Biography
Theunissen studied philosophy and German in University of Bonn and University of Freiburg. In 1955 he completed his doctorate in Freiburg under Max Müller with the thesis Der Begriff "Ernst" bei Sören Kierkegaard, [a] and in 1964 he habilitated in Berlin with Der Andere:Studien zur Sozialontologie der Gegenwart. [b] He became professor of philosophy at the University of Bern in Switzerland in 1967 and was appointed to the University of Heidelberg in 1971. From 1980 until his retirement in 1998,he held the chair of theoretical philosophy at the Free University of Berlin. The main areas of his research and publications were the philosophy of Hegel and Kierkegaard,modern social philosophy and phenomenology,the philosophy of time,the ancient Greek poet Pindar and archaic Greek poetry. [4] In 1995,he was awarded an honorary doctorate by the Faculty of Theology of the University of Copenhagen in recognition of his contributions to Kierkegaard studies. [5] He was also awarded an honorary doctorate by the Faculty of Cultural and Social Sciences at the University of Lucerne, [6] and a third honorary docotrate by the Faculty of Theology at the Georg August University of Göttingen on 13 April 2005.
“His numerous,perceptive and erudite writings on modern and ancient philosophy have made Michael Theunissen one of the most prominent philosophers of the present day among experts," said Joachim Ringleben,systematist at the Faculty of Theology in Göttingen,who also described the scientist as an ‘academic teacher with an unusually great charisma’. Theunissen's work on the I-Thou relationship,revelation,philosophical Christology,despair and prayer is of particular importance to theology and philosophy of religion.
His theological and philosophical work has been awarded numerous honors and prizes,such as the Dr. Leopold Lucas Prize in 2001, [7] the Karl Jaspers Prize (Heidelberg,2004),the Hegel Prize (Stuttgart,2015 posthumously) and several honorary doctorates. His students include Emil Angehrn,Karen Gloy,Günter Figal,Ulrich Pothast,Hinrich Fink-Eitel,Georg Lohmann,Christian Iber,Uwe Justus Wenzel,Brigitte Hilmer and Stascha Rohmer.
Michael Theunissen died at the age of 82 and was laid to rest in the Zehlendorf cemetery.