My Battle Against Hitler, Dietrich von Hildebrand
My Battle Against Hitler, Dietrich von Hildebrand
List: $17.99 | Sale: $12.59
Club: $8.99

My Battle Against Hitler
Faith, Truth, and Defiance in the Shadow of the Third Reich

Author: Dietrich von Hildebrand, John Henry Crosby

Narrator: Michael Page

Unabridged: 11 hr 13 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Tantor Media

Published: 11/11/2014

Synopsis

Dietrich von Hildebrand was a German-Catholic thinker and teacher who, in response to the rise of Nazism, devoted the full force of his intellect to doing public battle with Hitler for the hearts and minds of the German people.

In My Battle Against Hitler, von Hildebrand tells of the scorn and ridicule he endured for sounding the alarm when many still viewed Hitler as a positive and inevitable force. He tells how he defiantly challenged Nazism in the public square, prompting the German ambassador in Vienna to describe him to Hitler as "the architect of the intellectual resistance." And throughout it all, he conveys his unwavering trust in God, even during his harrowing escape from Vienna and his desperate flight across Europe, with the Nazis always just one step behind.

About Dietrich von Hildebrand

Dietrich von Hildebrand (1889-1977), born in Florence, was the son of renowned German sculptor Adolf von Hildebrand. A leading student of the philosophers Edmund Husserl and Max Scheler, he took up the "great questions"-about truth, freedom, conscience, community, love, beauty-with a freshness that allowed him to break new ground, especially in ethics, but also in epistemology, social philosophy, and aesthetics. His conversion to Catholicism in 1914 was the decisive turning point of his life and the impetus for important religious works. His opposition to Hitler and Nazism was so outspoken that he was forced to flee Germany in 1933, and later across Europe, finally settling in New York City in 1940, where he taught at Fordham University until 1960. He was the author of dozens of books, in both German and English. He was a major forerunner of Vatican II through his seminal writings on marriage, on Christian philosophy, and on the evil of anti-Semitism.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Cold War Conversations Podcast on December 17, 2014

Whilst Dietrich von Hildebrand was undoubtedly a brave and principled man this is not a very engaging read. The book is split into two sections. The first part is von Hildebrand's personal memoir and the second are direct writings against Hitler and the Nazi party which are probably the most interest......more

Goodreads review by M. on May 25, 2022

Read for the Literary Life Challenge 2020. 20 for 2020 8. A Biography or Memoir I was way more interested in the essays but at least the memoirs helped me to get into his life. His arguments are very persuassive and worth pondering over.......more

Goodreads review by Sister on January 10, 2017

This was a challenging read because the book itself is so dense. We are talking, after all, about a philosopher's memoirs of a philosophical and political battle against an all-encompassing ideology. At times it was a struggle for me to get through. I do not have a strong background in 20th century......more

Goodreads review by Eric on September 15, 2018

I have often wondered, even knowing of the likes of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, how it came to pass that an intelligent culture such as that exhibited by Germans ended up allowing for the rise of Adolph Hitler. Here, another Dietrich, this one's surname von Hildenbrand, gives rational background behind why......more

Goodreads review by Violet on November 17, 2014

Dietrich von Hildebrand, a German professor of philosophy in Munich, watched with dismay as Germany fell under the spell of Hitler and the Third Reich. In 1933, at age 43, he and his wife Gretchen left Germany to live in Vienna. In exile he founded a weekly magazine (Der Christliche Standestaat—The......more

Add to Cart
Add to Wish List