German philosophy

German philosophy refers to philosophical work produced in the German language or by German thinkers, and it is a central element of German culture. Key figures include Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz, Immanuel Kant, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, Karl Marx, Friedrich Nietzsche, Martin Heidegger, Gottlob Frege, Ludwig Wittgenstein, the Vienna Circle, and the Frankfurt School. These thinkers are foundational to major philosophical movements such as rationalism, German idealism, Romanticism, dialectical materialism, existentialism, phenomenology, hermeneutics, logical positivism, and critical theory. German philosophy has shaped both the analytic and continental traditions, though German universities primarily focus on continental philosophy. Martin Heidegger and Ludwig Wittgenstein are widely regarded as two of the most influential philosophers of the 20th century.

**Middle Ages**

German philosophy began later than the era of Saint Ambrose, who was born in what is now Germany. Medieval philosophy was largely Christian. The first philosophical dispute on German soil occurred in 848, when Rabanus Maurus, a student of Charlemagne’s scholar Alcuin of York, argued against Gottschalk of Orbais’s doctrine of double predestination. Rabanus served as deacon at the Benedictine Abbey of Fulda in Hesse and is known as "the first teacher of Germany." Another intellectual center was St. Emmeram’s in Regensburg, where Otloh of Sankt Emmeram and Manegold of Lautenbach were sophisticated critics of philosophy. By the 12th century, all monks at St. Emmeram’s were reportedly illiterate.

**Aristotelianism and Neoplatonism**

Latin literacy had declined so sharply that Notker Labeo translated works by the Roman Neoplatonist Boethius, Capella, and some Aristotle, creating the first German philosophical vocabulary. In the 12th-century Renaissance, Hugh of Saint Victor, who studied in France, wrote on Neoplatonic mysticism. Otto of Freising, likely Hugh’s student, introduced Germans to Aristotle’s complete logic. Hugh also influenced the Italian philosopher Peter Lombard, author of the *Sentences*. The Neoplatonist nun and polymath Hildegard von Bingen, called the "Sibyl of the Rhine," knew Latin and wrote on theology, cosmology, and natural philosophy. In works like *Scivias*, she described God infusing life with *viriditas*.

**Albertus Magnus**

More of Aristotle’s works became available through translators in Spain, including Hermannus Alemannus. The most eminent German Scholastic was the Dominican friar Saint Albert the Great, who taught in Paris and Cologne. His writings cover subjects including the *Physics*, and he influenced the Neoplatonist Theodoric of Freiberg. The Italian philosopher Thomas Aquinas was also Albert’s student, and the Aristotle translator William of Moerbeke may have been as well. Aristotelians who blended Neoplatonism, like Theodoric, were called Albertists, as opposed to the purely Aristotelian Thomists. German Dominicans were usually Albertists, including Ulrich and Hugh Ripelin of Strassburg. Thomists included John of Lichtenberg, Heinrich of Lübeck, Heinrich of Gorkum, Nicholas and Thomas of Strassburg, and John and Gerhard of Sterngassen.

**Meister Eckhart**

Meister Eckhart was an influential Neoplatonic mystic in Cologne who wrote the *Book of Divine Consolation*. He combined Theodoric’s mysticism with the non-philosophical mysticism of beguine orders, such as Mechthild of Magdeburg, author of *The Flowing Light of the Godhead*. Eckhart was posthumously condemned for heresy and defended by Henry Suso. He influenced the Friends of God and John of Ruusbroec, who in turn influenced the Brethren of the Common Life and Thomas à Kempis, author of *The Imitation of Christ*. The Albertist Berthold of Moosburg succeeded Eckhart at Cologne. Johannes Tauler held similar views. The Albertist Heymeric de Campo taught at Cologne, while the Thomist Lambertus de Monte was a contemporary there.

**Modistae**

Thomas of Erfurt was the most influential of the Aristotelian modistae, or speculative grammarians, active in Northern Europe. They opposed nominalism and argued for realism.

**German Renaissance**

**Nominalism**

The British Franciscan William of Ockham spent his final years in Munich under the protection of Louis IV, Holy Roman Emperor. Ockham’s nominalism became influential in Germany. The Schism of 1378 drove many nominalist teachers from France to Germany. The first university in the Holy Roman Empire was the University of Prague, modeled after the University of Paris and influenced by Ockhamist Jean Buridan. Buridan’s student Albert of Saxony contributed to logic and to physics with a theory of impetus, a precursor to inertia. He became the first rector of the University of Vienna. Heinrich of Hainbuch, who followed Albert at Vienna, taught Ockham’s conciliar theory. Albert’s student Marsilius of Inghen became the first rector of the University of Heidelberg. The Dominican Cologne was converted into a *studium generale* and was the fourth university. The most notable German Ockhamist was Gabriel Biel, first professor of theology at the University of Tübingen.

**Humanism**

Nicholas of Cusa and the Dutch philosopher Desiderius Erasmus of Rotterdam, along with Conrad Celtis, were major figures of Northern and German Renaissance humanism.