Richard Hönigswald

Who was Richard Hönigswald?

Richard Hönigswald was a well-known philosopher belonging to the wider circle of Neo-Kantianism.

Hönigswald studied medicine and philosophy under Alois Riehl and Alexius von Meinong and from 1916 was professor of philosophy, psychology and pedagogy in Breslau. There he supervised Norbert Elias's doctorate up to its conclusion in 1924. From 1930 he was a professor at Munich. The emphasis of his work lay on the theory of cognition from the point of view of validation and the philosophy of language. Beyond that, Hönigswald tried to develop a method of teaching that would be applicable to the natural sciences and the humanities equally. He also dealt with questions of the psychology of thought and of pedagogy.

In 1933, as a Jew, he was compulsorily retired. At the time of the Kristallnacht in 1938, he spent three weeks in Dachau concentration camp. In 1939 he emigrated with his wife and daughter by way of Switzerland to the United States.