Friedrich Niewöhner

Friedrich Niewöhner was a historian of medieval Islamic and Jewish philosophy, as well as the German Enlightenment. He was one of the first to review my work on Strauss, inserting a paragraph in one of  the regular reviews he contributed to major German newspapers.  The range of his interests and the variety of colleagues who were connected to this brilliant man can be seen from the table of contents of a memorial volume in his honor, recently published by Georges Tamer (a former student of Niewöhner’s and a remarkable scholar in his own right) and Siegfried Schmidt-Biggemann, one of the most eminent historians of the European Enlightenment today. Recently I heard that there have been indications that Niewöhner may have used his access to various archives to walk away with manuscripts and sell them. That would be inexcusable.