Ernst Bloch

:See also Ernest Bloch the composer.

Related Topics:
Ernest Bloch - Composer

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Ernst Simon Bloch (July 8, 1885 - August 4, 1977) was a German Marxist philosopher and atheist theologian. He was born in Ludwigshafen, the son of an assimilated Jewish railway-employee. After studying philosophy, he married Else von Stritzky, daughter of a Baltic brewer. His second wife was Karola Bloch, whom he married 1934 in Vienna. When the Nazis came to power, they had to flee, first into Switzerland, then to Austria, France, Czechoslovakia, and finally the USA. Bloch returned to the GDR in 1949 and got a chair for philosophy in Leipzig. When the wall was built in 1961, he did not return to the GDR, but went to Tübingen in the FRG, where he received a honorary chair in Philosophy. He died in Tübingen.

Related Topics:
July 8 - 1885 - August 4 - 1977 - Marxist - Philosopher - Atheist - Ludwigshafen - Jew - Vienna - GDR - Leipzig - Tübingen

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Bloch's work became very influential in the course of the student protest movements in 1968 and in liberation theology. It is cited as a key influence by Jürgen Moltmann in his Theology of Hope (1967, Harper and Row, New York).

Related Topics:
Liberation theology - Jürgen Moltmann

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