Related Terms • Marxism

Name:
Ernst Bloch

Dates:
Born: July 8, 1885 in Ludwigshafen am Rhein, Germany
Died: August 4, 1977 in Tubingen, Germany

Biography:
Ernst Bloch was a Marxist philosopher who was born in born in Ludwigshafen, Germany, and taught at the University of Leipzig until Hitler came to power. At first he fled to Switzerland but he later emigrated to the United States, where he would write two of the three volumes in his principal work, Das Prinzip Hoffnung (The Principle of Hope). In these three books Bloch emphasized the role of hope as an important human drive.

In 1948 Bloch returned to teach at Leipzig, which was now in Eastern Germany. Unfortunately for Bloch, even though he was a Marxist, his outspoken opinions about society and economics brought him disfavor from the ruling communists. He was eventually prohibited from publishing anything and, in 1961, he defected to West Germany, where he became a professor at the University of Tübingen.

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