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Biographical/Historical Information

Theodor Lessing was born in Hannover in 1872. He studied medicine in Freiburg, Bonn and Munich, where he switched to philosophy, literature and psychology. In 1907 he returned to Hannover, teaching philosophy. He served as a physician in World War I and established the Volkshochschule in Hannover in 1919. In the 1920s, he was a prolific writer, concentrating on the synthesis of Socialism and Zionism, culminating in his best-known book “Der jüdische Selbsthass” (Jewish self-hatred) in 1930. Lessing fled Nazi-Germany in March of 1933 and moved to Marienbad (Mariánské Lázně, Czech Republic). Theodor Lessing was assassinated by Bohemian Nazis in Marienbad in 1933.

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Citation

Theodor Lessing, Leo Baeck Institute, F 2570.