Paul Alsberg

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Paul Alsberg , also Paul Alsberry (born July 7, 1883 in Cologne ; died February 2, 1965 in London ) was a German physician and anthropologist .

Life

After studying medicine, he worked as a bacteriologist and doctor. In 1934 he emigrated to England with his wife after being released as a Jew from the Oranienburg concentration camp .

His only work that has received much attention to this day is The Mystery of Man. An attempt at a solution in principle appeared in 1922. With this work he established his reputation as a pioneer of modern philosophical anthropology , which had its most important representatives in Scheler , Plessner and Gehlen . Based on a human-animal comparison, he defines the principle of "body elimination" as fundamental for human beings and their own cultural achievements. According to Alsberg, this principle is equally effective in the use of tools (starting with the throwing of a stone) and technology, language and concept formation (abstraction) as well as aesthetics, morality and science. Dieter Claessens made strong use of this principle in his basic bio-sociological publication Das Konkrete und das Abstract (Frankfurt am Main 1980, ²1993).

Hans Blumenberg took up the concept of body disconnection again in his posthumous work " Description of Man ", which helped Alsberg's theses to gain broader reception.

Alsberg was one of the first to formulate the logic of the means of mass destruction : " If ... as a result of ... tightening of the means of war there is only mutual destruction and annihilation, only the vanquished and mutilated, but no more winners, then war becomes synonymous with Suicide ... . "(The riddle of mankind, p. 473)

literature

  • Alsberg, Paul. In: Lexicon of German-Jewish Authors . Volume 1: A-Benc. Edited by the Bibliographia Judaica archive. Saur, Munich 1992, ISBN 3-598-22681-0 , pp. 122-125.
  • The escape from prison - on the conditions of human origin. commented by Hartmut and Ingrid Rötting. Ed. U. Provided with a preface by Dieter Claessens, Gießen 1985 (new edition of " Das Menschheitsrätsel ")

Single receipts

  1. ↑ Wolfgang Harich claims that Gehlen had "stolen the rational core of his main work" from the Jew Alsberg, because as an emigrant he could no longer prosecute him. See Wolfgang Harich: Ahnenpass. An attempt at an author's biography , ed. v. Th.Grimm, Berlin 1999, p. 374
personal data
SURNAME Alsberg, Paul
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Alsberry, Paul
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German physician and anthropologist
DATE OF BIRTH July 7, 1883
PLACE OF BIRTH Cologne
DATE OF DEATH February 2, 1965
Place of death London