Who was Hannah Arendt?

Hannah Arendt was not a typical philosopher. She was uncomfortable, brilliant, and radically independent in her thinking. Her life was a constant struggle with questions of power, responsibility, and humanity.

She was born in 1906 near Hanover, Germany into a secular Jewish family with social democratic leanings. Her mother, Martha, was an educated woman with an interest in politics. Her father, Paul, an educated chemical engineer, died of syphilis in 1913. His early death confronted seven-year-old Hannah with grief and social taboos. 

Her mother, a woman who did not subordinate herself and stood up for her convictions, thus became her influential role model. She encouraged Hannah’s intellectual independence, critical thinking, and self-confidence.

Even back then, thinking was not an intellectual exercise for Hannah, but an act of resistance. She questioned authority, was very well-read, and openly disagreed when she thought something was illogical or wrong. At the age of 16, her “intellectual rebellion” brought her into conflict with the conservative school administration.

In 1924, at the age of 18, Hannah began studying philosophy at the University of Marburg, Germany. There she attended lectures by Martin Heidegger, who was considered one of Germany’s up-and-coming philosophers at the time. An intellectual relationship and a secret love affair developed between Arendt and Heidegger. She admired his philosophical depth, especially his thinking about being, time, and existence. At the same time, the existing relationship of dependency, the 17-year age difference, and Heidegger’s marriage strained the relationship.

After three semesters, Arendt left Marburg, presumably also to break away from her complex relationship with Heidegger. She continued her studies in Freiburg with Edmund Husserl, the founder of phenomenology, who wanted to base thinking on pure experience. In 1928, she earned her doctorate in Heidelberg under Karl Jaspers, who wanted to lead people to freedom and personal responsibility through experience and genuine dialogue. Her relationship with Jaspers was close, friendly, and characterized by deep intellectual exchange. He became her lifelong mentor.

After completing her doctorate, Arendt moved to Berlin, where she worked as a freelance intellectual and publicist. There she moved between philosophical reflection, Jewish identity, and growing political responsibility. After the Nazis came to power in 1933, Hannah Arendt recognized early on the growing danger to Jewish life in Germany and decided to take action. She worked for a Zionist organization that systematically collected anti-Semitic hate articles from the Nazi press in order to document the threat internationally.

In the course of her research, Arendt was arrested by the Gestapo and detained for eight days. During the interrogations, she apparently showed great composure and intelligence without incriminating herself or others. She herself later said that she had been “lucky” to have been released. But she drew a clear conclusion from this: immediately after her release, she fled illegally across the Czech border to Prague, later continuing on to Geneva and finally to Paris. 

She lived in Paris for several years as a stateless emigrant, working for Jewish aid organizations and helping Jewish youths emigrate to Palestine. In Paris, she also met her future husband, Heinrich Blücher, an unconventional, charismatic thinker. He came from a working-class background in Berlin and was a member of the Communist Party in his younger years. Even without academic training, he possessed enormous knowledge. Later, he became a self-taught philosophy lecturer at Bard College in New York State.

After the German invasion of France in 1940, Arendt was interned by the French government as an “enemy alien” despite her opposition to the Nazis. However, she managed to escape from the camp and cross the Pyrenees to Marseille. 

There, Arendt and Blücher met again. With the support of the Emergency Rescue Committee, a humanitarian aid organization that rescued intellectual refugees from Nazi-occupied Europe, both obtained visas for the United States. They fled together via Spain to Lisbon and from there sailed to the United States in May 1941.

After their dramatic escape to the US, Arendt and Blücher were penniless, stateless, and initially without prospects. In New York, Arendt joined the German exile community and began working again for Jewish organizations and magazines. In doing so, she reflected not only on the situation of European Jews, but also on fundamental questions of flight, statelessness, and political powerlessness. These experiences later culminated in her major political work.

In 1951, “The Origins of Totalitarianism” was published, a monumental work on the emergence of totalitarianism in Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union, which brought Arendt international renown. The book was her response to the catastrophes of the 20th century: anti-semitism, colonialism, nationalism, and bureaucracy as precursors to totalitarian systems.

In the following years, she published other books that became central to her work, including:

• “The Human Condition“: a philosophical anthropology in which she distinguishes between labor, production, and action, describing political action as the highest form of human freedom.

• “On Revolution”: a comparison of the American and French Revolutions, with a clear bias toward the political founding power of the American Constitution.

In 1961, Arendt reported for the New Yorker on the trial of Nazi criminal Adolf Eichmann in Jerusalem. Her series of articles was published as a book entitled “Eichmann in Jerusalem: A Report on the Banality of Evil“, sparking heated debate.

Arendt’s thesis that evil does not always arise from fanatical malice, but often from thoughtless fulfilment of duty, was met with massive criticism, especially in Jewish circles. However, her judgment on the “banality of evil” became one of her central concepts and is still discussed today.

She taught at various renowned U.S. universities, including the University of Chicago, Berkeley, and the New School for Social Research in New York. Although she did not pursue a traditional academic career, she was highly regarded as an independent political thinker.

Hannah Arendt died of a heart attack in New York City on December 4, 1975, at the age of 69. She died childless, but left behind a body of work with lasting impact. Her death marked the end of an extraordinary life spent at the intersection of philosophy, politics, and existential experience, shaped by exile, intellectual independence, and an uncompromising search for truth.

As a woman in the male-dominated field of political theory, she never allowed herself to be reduced to the role of “philosopher.” She was, in her own words, amor mundi: a lover of the world, with all its fractures.

What does Hannah Arendt stand for?

Hannah Arendt’s work stands for the connection between thinking, freedom, and responsibility in the political sphere and for the conviction that humanity is only possible where people judge, act, and take responsibility independently.

In her work “The Human Condition”, she distinguishes between three basic human activities: labor (for self-preservation), production (for shaping the world), and action (for political coexistence). For her, thinking is a prerequisite for judgment, without which political action degenerates. 

In “Eichmann in Jerusalem“, she developed her famous concept of the “banality of evil” which describes not demonic evil, but thoughtlessness: following rules without exercising one’s own judgment. Arendt writes: “The sad truth is that most evil is done by people who never make up their minds to be either good or evil“. According to Arendt, however, leadership requires being a person. It requires a willingness to think, judge, and act, even and especially when it is uncomfortable.

In “On Revolution”, she reminds us that power should not be confused with violence. Power arises when people come together to act collectively.

Hannah Arendt does not understand power or leadership as control, but as responsible action in the public sphere. True leadership arises from judgment, the courage to think, and the ability to integrate pluralistic perspectives. Leaders should create spaces where freedom, dialogue, and responsible action are possible, beyond obedience.

What are her most important works?

Hannah Arendt’s work has had a profound impact on our understanding of power, responsibility, and political action. Her analysis of totalitarian systems, her call for independent thinking, and her concept of the “banality of evil” continue to influence politics, philosophy, and leadership ethics around the world to this day. Her work does not give us the right answers, but it asks us the right questions so that we can find the answers ourselves. Here is a selection of her most important writings:

• “The Origins of Totalitarianism“ (1951)

Hannah Arendt’s seminal early work is much more than a historical analysis of totalitarianism. It impressively shows how modern societies can slide into inhuman systems through anti-semitism, imperialism, and ideological blindness. At its core is the realization that totalitarian rule arises where people no longer see themselves as responsible individuals, but as interchangeable cogs in the ideological machine. In Arendt’s view, systems that are controlled solely by functionality, without room for thought and judgment, harbour great danger. She makes it clear that the greatest risk comes not from radicals, but from those who obey blindly. Leadership therefore means taking responsibility instead of merely carrying out instructions.

• “The Human Condition“ (1958)

In her second major work, Arendt develops a fundamental distinction between human activities: labor, production, and action. While labor ensures mere survival and production creates things, political action is, for Arendt, the highest form of human freedom. It takes place in the public sphere, through speech and collective action, where people encounter each other, become visible, and take responsibility. Arendt warns against a world in which thinking and acting are replaced by functionality. Her work is a powerful reminder that freedom and humanity can only arise through active, responsible cooperation.

• “Eichmann in Jerusalem: A Report on the Banality of Evil“ (1963)

With this book, which Arendt wrote as an observer for “The New Yorker“ during the Eichmann trial in Jerusalem, she caused a scandal and became known worldwide. In it, Arendt analyzes the trial of Nazi bureaucrat Adolf Eichmann and develops her famous thesis of the “banality of evil.” Eichmann does not appear as a fanatical perpetrator, but as a thoughtless bureaucrat who “only did his duty” without his own judgment or moral conscience. Arendt shows that the greatest evil does not arise from radical hatred, but from thoughtlessness, conformism, and the refusal to take responsibility. Her work is a powerful appeal to individual thinking and moral judgment, especially in times when blind obedience becomes a danger to humanity.

• “On Revolution“ (1963)

In “On Revolution,” Hannah Arendt compares the French and American Revolutions and comes to a surprising conclusion: while the French Revolution suffocated in social misery, she praises the American Revolution as a successful act of political foundation. For Arendt, the focus is not on violence, but on the emergence of freedom through political action and shared institutions. She emphasizes the importance of stable constitutions and public spaces where people can act as citizens. This book is a passionate plea for a politics of freedom that goes beyond the mere satisfaction of needs and enables lasting, collective action.

• “Thinking Without a Banister: Essays in Understanding“ (1953–1975)

In this collection of political essays, Hannah Arendt addresses key topics such as authority, freedom, education, and judgment. Particularly striking is her famous essay “Thinking Without a Banister”, in which she calls for independent thinking. Especially in a world where traditional guides are disappearing, Arendt calls for a way of thinking that neither clings to conventions nor acts merely out of protest, but has the courage to judge without external support. True leadership is evident where decisions are made responsibly and independently, not where people merely play it safe.

• “What is Politics?“ (published posthumously in 1993)

In these fragmentary notes, Arendt explores the fundamental question of what politics actually means at its core, beyond power struggles and administration. For Arendt, politics is based on the plurality of people, on the coexistence of different individuals who shape a shared world through speech and action. For her, politics is not a means to an end, but the space in which freedom becomes visible. The work consolidates Arendt’s conviction that humanity arises where people take responsibility for one another and act publicly.

What human impact did Hannah Arendt create and why is this important for modern leaders?

In times of crisis, complexity, and change, good leadership requires more than methods: leadership requires attitude. Hannah Arendt calls for thinking as a moral practice, power as joint action, and responsibility as the core of being human. Her writings are not operating instructions; they are touchstones. Those who engage with them are not lectured, but challenged:

• How do you make decisions: out of a sense of duty or out of judgment?
• Do you understand power as control or as joint action?
• Do you create spaces for thinking or systems of conformity?

Why her work is so relevant to leadership today:

• Thinking as responsibility

In “The Human Condition“, Arendt describes action, as distinct from work and production, as the highest form of human activity. By this she means free, responsible action in interaction with others. For her, leadership begins where thinking is not automated. Those who truly think learn to judge, and those who judge take responsibility. Not only for results, but for people and for joint action in a shared world.

• The “banality of evil”

In “Eichmann in Jerusalem“, Hannah Arendt shows that evil often arises from thoughtlessness. Adolf Eichmann was not a monster, but a dutiful bureaucrat who acted without exercising his own judgment. Responsibility, however, begins with thinking. Those who follow blindly cannot escape guilt, even in seemingly small matters. This responsibility cannot be delegated.

• Power through plurality

In “What is Politics?”, Hannah Arendt describes power not as the exercise of domination, but as joint creation in diversity. For organizations, this means that diversity is not just a nice-to-have, but rather the foundation for innovation and cohesion. True leadership creates spaces in which differences are not levelled out, but rather understood and utilized as strengths for the benefit of the whole.

• “Thinking without a banister“

In a world without clear orientation, Hannah Arendt calls for “thinking without a banister,” a courageous, independent judgment beyond ideological certainties. Especially in times of crisis, it is not blind enforcement of rules that is required, but lively judgment. Arendt calls for action not out of routine, but with conscience and the assumption of responsibility for our thoughts and deeds.

• Leadership as an educational process

Hannah Arendt understands education as taking responsibility for the world we pass on to future generations. Leadership also shapes people, often more profoundly than we realize. Arendt reminds us that organizations are not only places of efficiency, but also spaces for human development. Those who lead take responsibility not only for results, but also for values.

Hannah Arendt did not leave behind a system with her work, but rather a style of thinking that has become the benchmark for responsibility:

• Leadership is thinking with consistency.
• Power arises from trust.
• Crisis requires judgment.
• Humanity begins with asking questions.

Good leadership then and now does not need more tools, it needs more depth. Hannah Arendt offers this.