Kaufmann, Fritz

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KAUFMANN, FRITZ

KAUFMANN, FRITZ (1891–1958), philosopher. He was born in Leipzig, became *Husserl's assistant at Freiburg, remaining there until 1936, when he joined the Hochschule fuer die Wissenschaft des Judentums in Berlin. He left Nazi Germany for America, where he taught at Northwestern University and the University of Buffalo. He was a leading exponent of Husserl's phenomenology, which he helped to make known in the United States, and wrote extensively on phenomenology, aesthetics, and literary themes. His major works are Die Philosophie des Grafen Paul Yorck von Wartenburg (1928); a posthumous volume, Das Reich des SchoenenBausteine zu einer Philosophie der Kunst (1960); and articles on Buber, Cassirer, Thomas Mann, Nietzsche, Rilke, Goethe, Flaubert, and Husserl.

[Richard H. Popkin]