author
Ernst Bloch
A bold voice in 20th-century philosophy, Ernst Bloch explored how hope, imagination, and dreams of a better future can shape history. His poetic Marxist thought brought together utopia, religion, human freedom, and social change.
1 Audiobook
Geist der Utopie
by Ernst Bloch
About the author
Born in Ludwigshafen, Germany, in 1885, Ernst Bloch became one of the leading figures of Western Marxism. He studied philosophy at the University of Munich and the University of Würzburg, where he earned his doctorate in 1908. His thinking was influenced by Hegel, Karl Marx, and religious and apocalyptic writers including Thomas Müntzer, Paracelsus, and Jacob Böhme.
After the Nazis came to power, Bloch and his wife, Karola Piotrowska, fled Europe and eventually settled in the United States. During this period, he wrote much of The Principle of Hope, his major three-volume work on humanity’s longing for a more just and fulfilling future.
Bloch returned to Germany in 1948 to teach philosophy at Leipzig University, but political tensions in East Germany forced his retirement in 1957. After the Berlin Wall was built in 1961, he settled in Tübingen, where he held an honorary philosophy chair until his death in 1977. His ideas later influenced student movements, liberation theology, and modern studies of utopia.