaching in 1960 and spent the last years of his life writing multiple books, both in German and in English. He was a staunch critic of the many ways in which the Second Vatican Council was implemented into the Church, especially the liturgy (the Mass of Paul VI); he promoted appreciation and attendance of the Tridentine Mass, even founding Una Voce America, an American Branch of the traditionalist Catholic federation Una Voce. That said, his work, especially that on marriage, Christian philosophy, the evil of anti-Semitism, and especialy the inherent value of the human person, shaped many aspects of the Second Vatican Council's teachings, and Hildebrand stressed reading the council's texts in continuity with Church tradition.

Dietrich Richard Alfred von Hildebrand (12 October 1889 - 26 January 1977) was a German philosopher and writer. Informally called "the 20th Century Doctor of the Church" by Pope Pius XII, he was a major figure in the phenomenological and personalist movements in philosophy, writing on every major field in philosophy, like ethics, metaphysics, epistemology, aesthetics, and more.

Hildebrand was born in Florence, in the Kingdom of Italy, to sculptor Adolf von Hildebrand and Irene Schäuffelen; he was their only son and the youngest of six children. The family lived in a former Minim friary on the outskirts of Florence, and everything was nourished by a strong sense of the beautiful. The family was nominally Protestant, and religion played no role in the lives of his five older sisters at this period, but Hildebrand developed a deep sense of beauty, value, and the sacred from an early age and came to believe in the divinity of Jesus Christ at the age of five; his parents, who respected whatever interest spontaneously rouse from their children's souls, never tried to shake him out of his convictions.

Until he was fifteen, Hildebrand had private tutors, only attending the Theresien Gymnasium in Munich the last three months before making his Abitur. At this age, he developed a lifelong interest in philosophy. He enrolled at the University of Munich two years later, taking the courses of Theodor Lipps, a philosopher of aesthetics. Hildebrand joined a circle of students who initially followed Lipps' ideas, but they eventually were won over by the phenomenology of Edmund Husserl. In this circle, Hildebrand met Max Scheler and became good friends with him; he credited Scheler for playing a significant role in his conversion (Hildebrand married his first wife, Margarete Denck, in 1912, and the couple was received into the Church in 1914). Sadly, this friendship ended when Scheler left the Church in 1924 and eventually committed himself to pantheism.

Upon the outbreak of World War I, Hildebrand was drafted as a physician's assistant in Munich. During this time, he became acquainted with Friedrich Wilhelm Foerster, a staunch critic of German nationalism, and came to his defence when he was attacked. At the end of the war, Hildebrand was given the position of privatdozent at the University of Munich, where he became an associate professor in 1924. In between, he published ''Morality and the Knowledge of Moral Values'' in 1921.

As early as 1921, Hildebrand was a very staunch critic of Nazism, condemning it for being anti-Christian and contrary to true philosophical views. This led to the Nazis blacklisting him, and Hildebrand became its public enemy number one, which he deemed a great honour. After Adolf Hitler's Putsch in 1923, Hildebrand was forced to flee from Munich, but Hitler's rise to power in 1933 made Hildebrand realize that he should either keep silent while witnessing Nazi persecution or face imprisonment in a concentration camp. Hildebrand ultimately resolved to leave Germany on March 13, 1933.

[[caption-width-right:405:some caption text]]

Hildebrand was born in Florence, in the Kingdom of Italy, to sculptor Adolf von Hildebrand and Irene Schäuffelen; he was their only son and the youngest of six children. The family lived in a former Minim friary on the outskirts of Florence, and everything was permeated by Adolf's artistic genius. The family was secular, and religion played no role in the lives of his five older sisters at this period, but Hildebrand developed a deep sense of beauty, value, and the sacred from an early age, believing in Jesus Christ at the age of five; his parents, who respected whatever interest spontaneously rouse from their children's souls, never tried to shake him out of his convictions.

In 1909, Hildebrand attended the University of Göttingen, where he completed his doctorate in philosophy under Husserl and Adolf Reinach, whom he credited with shaping his philosophical views.

Upon the outbreak of World War I, Hildebrand was drafted as a physician's assistant in Munich. During this time, he became acquainted with Friedrich Wilhelm Foerster, a staunch critic of German nationalism, and came to his defence when he was attacked.

Until he was fifteen, Hildebrand had private tutors, only attending the Theresien Gymnasium in Munich the last three months before making his Abitur. At this age, he developed a lifelong interest in philosophy. He enrolled at the University of Munich two years later, taking the courses of Theodor Lipps, a philosopher of aesthetics. Hildebrand joined a circle of students who initially followed Lipps' ideas, but they eventually were won over by the phenomenology of Edmund Husserl. In this circle, Hildebrand met Max Scheler, and the two became great friends. It was because of Scheler (and his depiction of St. Francis of Assisi) that Hildebrand became a Catholic.