Werner Joseph Dannhauser (May 1, 1929 – April 26, 2014) was an American

political philosophy Political philosophy studies the theoretical and conceptual foundations of politics. It examines the nature, scope, and Political legitimacy, legitimacy of political institutions, such as State (polity), states. This field investigates different ...

professor and magazine editor. A German-Jewish émigré, he became an expert on the

philosophy of Friedrich Nietzsche Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900) developed his philosophy during the late 19th century. He owed the awakening of his philosophical interest to reading Arthur Schopenhauer's ''Die Welt als Wille und Vorstellung'' ('' The World as Will and Repres ...

and on

Judaism and politics The relationship between Judaism and politics is a historically complex subject, and has evolved over time concurrently with both changes within Jewish society and religious practice, and changes in the general society of places where Jewish peopl ...

and was a longtime professor of government at

Cornell University Cornell University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university based in Ithaca, New York, United States. The university was co-founded by American philanthropist Ezra Cornell and historian and educator Andrew Dickson W ...

. A protégé of

Leo Strauss Leo Strauss (September 20, 1899 – October 18, 1973) was an American scholar of political philosophy. He spent much of his career as a professor of political science at the University of Chicago, where he taught several generations of students an ...

at the

University of Chicago The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, or UChi) is a Private university, private research university in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Its main campus is in the Hyde Park, Chicago, Hyde Park neighborhood on Chicago's South Side, Chic ...

, Dannhauser had earlier been a writer and editor at ''

Commentary Commentary or commentaries may refer to: Publications * ''Commentary'' (magazine), a U.S. public affairs journal, founded in 1945 and formerly published by the American Jewish Committee * Caesar's Commentaries (disambiguation), a number of works ...

'' magazine during the 1960s.

Early years

Dannhauser was born on May 1, 1929, in

Buchau Bochov () is a town in Karlovy Vary District in the Karlovy Vary Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 1,900 inhabitants. Administrative division Bochov consists of 17 municipal parts (in brackets population according to the 2021 census): * ...

in southwestern Germany. In early 1939, at the age of nine, Dannhauser came to the United States in order to escape

Nazi Germany Nazi Germany, officially known as the German Reich and later the Greater German Reich, was the German Reich, German state between 1933 and 1945, when Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party controlled the country, transforming it into a Totalit ...

. An older brother Jacob (1922–1998) and an older sister Rose (1924–2018) also came with him. He became an American citizen in 1944. He completed the rest of his childhood in

Cleveland, Ohio Cleveland is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County, Ohio, Cuyahoga County. Located along the southern shore of Lake Erie, it is situated across the Canada–United States border, Canada–U.S. maritime border ...

, where he was active in the congregation known as The Temple. Dannhauser earned a bachelor's degree from

The New School for Social Research The New School for Social Research (NSSR), previously known as The University in Exile and The New School University, is a graduate-level educational division of The New School in New York City, United States. NSSR enrolls more than 1,000 stud ...

in 1951.

Graduate student and instructor

In the mid-1950s, Dannhauser came to the

as a graduate student in the Committee on Social Thought.Dates for this have ranged from 1954 to 1956; se
this page
and the interview within. There he studied for his

Ph.D. A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, DPhil; or ) is a terminal degree that usually denotes the highest level of academic achievement in a given discipline and is awarded following a course of graduate study and original research. The name of the deg ...

under

, whom he had first heard speak at the New School in New York City. Dannhauser soon became a disciple of Strauss's; when later characterized as a

Straussian Leo Strauss (September 20, 1899 – October 18, 1973) was an American scholar of political philosophy. He spent much of his career as a professor of political science at the University of Chicago, where he taught several generations of students an ...

, he said "I wear the label with pride". During the 1955–56 year, he was awarded a

Fulbright Grant The Fulbright Program, including the Fulbright–Hays Program, is one of several United States cultural exchange programs with the goal of improving intercultural relations, cultural diplomacy, and intercultural competence between the people o ...

for study in Germany. His efforts as a student in that country included time spent at the

University of Berlin The Humboldt University of Berlin (, abbreviated HU Berlin) is a public research university in the central borough of Mitte in Berlin, Germany. The university was established by Frederick William III on the initiative of Wilhelm von Humbol ...

and at

Heidelberg University Heidelberg University, officially the Ruprecht Karl University of Heidelberg (; ), is a public research university in Heidelberg, Baden-Württemberg, Germany. Founded in 1386 on instruction of Pope Urban VI, Heidelberg is Germany's oldest unive ...

. In the early 1960s, Dannhauser held the position of lecturer in the liberal arts at the University of Chicago. During several summers, he taught classes on poetry and drama at The Clearing Folk School in

Door County Door County is the easternmost county in the U.S. state of Wisconsin. As of the 2020 census, its population was 30,066. Its seat of government is Sturgeon Bay. It is named after the strait between the Door Peninsula and Washington Island. T ...

, Wisconsin. He was also an instructor at the

University of Maryland The University of Maryland, College Park (University of Maryland, UMD, or simply Maryland) is a public land-grant research university in College Park, Maryland, United States. Founded in 1856, UMD is the flagship institution of the Univ ...

at some point. For 1963–64 he received an appointment as an instructor in government at Claremont Men's College. By 1963, Dannhauser's doctoral thesis, entitled ''The Political Philosophy of Nietzsche'', was described as having been accepted for publication. The political theorist

Hannah Arendt Hannah Arendt (born Johanna Arendt; 14 October 1906 – 4 December 1975) was a German and American historian and philosopher. She was one of the most influential political theory, political theorists of the twentieth century. Her work ...

, who had an affiliation with the Committee on Social Thought, had an awareness of Dannhauser's work on his dissertation, and objected to his "tone-deafness" and what she saw as one-dimensional interpretations that ignored elements of irony and ambiguity in Nietzsche's work. In any case, Dannhauser would not finally get his Ph.D. degree until eight years later. Early on, Dannhauser established a reputation as a

rake Rake may refer to: Common meanings * Rake (tool), a horticultural implement, a long-handled tool with tines * Rake (stock character), a man habituated to immoral conduct * Rake (poker), the commission taken by the house when hosting a poker game ...

, with particular predilictions for gambling and womanizing. (By one tale, Strauss once loaned him money to pay off a poker debt that was threatening to result in physical harm.)

''Commentary'' magazine

Leaving academia, Dannhouser started working as one of the staff members at ''Commentary'' in November 1964. His strong Jewish identity and knowledge of European intellectual history appealed to editor-in-chief

Norman Podhoretz Norman Podhoretz (; born January 16, 1930) is an American magazine editor, writer, and conservative political commentator, who identifies his views as " paleo- neoconservative", but only "because (he's) been one for so long". In March 1966, Dannhauser was named an assistant editor, and subsequently had the title of associate editor. Political arguments between Dannhauser and fellow editor

Ted Solotaroff Theodore "Ted" Solotaroff (October 9, 1928 – August 8, 2008) was an American writer, editor and literary critic. Life and career Born into a working-class Jewish family in Elizabeth, New Jersey, Solotaroff attended the University of Michigan, gr ...

, especially over the

Vietnam War The Vietnam War (1 November 1955 – 30 April 1975) was an armed conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia fought between North Vietnam (Democratic Republic of Vietnam) and South Vietnam (Republic of Vietnam) and their allies. North Vietnam w ...

– a U.S. military involvement that Dannhauser strongly favored – led to Solotaroff leaving the magazine, which in turn contributed to the magazine's change in ideological position. In another case, Dannhauser threatened to resign from the magazine unless a piece supporting aggressive U.S. intervention in the war was published. In common with many American Jews, Dannhauser celebrated Israel's victories in the

Six-Day War The Six-Day War, also known as the June War, 1967 Arab–Israeli War or Third Arab–Israeli War, was fought between Israel and a coalition of Arab world, Arab states, primarily United Arab Republic, Egypt, Syria, and Jordan from 5 to 10June ...

of June 1967. Dannhauser left ''Commentary'' in the summer of 1968. He had played a significant role in shifting the magazine to a more conservative viewpoint, especially regarding Vietnam policy and objections to the excesses of the

New Left The New Left was a broad political movement that emerged from the counterculture of the 1960s and continued through the 1970s. It consisted of activists in the Western world who, in reaction to the era's liberal establishment, campaigned for freer ...

Marriage and family

Dannhauser married Shoshana Zaltzman in 1967. She was an Israeli who studied

Semitic languages The Semitic languages are a branch of the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family. They include Arabic, Amharic, Tigrinya language, Tigrinya, Aramaic, Hebrew language, Hebrew, Maltese language, Maltese, Modern South Arabian language ...

. She worked as an instructor at the

University of Wisconsin–Madison The University of Wisconsin–Madison (University of Wisconsin, Wisconsin, UW, UW–Madison, or simply Madison) is a public land-grant research university in Madison, Wisconsin, United States. It was founded in 1848 when Wisconsin achieved st ...

, where she also assisted in scholarly translation work; she subsequently was an instructor at Cornell. Together the couple had two daughters. She died in April 1973 at age 35, of cancer. Dannhauser raised the daughters as a single parent.

Professor

Dannhauser was hired as an assistant professor and became part of the department of government at

as of Fall 1968 (this was despite his not yet having his Ph.D.)Acknowledgements section of ''Nietzsche's View of Socrates''. There he joined

Allan Bloom Allan David Bloom (September 14, 1930 – October 7, 1992) was an American philosopher, classicist, and academician. He studied under David Grene, Leo Strauss, Richard McKeon, and Alexandre Kojève. He subsequently taught at Cornell Un ...

and

Walter Berns Walter Fred Berns Jr. (May 3, 1919 – January 10, 2015) was an American constitutional law and political philosophy professor. He was a resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute and a professor emeritus at Georgetown University. Ear ...

, two other former students of Strauss, making the department known as a bastion of political philosophy teaching. The following year, the campus and the faculty were shaken by the takeover of the Cornell student union by members of the Afro-American Society in 1969; unhappy with what they saw as the university administration's weak response, Bloom and Berns left Cornell, but Dannhauser stayed. He finally received his Ph.D. degree from the

in 1971. In February 1973, Dannhauser was promoted to

associate professor Associate professor is an academic title with two principal meanings: in the North American system and that of the ''Commonwealth system''. In the ''North American system'', used in the United States and many other countries, it is a position ...

at Cornell. Dannhauser did not publish much as an academic, in part due to bouts with

writer's block Writer's block is a non-medical condition, primarily associated with writing, in which an author is either unable to produce new work or experiences a creative slowdown. Writer's block has various degrees of severity, from difficulty in coming ...

. His most prominent work was the book ''Nietzsche's View of Socrates'', published in 1974. In the 1976 volume ''On Jews and Judaism in Crisis: Selected Essays'', he edited, and in many cases translated from German, a volume of essays by the scholar of Jewish mysticism

Gershom Scholem Gershom Scholem (; 5 December 1897 – 21 February 1982) was an Israeli philosopher and historian. Widely regarded as the founder of modern academic study of the Kabbalah, Scholem was appointed the first professor of Jewish mysticism at Hebrew Un ...

Arthur A. Cohen Arthur Allen Cohen (June 25, 1928 – September 30, 1986) was an American scholar, art critic, theology, theologian, publisher, and author. Scholar David Stern (academic), David M. Stern has written of Cohen: "Though he was best known as a novel ...

, reviewing for ''

The New York Times Book Review ''The New York Times Book Review'' (''NYTBR'') is a weekly paper-magazine supplement to the Sunday edition of ''The New York Times'' in which current non-fiction and fiction books are reviewed. It is one of the most influential and widely rea ...

'', said that Dannhauser had "edited with grace and ingenuity". Instead, Dannhauser was mainly known as a teacher. He focused on a "

great books A classic is a book accepted as being exemplary or particularly noteworthy. What makes a book "classic" is a concern that has occurred to various authors ranging from Italo Calvino to Mark Twain and the related questions of "Why Read the Cl ...

" approach to political philosophy. He was given the Clark Award in 1971, Cornell's highest recognition for teaching undergraduates. Dannhauser's 1975 essay, "On Teaching Politics Today", published in ''Commentary'', gained considerable notice, in part due to the associations he drew between lecturing and ''

eros Eros (, ; ) is the Greek god of love and sex. The Romans referred to him as Cupid or Amor. In the earliest account, he is a primordial god, while in later accounts he is the child of Aphrodite. He is usually presented as a handsome young ma ...

'' that perhaps went beyond the bounds of

political correctness "Political correctness" (adjectivally "politically correct"; commonly abbreviated to P.C.) is a term used to describe language, policies, or measures that are intended to avoid offense or disadvantage to members of particular groups in society. ...

. In 1978, he provoked a controversy on campus still remembered by some people many years later. Speaking at a lecture that was sponsored by the Women's Studies Program, he criticized such programs for precluding a discussion of whether women were inferior to men. While demurring that he did not know if they were inferior, equal, or superior overall, he said that in that his field of philosophy, "the highest way of life ... women have performed absolutely badly in that field ... that is a difference that ultimately has to be understood in terms of inferiority or superiority." This stance brought about negative-to-outraged reactions from professors and students in letters to ''

The Cornell Daily Sun ''The Cornell Daily Sun'' is an independent newspaper at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York. It is published twice weekly by Cornell University students and hired employees. Founded in 1880, ''The Sun'' is the oldest continuously independent ...

'' over the next several days, including ones which mentioned eminent women philosophers, and subsequent negative-to-sarcastically insulting rejoinders by Dannhauser. He was a Fellow of the

National Endowment for the Humanities The National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) is an independent federal agency of the U.S. government, established by thNational Foundation on the Arts and the Humanities Act of 1965(), dedicated to supporting research, education, preserv ...

during the 1974–75 year. During 1981–83, he was a Visiting Fellow at the

National Humanities Center The National Humanities Center (NHC) is an independent institute for advanced study in the humanities located in Research Triangle Park, North Carolina, United States. The NHC operates as a privately incorporated nonprofit and is not part of any uni ...

. In 1992, Dannhauser retired from Cornell, at which point he became a professor emeritus there. For the next number of years, he taught as an

adjunct professor An adjunct professor is a type of academic appointment in higher education who does not work at the establishment full-time. The terms of this appointment and the job security of the tenure vary in different parts of the world, but the term is gen ...

Michigan State University Michigan State University (Michigan State or MSU) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in East Lansing, Michigan, United States. It was founded in 1855 as the Agricultural College of the State o ...

, where one of his former students was a faculty member. He was still affiliated there in 2002, but subsequently retired from teaching altogether.

Final years

Dannhauser was the basis of the character Morris Herbst in

Saul Bellow Saul Bellow (born Solomon Bellows; June 10, 1915April 5, 2005) was a Canadian-American writer. For his literary work, Bellow was awarded the Pulitzer Prize, the 1976 Nobel Prize in Literature, and the National Medal of Arts. He is the only write ...

's ''

roman à clef A ''roman à clef'' ( ; ; ) is a novel about real-life events that is overlaid with a façade of fiction. The fictitious names in the novel represent real people and the "key" is the relationship between the non-fiction and the fiction. This m ...

'' published in 2000, ''

Ravelstein ''Ravelstein'' is Saul Bellow's final novel. Published in 2000, when Bellow was eighty-five years old, it received widespread critical acclaim. It tells the tale of a friendship between a university professor and a writer, and the complications ...

'', the primary subject of which was Dannhauser's former colleague, and Bellow's friend, Allan Bloom. Dannhauser did not mind being portrayed as a womanizer by Bellow, but did not like that Bellow had revealed details of Bloom's private life in the novel. Bellow had actually sent Dannhauser an advance copy of the manuscript, and had removed or recast a few descriptions based Dannhauser's objections. Nevertheless, Dannhauser still felt that Bellow had gone too far: "I don't believe everything is justified for art." In 2008, a ''

Festschrift In academia, a ''Festschrift'' (; plural, ''Festschriften'' ) is a book honoring a respected person, especially an academic, and presented during their lifetime. It generally takes the form of an edited volume, containing contributions from the h ...

'' entitled ''Reason, Faith, and Politics: Essays in Honor of Werner J. Dannhauser'' was published by

Lexington Books Bloomsbury Publishing plc is a British worldwide publishing house of fiction and non-fiction. Bloomsbury's head office is located on Bedford Square in Bloomsbury, an area of the London Borough of Camden. It has a US publishing office located in ...

. It was edited by Arthur M. Melzer and Robert P. Kraynak, both former students of Dannhauser's who went onto academic careers of their own. The volume's contributors included

Francis Fukuyama Francis Yoshihiro Fukuyama (; born October 27, 1952) is an American political scientist, political economist, and international relations scholar, best known for his book '' The End of History and the Last Man'' (1992). In this work he argues th ...

, who took pains to disassociate Straussians from the "

neoconservative Neoconservatism (colloquially neocon) is a political movement which began in the United States during the 1960s among liberal hawks who became disenchanted with the increasingly pacifist Democratic Party along with the growing New Left and ...

" label. Dannhauser died at age 84 on April 26, 2014, in Frederick, Pennsylvania. Services for him were held in

Cleveland Heights, Ohio Cleveland Heights is a city in Cuyahoga County, Ohio, United States. The population was 45,312 at the 2020 census. One of Cleveland's historic streetcar suburbs, it was founded as a village in 1903 and a city in 1921. History The area that is ...

. He is buried at Zion Memorial Park Cemetery in

Bedford Heights, Ohio Bedford Heights is a city in Cuyahoga County, Ohio, United States. The population was 11,020 at the 2020 census. A suburb of Cleveland, it is a part of the Cleveland metropolitan area. History Bedford Heights was founded on February 20, 1951. It ...

John Podhoretz John Mordecai Podhoretz (; born April 18, 1961) is an American writer. He is the editor of '' Commentary'' magazine, a columnist for the ''New York Post'', the author of several books on politics, and a former speechwriter for President Ronald ...

, son of Norman, wrote upon the passing that Dannhauser "was an American original—and of a type of which there are, sadly, fewer and fewer as the years pass. He was a deeply serious intellectual—and a bit of a reprobate."

Published books

* ''Nietzsche's View of Socrates'', Cornell University Press, 1974 (second printing, 1976; republished 2019; translated to Chinese as ''尼采眼中的苏格拉底'', 2013). * ''On Jews and Judaism in Crisis: Selected Essays'', Gershom Scholem ditor and translator Schocken Books, 1976 (republished Paul Dry Books, 2012).

References

External links

Werner Dannhauser
– Interview recording and transcript from 2011 at Leo Strauss Center, University of Chicago
Finding Aids – Dannhauser, Werner J.
– The New School Archives And Special Collections
"On Teaching Politics Today"
– Dannhauser essay in ''Commentary'', March 1975
"The Metaphysical Martini"
– Dannhauser essay in ''The American Spectator'', November 1981
"Letter from Jerusalem"
– Dannhauser essay in ''First Things'', June 1992 * {{DEFAULTSORT:Dannhouser, Werner 1929 births 2014 deaths People from Biberach (district) Jewish emigrants from Nazi Germany to the United States Naturalized citizens of the United States Academics from Cleveland The New School alumni University of Chicago alumni University of Chicago faculty Claremont McKenna College faculty American magazine editors Cornell University faculty People from Ithaca, New York Michigan State University faculty American political philosophers Political scientists who studied under Leo Strauss 20th-century American non-fiction writers Jewish American academics Jewish American non-fiction writers Fellows of the National Endowment for the Humanities 20th-century American philosophers 21st-century American philosophers