Bernard-Henri Lévy

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Bernard-Henri Lévy (2011)

Bernard-Henri Lévy (self-designation: BHL ; born November 5, 1948 in Béni Saf , French Algeria ) is a French journalist , publicist and co-founder of the Nouvelle philosophy . He writes regularly for the weekly magazine Le Point , is one of the directors of the publishing house Éditions Grasset, publishes the journal La Règle du Jeu and is a shareholder in the daily newspaper Liberation .

Life

Training and career entry

Lévy comes from a rich family, his father André Lévy was the owner of the wood processing company Becob. The Jewish family moved to Paris from Beni-Saf in Algeria shortly after he was born . He was sent to the elite high school Lycée Louis-le-Grand , where he passed the entrance exam for the ENS , where he studied philosophy . He then started as a journalist for the newspaper Combat , for which he traveled to Bangladesh in 1971 as a war correspondent . In the 1970s he co-founded the Nouvelle Philosophie group, a group of authors who turned and wrote against pro- Marxist philosophers like Jean-Paul Sartre from an anti- totalitarian perspective . This also gave Lévy the first media attention from abroad and television. In 1973 he was hired by the Grasset publishing house.

Viewpoints and reception

Lévy is considered by followers to be the heir of Jean-Paul Sartre (in terms of meaning, not content). Lévy calls himself after his initials "BHL", this abbreviation has been used in the media since then. The newspaper Die Welt wrote of Lévy that he saw "the public as a battlefield on which it is not the truth or even better arguments that count, but successful campaigns and maneuvers". In 2010, Der Spiegel magazine described him as the best-known and arguably most controversial political intellectual from France.

Clear criticisms (such as allegations of inaccuracy and factual errors) of his philosophy writings come from, among others, the philosopher Cornelius Castoriadis , the historian Pierre Vidal-Naquet (later also allegations of fundamental dishonesty towards Lévy) and the political scientist Raymond Aron . Lévy rejected criticism of his work as a " thought police ", which in 1979 caused the height of controversy between him and critics.

Lévy supported the presidency of François Mitterrand (1981-1995) and was appointed chairman of the state film commission by him. In this position, Lévy financially supported his own films as well as films with his wife Arielle Dombasle . In 1993 he spoke out in the media for the election of Édouard Balladur and was appointed chairman of the board of directors of the TV channel ARTE . In the Bosnian War (1992 to 1995) he spoke out in favor of independence from Bosnia and Herzegovina. In this context he worked as one of the directors of the film Bosna! The film received polarized reviews, but was commercially successful and was nominated for the 1995 César Film Prize. His second film, Le jour et la nuit (1997), on the other hand, was neither critically nor commercially successful. In the late 1990s he spoke out (according to Russian media) for recognition of Aslan Maskhadov as President and Shamil Basayev as Prime Minister of Chechnya .

In 1995 Lévy inherited the Becob company from his father and became its manager. In a report by the Canadian government, Lévy was accused, among other things, of the fact that under his leadership African workers were treated like slaves in the company. He came into distress over allegations of insider trading and a threatened charge of tax evasion, which was canceled by then Finance Minister Nicolas Sarkozy . Lévy later sold the Becob company to the multi-billionaire François Pinault .

He became known in Europe, among other things, because he, supported by a chauffeur and correspondent for the Atlantic Monthly , traveled for a year (in the footsteps of Alexis de Tocqueville , as he himself claims) through the USA and wrote a book about it Has. The aim was to describe the culture in the USA. Lévy met for interviews with celebrities like Sharon Stone and especially with neoconservatives like Paul Wolfowitz , Samuel P. Huntington and William Kristol .

Lévy expects more patriotism from Europeans , as is more widespread in the USA, according to Lévy, and sharply criticizes multinationalism and multiculturalism in Europe. He is one of the signatories of the Manifesto of the 12 against Islamism as a new totalitarian threat. However, he later added in interviews, in contrast to some of the co-signatories, that the Koran and Islam are not an evil and that it only refers specifically to fundamentalism. While he was the neoconservatives in the US such. B. Wolfowitz praises, he saw George W. Bush as an inadequate president for them, he had a "lack of stature" and was unsuitable for the job, Lévy said. In connection with his book about the USA, he also frequently criticized the political left , which he describes as anti-American with its opposition to the Iraq war and the allegations that Bush's policies are also a terrorist. In countries like the USA, where there was less opposition to the Iraq war, Lévy criticized the left as being passive and uninterested.

In 2007 Lévy refused to call for the election of Nicolas Sarkozy, among other things (according to Lévy) because of Sarkozy's criticism of the generation of the 68 movement , to which Lévy himself belongs. In 2008 he journalistically supported the Georgian side in the Georgian war and described the Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili as a democrat and resistance fighter. This also met with criticism in part in the western media; In the FAZ Lorenz Jäger accused him of "Russophobia". In 2009 he and Michel Houellebecq published the book Enemies of the People , in which dialogues between the two authors are recorded. The then Spiegel author Matthias Matussek praised it as a debate highlight. The Zeit author Martina Meister, on the other hand, did not find it philosophically outstanding, but as an entertaining invention of "philotainment". Deutschlandradio author Walter van Rossum saw the book as an uninteresting self-presentation by both authors; there is no trace of a real exchange of blows (as announced by the publisher).

In 2010 Lévy published the book Vom Krieg in der Philosophie , in which, with reference to Jean-Baptiste Botul , he deals very critically with Immanuel Kant and classifies him as “angry lunatic of thought”. This caused greater ridicule in reviews and reluctant comments from supporters of the book, since (unnoticed by Lévy) Botul and his alleged works are merely the invention of a French satirical magazine.

In 2012 he called for Western intervention in Syria - despite a Russian and Chinese veto in the UN Security Council. In forming a coalition against Bashar al-Assad, France must take on the role of "the initiator, the pacemaker, the architect".

Lévy is one of the 89 people from the European Union against whom Russia imposed an entry ban in May 2015 .

African conflicts

At the beginning of March 2011, he traveled to Benghazi to contact the Libyan National Transitional Council and (as he himself said) to promote “a war with the aim of overthrowing Gaddafi ”. He welcomed the participation of France in the international military operation in Libya in 2011 and criticized the German reluctance as harmful to the Franco-German relationship. He suggested to Sarkozy that the National Transitional Council be recognized as the sole representation of Libya. Diana Johnstone described Lévy's advice in an article in the US magazine Counterpunch as influential for French politics, but criticized the fact that, contrary to his claims to influence, Lévy was just as unelected as Gaddafi. Kay Sokolowsky sees him as a “philosopher actor” and “busybody”. He only knows one opinion that counts - his own. The fact that he basically takes a view that is shared by most does not irritate him, as he assumes that the crowd dances "to his tune, instead of him, the pipe-whistle, to her".

In January 2013 the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung published its statement on the conflict in Mali .

During a short visit to Tunisia on October 31, 2014, demonstrators who blocked the main exit of the airport booed him. He is said to have planned a meeting with the Tunisian Islamist leader Rached Ghannouchi and the Libyan jihadist Belhaj .

Private

He has been married to the actress and singer Arielle Dombasle for the third time since 1993 . His daughter from his first marriage, Justine Lévy , is also a writer.

Honors

Works

Books

  • Barbarism with a human face. ( La barbarie à visage humain. ) Rowohlt Taschenbuch Verlag, Reinbek near Hamburg 1978. ISBN 3-499-14276-7
  • Sartre. The philosopher of the 20th century. Hanser, Munich / Vienna 2002, ISBN 3-446-20148-3 .
  • God's testament. Man in the fight against violence and ideology. ( Le testament de Dieu. ) Molden, Vienna [ua] 1980. ISBN 3-217-01060-4
  • The devil in the head. Munich, 1986.
  • The adventurous ways of freedom , 1992.
  • Who Murdered Daniel Pearl ? Econ, Munich 2003, ISBN 3-430-11206-0
  • American Vertigo: In Search of the Soul of America , 2007.
  • Enemies of the people: An exchange of blows , correspondence with Michel Houellebecq, Dumont Verlag, Cologne 2009, ISBN 978-3-8321-9518-2
  • Ce grand cadavre à la renverse . Paris 2007 (Grasset), ISBN 978-2-246-68821-1

Movie

In 1997 Lévy directed the romantic film Le Jour et la Nuit . This was panned by the French film critics and described as the "worst film in decades" ( Cahiers du cinéma ) or "worst film in history" ( Slate magazine ).

literature

  • Arno Frank: Minister for Vanity. Bernard-Henri Lévy on a European tour for a good cause - and your own ego . In: Der Spiegel . No. 15 , April 6, 2019, p. 102 .
  • Dominique Lecourt: The mediocracy. French philosophy since the mid-1970s . Verso, London 2002, ISBN 978-1-85984-430-4 .

Web links

Commons : Bernard-Henri Lévy  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Gero von Randow: Cuddling with the mighty . In: ZEIT ONLINE . February 28, 2017 ( zeit.de [accessed September 27, 2018]).
  2. ↑ Die Welt: Houellebecq defends egoism and cowardice , welt.de, December 2009
  3. ↑ Spiegel interview “I'm waging war”. In: Der Spiegel No. 14/2010, p. 126.
  4. ^ La critique du Testament de Dieu de Bernard-Henri Lévy par Pierre Vidal-Naquet dans Le Nouvel Observateur en juin 1979, la réponse de BHL et le commentaire de Cornelius Castoriadis
  5. ^ A b The Lies of Bernard-Henri Lévy , by Doug Ireland , March 3, 2006
  6. ↑ Oliver Hahn: ARTE - the European cultural channel. Verlag Reinhard Fischer, 1997, p. 219
  7. ^ Sarkozy and Libya: Call from the war philosopher , RIA Novosti, April 1, 2011 ( memento of April 7, 2011 in the Internet Archive )
  8. ^ Zeit-Online: A Parisian in America , March 2006
  9. ^ New York Mag: American Psychoanalyst , 2006
  10. ↑ "Anyone who neighs 'Stop US Imperialism' has understood nothing" In: FAZ of January 24, 2006
  11. ^ "Democracy is not sacred" In taz of April 13, 2007
  12. ↑ Guest article in The Nation: A Letter to the American Left , February 2006
  13. ^ Resuscitation attempts on a cadaver NZZ from November 5, 2007
  14. ^ Georgia and Russia: Interests? We?
  15. ↑ "Despicable Individuals"
  16. ↑ Time: A Beautiful Case of Philotainment , October 30, 2009
  17. ↑ Deutschlandfunk: Shallow exchange of blows? , May 13, 2010
  18. ^ Zeit-Online: Days of Malice , March 1, 2010 ( Original in the NYT from Feb. )
  19. ↑ "The cause is fair". Does the West have to intervene in Syria ?, in: Die Zeit No. 34, August 16, 2012, p. 4.
  20. ↑ "The cause is fair". Does the West have to intervene in Syria ?, in: Die Zeit No. 34, August 16, 2012, p. 4.
  21. ↑ Andreas Borcholte: Entry bans: Russia accuses EU politicians of showing behavior. In: Spiegel Online. May 31, 2015, accessed June 1, 2015 .
  22. ^ RUS: Russian Visa Blocking List. (PDF 23 KB) In: yle.fi. May 26, 2015, accessed June 1, 2015 .
  23. ↑ Süddeutsche Zeitung No. 66, March 21, 2011, page 3.
  24. ↑ Michael Strempel: Interview with the French intellectual Lévy: dismayed by the German attitude towards Libya. tagesschau.de, March 27, 2011, archived from the original on August 23, 2011 ; Retrieved March 27, 2011 .
  25. ↑ Why are They Making War on Libya? , Counterpunch, March 24, 2011 German translation
  26. ↑ A bomb type: the philosopher actor Bernard-Henri Lévy goes to war
  27. ↑ Why we have a duty to protect Mali in FAZ of January 16, 2013, page 25
  28. ↑ Bernard-Henri Lévy accueilli en Tunisie par une manifestation hostile , RTL.fr, November 1, 2014
  29. ↑ "BHL dégage" Bernard-Henri Lévy malmené à son arrivée en Tunisie , metronews.fr, November 2, 2014
  30. ^ "Le Jour et la Nuit", pire film de l'histoire ... Vraiment?
personal data
SURNAME Lévy, Bernard-Henri
BRIEF DESCRIPTION French philosopher and publicist
DATE OF BIRTH November 5, 1948
PLACE OF BIRTH Béni Saf , Algeria