The Portable HANNAH ARENDT Edited with an Introduction by PETER BAEHR PENGUIN BOOKSHANNAH ARENDT iawsan ARENDT was bom in Hannover, Geman, i 1906, She sided atthe Universes of Matburg and Feburg and received het ‘doctorate in pilwophy a the Univer of Heidelberg. where she seuded under Kar pes, In 1959 she ed om Germany and went France, where she worked for the immigration of Jews eigee chil dren nt Pleine In 1981 she exe othe United Stes and became fn American ste ten year Inter ‘She war araerch dict ofthe Conference onJewih Relton, chief edtor of Schocken Books, executive decor of Jewish Cala ‘Recorstrction in New York Ciy a ving profesor a several uni vente, slang Cami, Praceon, Columba, and Chica, and ‘riven peeesor on the Gade Faulty of the New Schoo for So ‘il Reseach. She was awarded a Gaggenheim Feliwsip in 1952 and ‘won the nual Ars and Lets Gran ofthe National Isat of Ars sd Leer in 1954, Hannah Ares book ncade The Ong of Totatranion, Css nthe Repub, Meni Dak Tir, Beer Pst ad Fu: Eight Exe ‘her Pace Thou, and Econ in Jel A Repro the Bs taliy of Es She ao edited two volaoe of Kal Jen's The Get Phiseophr. Hanns Arndt ded in December 1975, PerER Bassin tach soci and palticl theory at the Memoria ‘Univenty of Newfoundland, Canada, Among his books ae Cara and the Fal he Raman Bod: A Sud i Repu and Caesar, aed Foden, Clas and Cn Exch votuME in The Viking Prable Library ether presents 3 rep- rsenttve section fom the works of + single oattanting wer ‘fea comprehensive anchology om # special abject. Averaging 700 ages in length and Segned for compscinew and ready, hee books fla need noe met by other cmplason. All are ete by di Cinpihed subortes who have wet introductory enayy and i aed mach other help atebabed by he Penguin Geoap Pengo Book La 27 Wes Lae, Tendon W8 572, Engen Pepin Books Aaa Le Ringwood, "Verna, Amr Penguin Books Ca Le 1 Alem Aves, Pep Books (NZ) Ld 182190 Was Road ‘acd 10, Rew Zech engin Book Le, Reps Ofc Hamoodewe, Misses, Egat Fo plied in engin Boos 200, Cop © Pengsin Pua Inc 2000 ‘Al is ere Page 516 contin nein of is cope “The porable Hans ed eted ws a acto by ee Diet Pe (he Viking porate iy Portas 1. Poa ine 2- Pal ec.” 3 Tota 4 Revsitone Smee Date PR (Peer). Te jeasiarie 2000 smsta—dat oer Pedi he Und St of Aree Desig y Stine Bowen Except in she Ue Sats of Amer hi boo sod jc 0 endo hal oy by way of ae chery bee, Sed ou o ater sie thou the pba poe comet {for of Sag a cover ota an hai which pb ‘tou ale coin icing hi conn eng plo he Sot pacher CONTENTS Eto’ Inaction Pipl Dees Bistigrepiel Now Adeledgnets 1. OVERVIEW: WHAT REMAINS? "What Remains? The Language Remain": A Convention with Ginter Gass II, STATELESS PERSONS “Tha “Infinitely Complex Red-ape Existence" From a Leterto Kat Jaspers ‘The Peplexstes ofthe Rights of Man ‘The Jewish Army—the Beginning of Jewish Poles? Jewess and Shlemh (771-1795) ‘Wrlcing Reel Vangen. From + Leer to Kal Jasper UL, TOTALITARIANISM ‘The Jews and Society Expansion ‘Total Domination (Organized Guile and Univeral Responuibilty ATReply to Eni Voegelin 6 106 19 146 157IV. THE VITA ACTIVA Labor, Work, Aston 17 ‘The Public and the Privat Realm 1 Retections on Litle Rock BI The Social Quesion 7 ‘The Concept of History: Ancient and Modem 28 V. BANALITY AND CONSCIENCE THE EICHMANN TRIAL AND ITS IMPLICATIONS From Eichmann Jil 313 ‘An Expert on the Jer Question 313 ‘The Final Solution Killing 32 ‘The Wannsee Conference or Ponts Piste a “Execution 392 “Epilogue 365 Powseripe 375 “Holes of Oblivion": The Eichmann Trial and ‘Totltananism. Froma Lewer to Mary McCarthy 80 ADaughter of Our People” ‘A Response to Gershom Scholem 21 From The Le fhe Mind (volume 1) 397 ‘The Aner of Socrates ser The Tworin-One 48 VI. REVOLUTION AND PRESERVATION Rou Laemburg (1871-1919) 49 What Ie Freedom? 8 Wha ls Author? 462 ‘The Revolutionary Tradtion and Is Los Tresure 8 VIL. OF TRUTH AND TRAPS Heidegger the Fos 30 “Tr sd Poles 56 Peoisione 576 EDITOR'S INTRODUCTION ee eee ieee ee Pearle geo eee eee era Le emeasrauwentns tical “science"—The Origins of Totalitarianism (1951)—who express tunis to which inlecnuas are perenaly scepoble? Such fers ene eee =i Introduction lsh question” wat not a major iw for them, nor was it to befor their Gaoghter until the Nazi movement made it one. At she same time, no Jew, however bourgeois or "asimilated" could avoid recognizing the pe- cullar status that Jewishnest conferred on them in German society, ‘whether they lived in Hannover, o in Kénigsberg, to which the Arendss ‘moved in 1909, Four year lster, Pal Arendt did of paresis ‘Obliged to sate the seven-year-old Hannah without her husband, Manta Arende developed» practice that lefe a lasting impresion on het daughter: instead of meekly tolerating the occasional anti-Semitic aunts by schoolmates, the young gil was enjoined to defend henelf aginst them. Equilly, Martha Arendt robustly took action agaist those of er Gaughter’s teachers who uttered derogatory comments about Jews. From ‘atly on, Hannah Arenct eamed that when atacked as a Jew, one had to Gefend oneself asa Jew. But inthe days before, ding, and immediately ser the Fire World War, this kind of consideration ly in the back- found of her lie. More prominent for her than even the war ise, ‘hich leit KSnigsberg lige ueathed, or the eaycurbulence ofthe ‘Weimar Republic, were the private maters with which to contend: the lampactof her father’ insanity and death, her illnesies and growing pains, the remarriage of her mother in 1920. These were alo the days when the foundstont of Hannah Arend’ education were being hid, and thove of the brian scholarly “carer” that followed. Headstrong and indepen ‘den, she diplayed 4 precocious apstude forthe lie ofthe mind. And while dhe might rk confrontation with a teacher who offended her with dn inconsiderate remark—she was briefly expelled for leading a boycott of the teacher's claser—from German Bildung (coltivason) there was to be no rebellion. At fifeen she was already meeting wth frends to "read and teuulate Greck texts, a Gymnasium version ofthe Grace or Greek Circles commonly established inthe universes ofthe period.” Hannah Arend’ fit experience of university iself took place in Berlin, where she atended the leerte ofthe Chritian extendas the- ‘ologian Romano Guardni But ie was a a pupil of Maran Heidegger in Marburg, and subsequently in Heidelberg a student ofthe other great German Exisnz philosopher ofthe dey, Kael Jaspers, chat she received ther formative philosophical education. When Hennah Arendt fst met Heidegger in 1924 she was eighteen years old. A passionate atachment to him soon followed that endured for the rest of her ie, despite periods of appointment, hostility and exaperation, The devotion to a man who appeared che very incamason of philosophical radicalism survived a four~ year lave affir that began in 1925, and found ssl sulficendy sturdy, ‘Secades later, to forgive his embrace of National Socialism, to grapple nonce! Introduction = With his philosophical Kelve ("curabout") announced in 1949, which ap- peared 19 her unworldy in the extreme, and to play a pare in ehabliat- ing him eo a skepial public. Punceusting thee atempt st endemtanding snd reconciliation ly her anger at his naivete, hie dsoyaly to fiend, his “romanticimn” (generally term of obloguy in Arends lexicon), his “complete lck of responsibiity" and “cowardice,"S and his sudiedly ool response to her own philosophical masterwork The Honan Condition (4958) Conversely, Hannah Arendt found in Kar Jaspers, under whose su- pervision she wrote her doctoral diseration, human quis of integrity sadly absen in the author of Being and Time. ‘The topic of Arend’s cer- tacon was the Concept of Love in St. Augustine (1929), a work that brought together personal experience and a univenity mining in pllorophy, Greek, and theology. Arend’s study of Augustine's notion of love 25 “craving” ands relaonship to “neighborly love” and to the love of God is today the subject of vigorous reappraial. Arcntion ie being drawn to ts ambivalent asesment of Christian docene, its adaptation of temporal and spatal categories derived from Heidegger an Jaspers,” and is treatment of ideas car, duly expanded and reshaped, would come to occupy an impor- tant postion in her subsequent thought: beginning (nality), morality, ‘memory, and the world During the period of irs composition, Jaspers of- fered Hannah Arend his learning and his advice, laying the groundwork of a friendship that would blossom afer the Second World War when they reesablshed contac, For although Jaspers (hose wife, Gerrud, was 2 Jew) had not spoken ou against the Nazi regime, he had atleast refised to collude widh losing his job at 2 raulk. Choosing the path of “inner emigration,” Jaspers sat out the war, ept his cyanide pilin readines, and vated forthe knock a the door that ever came? Dring her youth and for mich of her time at university, Hannah Arendt showed lite inerest in practical polis. Such insouciance ended sbrapey ‘when, with her doctoral work Behind her, and now marie to her fist husband, the writer Gunther Ste, she moved ro Bestia in 1928. Ie was in ‘Berlin that Arendt came fce-to-Bce with a growing Nazi movement programmatically and politaly hose ro Jewry, and before which the fustodians of the Republic appeared weak and vacating. Nor, forthe Jews, were the Nazis main face a source of great reasrance: Mantis or ‘nizations tended to dowmplay the propaganda and politic of ant