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Otto Friedrich Bollnow | |
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| Born | March 14, 1903 |
| Died | February 7, 1991 (aged 87) |
| Nationality | German |
| Occupation | Philosopher |
Otto Friedrich Bollnow (German: [ˈbɔlnoː]; 14 March 1903 – 7 February 1991) was a German philosopher and teacher.
He was born the son of a rector in Stettin in what was then northwest Germany (now Szczecin, Poland) and went to school in the town of Anklam. After gaining his Abitur (school leaving certificate) he studied mathematics and physics at Göttingen University, where he was influenced by the philosopher Herman Nohl. Bollnow received a doctorate in physics in 1925 and successfully completed his habilitation with Georg Misch at Göttingen in 1931. He taught at Göttingen for some years without being appointed to the faculty. Bollnow was a member of the Militant League for German Culture.[1]
In 1933 Bollnow signed the Vow of allegiance of the Professors of the German Universities and High-Schools to Adolf Hitler and the National Socialistic State.
In 1939 he moved to the University of Gießen then briefly to the University of Kiel, to the University of Mainz and finally in 1953 to a chair in contemporary philosophy, philosophical anthropology and ethics at the University of Tübingen. He taught at Tübingen until his retirement in 1970.
Bollnow developed the work of Wilhelm Dilthey on hermeneutics and was concerned with the philosophical foundations of pedagogy. He also concerned himself with the foundations of philosophy and with phenomenology and existential philosophy. Martin Heidegger charged Bollnow with "having launched [...] the starkest misinterpretation of Being and Time" ("die gröbste Mißdeutung von Sein und Zeit [...] auf die Bahn gebracht").[2]
In 1980 he received the Lessing-Prize, a literary and cultural honour endowed by German Freemasons.
He died in Tübingen.
