Freiburg became phenomenology’s living center through Husserl’s magnetic teaching

Evidence

It was a devoutly Catholic city and an intellectual one, with studious activity revolving around both its seminary and its university. The latter now featured an influential coterie in the philosophy department: the phenomenologists. Initially, this meant followers of Edmund Husserl, who took up Freiburg’s chair of philosophy in 1916. He brought disciples and students with him, and recruited more, so that Freiburg remained a centre for his work long after his formal retirement in 1928. … As he wrote, ‘For the young Germans I met in Freiburg, this new philosophy is more than a new theory; it is a new ideal of life, a new page of history, almost a new religion.’ — Sarah Bakewell, At the Existentialist Café, 125

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the broader narrative of existentialism’s institutional roots and to Husserl’s centrality in the movement’s formation. — connects to: Husserl’s Freiburg school operated as a demanding cult of devoted assistants — Sarah Bakewell, At the Existentialist Café: Freedom,…, 132

Broader Connections

• Husserl’s Freiburg school operated as a demanding cult of devoted assistants #complicates (0.82) — Sarah Bakewell, At the Existentialist Café, 132