German cultural scholar Helmut Lethen dies at 87

Helmut Lethen, a prominent German cultural scholar, literary critic, and author, has passed away in Vienna at the age of 87. His publisher announced his death on Thursday, remembering him as one of the "defining thinkers of our time" and a "charismatic representative of cultural studies in Germany."

Lethen gained significant recognition for his 1994 book "Verhaltenslehren der Kälte. Lebensversuche zwischen den Kriegen" (Behavioral Doctrines of Coldness: Life Experiments Between the Wars). In this study, he analyzed texts from the 1920s, focusing on their recurring rhetoric of coldness, distance, and separation. His other notable works include "Der Sound der Väter" (The Sound of the Fathers) and "Der Schatten des Fotografen" (The Photographer's Shadow), the latter earning him the Leipzig Book Fair Prize for Non-Fiction in 2014.

Born in Mönchengladbach in 1939, Lethen had a distinguished academic career. He held professorships at universities in Utrecht and Rostock. From 2007 to 2016, he led the International Research Center for Cultural Studies (IFK) in Vienna, an institution dedicated to interdisciplinary research in the humanities.

His most recent publications included his 2020 memoirs, "Denn für dieses Leben ist der Mensch nicht schlau genug" (For This Life, Man Is Not Clever Enough), and "Stoische Gangarten" (Stoic Gaits), released last year, which invited "excessive reading," according to Die Presse.