Erich von Kahler (October 14, 1885 – June 28, 1970) was a mid-twentieth-century European-American literary scholar, essayist, and teacher known for works such as The Tower and the Abyss: An Inquiry into the Transformation of Man (1957).
Kahler was born to a Jewish family in Prague, then part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. He studied philosophy, literature, history, art history, sociology, and psychology at the University of Munich, the University of Berlin, the University of Heidelberg, and the University of Freiburg before earning his doctorate at the University of Vienna in 1911.[1][2] In 1912, he married his first wife, Josephine (née Sobotka). In 1933, deprived of his German citizenship by the Nazi regime, he left Germany, emigrating to the United States in 1938 after a period of residence in England.[3] He became a U.S. citizen in 1944, where he was known as Erich Kahler.
Kahler's many books often take up political themes, in addition to the relation of society to technology and science. He was an ardent Zionist, advocated world government, and was also involved in antiwar and anti-nuclear activism. In 1968, he signed the “Writers and Editors War Tax Protest” pledge, vowing to refuse tax payments in protest against the Vietnam War.[4]
Kahler died in 1970 at his home in Princeton, survived by his wife, Alice, and a stepdaughter, Hanna Loewy. Alice Loewy Kahler died in 1992.
Hanna Loewy Kahler exchanged letters with theoretical physicist David Bohm, with whom she was for some time engaged to be married,[5] after he left the USA for Brazil and these, as well as other letters in her possession, have contributed to an understanding of historic events surrounding the Solvay Conference of 1927 and Bohm's exile in Brazil.[6] She became a psychiatric social worker, and is credited to have helped to preserve the papers of Albert Einstein.[7]
1937: Der deutsche Charakter in der Geschichte Europas
1943: Man the Measure: A New Approach to History
1944: The Arabs in Palestine (with Albert Einstein)
1952: Die Verantwortung des Geistes
1953: Editor: Hermann Broch, Gedichte
1957: The Tower and the Abyss
1960: Contributor: Symbolism in Religion and Literature
1962: Die Philosophie von Hermann Broch
1964: The Meaning of History
1964: Stefan George
1967: The Jews Among the Nations
1967: Out of the Labyrinth: Essays in Clarification (In the appendix of this book there is a reprint of "The Jews and the Arabs in Palestine: A Disputation with Philip K. Hitti" by Albert Einstein and Erich Kahler.)
1968: The Disintegration of Form in the Arts
1969: Orbit of Thomas Mann
1973: Die Verinnerung des Erzählens (The Inward Turn of Narrative) (posthumously)
1975: An Exceptional Friendship: The Correspondence of Thomas Mann and Erich Kahler
^In 1911 von Kahler published his thesis "Über Recht und Moral" at his own expense. In response to a query to the U. of Vienna library, in April 2011, Mag. Eva Ossinger replied, "In the print-version 1911 you will find no advisor. In the dissertation from 1910 you can read:
Dr. Jodl /
Dr. Müllner / -als Referenten
Wien, am 12. Jäünner 1910."
^Wolfgang Pauli, Wissenschaftlicher Briefwechsel mit Bohr, Heisenberg u.a. - Wolfgang Pauli: Scientific correspondence with Bohr, Heisenberg, a.o., Band 4, Teil 1 / Volume 4 Part 1, Sources in the History of Mathematics and Physical Sciences 14, Springer, ISBN3-540-59442-6, p. 341
^“Deaths: [...] Hanna Loewy, 81, on March 31. A psychiatric social worker, she helped to preserve the papers of Albert Einstein.” What's New in Princeton & Central New Jersey? ReprintedArchived 2011-11-18 at the Wayback Machine from the April 18, 2007, issue of U.S. 1 Newspaper
