ABSTRACT
Emanuel Hirsch (1888-1972) was one of the outstanding German Kierkegaard researchers of the twentieth century. In close interaction with Scandinavian research, he helped instill a deeper appreciation of Kierkegaard’s works in German theology and the German intellectual world in general. He accomplished this through his Kierkegaard-Studien, published during the period 1930-33, his portrayal of Kierkegaard in Geschichte der neuern evangelischen Theologie (1949-54), and last, but not least, through his translation of and commentary on the Samlede Værker.1 Hirsch’s work has won universal admiration even among its sharpest critics. However, the criticism is also multifaceted and in part devastating. Hirsch was not only one of the most prominent German Kierkegaard researchers, but was and remains one of the most controversial as well.
