ABSTRACT

Hans-Georg Gadamer (1900-2002) was born in Marburg, Germany and moved to Breslau (now Wroclaw, Poland) in 1902. His father was a professor of chemistry at the University of Breslau and later directed a pharmaceutical institute. He began his study of philosophy and classical philology at the University of Breslau in 1918 and moved to University of Marbug in 1919, completing his Ph.D. there on Plato in 1922. Although his life was marked by personal tragedies, including the loss of his mother at an early age, caring for a disabled brother, and suffering from polio, he earned his Habilitation, entitled Interpretation of Plato’s Philebus, under the direction of Martin Heidegger in 1928 (published in 1931). He held posts at the universities of Marburg, Leipzig, Frankfurt, and moved to Heidelberg in 1949, where he remained until his death. Despite his retirement in 1968, Gadamer remained active in research and writing until his death in 2002.