Friedrich Wilhelm Foerster
born Berlin, June 2, 1869; died Kilchberg Jan 9, 1966
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German philosopher, pacifist, and writer.
Having completed doctoral studies at the University of Zurich, Foerster was a Privatdozent in philosophy and moral pedagogy at that university and at the Zurich Technical Highschool 1898-1912, then extraordinary professor at the University of Vienna 1913 and 1914, becoming a full professor at the Ludwig Maximilian University in Munich.
Foerster was critical of German wartime politics during World War I and the issue of war guilt. Widely attacked in nationalistic circles for his political and ethical views, he resigned his teaching post in 1920, returned to Zurich, then moved to France in 1926, warning of the National Socialist movement in Die tödliche Krankheit des deutschen Volkes. After the National Socialists came to power in 1933, his books were publicly burned and he was declared a political traitor. At the German occupation of France in 1940, he fled to Portugal, then emigrated to the USA, where he lived in New York until 1963, returning finally to Switzerland.
His books include:
- Christentum und Klassenkampf (1912)
- Weltpolitik und Weltgewissen (Munich: Verlag für Kulturpolitik, 1919)
- Mein Kampf gegen das militaristische und nationalistische Deutschland (Stuttgart: Verlag Friede durch Recht, 1920)
- Europe and the German Question (New York: Sheed & Ward, 1940)
Source:
- Wikipedia
Contributor:
- Marko Deisinger