User:Grshiplett/Afra Geiger

Afra Geiger was a student of Karl Jaspers in Heidelberg in the 1920's.

Her case is rather like that of Edith Stein: her future as a philosopher was blocked by Edmund Husserl solely on the basis of her gender: women do not serve as professors of philosophy. Jaspers confronted Husserl over this in Freiburg in the presence of Malvine Husserl, Heidegger and others.

In a letter of 1933 to Heidegger, Hannah Arendt remarks on having seen Afra a few times.

She was friends with Karl Loewith and is mentioned in his crucial testimony on 1933 and after.

Afra Geiger died in the Ravensburg concentration camp. She has no known memorial at the philosophy department in Freiburg.

The case of Edith Stein has been documented by the prominent philosopher Alasdair MacIntyre with regard to her being denied due process in her application to Goettingen's philosophy department - with an added contrast in the documented case in the Mathematics Department in which David Hilbert intervened to prevent another such tragedy.

Husserl's own daughter, Elizabeth, survived the Holocaust.

It is not clear whether the actions of Raymond Aron and others in London to prevent special attention to Jews trapped in France in 1943 had an effect on her fate.

It is often said that Arendt's career was assured in Germany but for the rise of Nazism: that is not clear as Jaspers denied her Summa cum laude (see Jaspers-Arendt correspondence) and Elfride Heidegger was in those years not yet aware of her affair with Heidegger (further grounds for keeping "professional thinking" a male preserve which might have precluded an appointment in philosophy for Arendt.)

The case of Heldwig Conrad (Conrad-Martinus) is relevant here.

See also: Einstein's first wife; Madame Curie; women in philosophy