A Visit with Günther Anders in 1986

Since 2000 I have been maintaining a page about philosopher Günther Anders (1902-1992) on the internet (link back to that page). In May 2003 my fellow professor of German history Nathan Stoltzfus (author of Resistance of the Heart: Intermarriage and the Rosenstrasse Protest in Nazi Germany [amazon page]) e-mailed me the following:

I hope you're doing well. I was just browsing your superb website for ideas about texts to use for a course in Weimar and Nazi Germany, when I saw your page on Guenter Anders. I was impressed with your family story. And the coincidence that I also visited Anders when in Vienna several years after you -- March 1986. I was impressed with his work, and at the last minute before a trip to archives and interview with Simon Wiesenthal and a few others, I wrote to Anders (I had no idea until I read your page of how he got his name, which is pretty amazing). I too visited Anders at his flat in the Lackierergasse. At that time it was still cold, and I was impressed with the way Anders had to seemingly pinch pennies. The flat was coldish, and there was a room back in the corner without any heat at all--where the books were! Arendt's books, and his books. He signed one after the other for me (nothing personal like in yours of course). As was my habit then, I asked whether I might record our conversation, but he declined. He was still writing, but it was so slow and sad because his fingers no longer worked well. It wasn't a problem of mental acuity. I was fortunate that he responded immediately upon receiving my letter, and invited me in. We talked about the McCarthy era, his trouble politically with the US, Hannah Arendt.