How "Beauty" came to Stuttgart

Aesthetics at the College of Technology

By Monika Jörg-Rössler

It goes without saying that the engineering sciences were the main focus of attention and research at Stuttgart College of Technology. Nevertheless, aesthetics was one of the first humanities disciplines to establish itself here from the mid-19th century onwards. Through its work on demanding fundamental philosophical questions, captivatingly presented lectures and distinctive personalities, aesthetics has fascinated a broad audience from all fields of study throughout its history. Here we will present three famous figures.

Friedrich Theodor Vischer
As a child Vischer once said that he either wanted to become a painter or Tom Fool. He didn't become a painter, but a feared and respected academic and publisher. His enthralling lectures in Tübingen, Zurich and later at Stuttgart Polytechnic made him famous and attracted a wide audience.

Käte Hamburger
Forced to emigrate to Sweden by the war and the National Socialists, she removed the "h" in her first name as an outward sign of the deprivation she had had to endure. She did not complete her post-doctoral thesis until she returned to Germany late in life. In her Stuttgart years she wrote countless works and became a world famous academic, who also made a major contribution to shaping teaching at Universität Stuttgart.

Max Bense
An anarchic unorthodox thinker, a man of letters of the avant-garde, creator of "the aesthetics of information", an advocate of "concrete poetry", philosopher, mathematician, physicist, etc., Max Bense left his mark after his 41 years in Stuttgart.