Hans Jonas was born in Mönchengladbach on 10 May 1903. He studied philosophy, Old and New Testament theology as well as art history in Freiburg, Marburg, Berlin and Heidelberg under personalities such as Edmund Husserl, Martin Heidegger and Rudolf Bultmann. In 1928, he received his doctorate from the University of Marburg as a student of Martin Heidegger’s. Jonas initially emigrated to London, but went on to Palestine in 1935. From 1940 to 1945, he served in the British armed forces, from 1948 to 1949 in the Israeli armed forces. From 1939 to 1939 and from 1946 to 1948, he was a visiting lecturer at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. From 1949 to 1950, he taught philosophy at McGill University in Montréal (Canada), followed by a stint at Carleton University in Ottawa from 1950 to 1954. In 1955, he was appointed to the Graduate Faculty of the New York School of Social Research in New York. Jonas stayed there until his retirement in 1976, accepting visiting professorships at various German and American universities. Hans Jonas died on 5 February 1993 in New Rochelle near New York City.
He first made a name for himself in academia by carrying out basic research into Gnosticism. Since the publication in the 1980s of his work “Das Prinzip Verantwortung”, he has also been known and read by a wider audience. The book introduces an ethical system grounded in philosophy that emphasises mankind’s responsibility towards nature.
The collection is composed of 416 folders containing approx. 150 sheets each. It includes manuscripts and his written correspondence with, amongst others, Günther Anders, Hannah Arendt, Adolph Lowe, Gershom Scholem and Dolf Sternberg as well as private documents and special prints. There are also copies of Jonas’s own works and/or works that he contributed to. The collection has been catalogued in full (Search the collections).