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Rudolf Burger (8 December 1938 – 19 April 2021) was an Austrianphilosopher.
Burger was born inVienna in the year of the occupation and the annexation of Austria intoNazi Germany, calledAnschluss. His parents were activecommunists. He concluded his studies ofphysics at theTechnical University in Vienna and thereafter served as an assistant at theInstitute of Applied Physics, where he concluded hisdoctorate in 1965.
After working at theLudwig Boltzmann Institute for Condensed Matter Physics in Vienna, Burger switched to theBattelle Institute inFrankfurt. There he was part of the team for research plannings. He also joined the Planning Commission of Germany'sFederal Ministry of Education and Research inBonn.
From 1973 to 1990 Burger headed the department forresearch inhumanities andsocial sciences at the AustrianMinistry of Science. In 1979 Burger achieved hishabilitation insociology of scientific knowledge, in 1987 he became a professor at theUniversity of Applied Arts inVienna, where he was appointed to the chair forphilosophy in 1991. From 1995 to 1999 Burger served as rector of this university. In 2007 he retired.
Since the 1980s Burger initiated or participated in several intellectual and political discussions in Austria. His essays are published in the daily newspaperDie Presse, in the weeklyprofil, as well as in intellectual magazines likeFORVM,Leviathan orMerkur.
Burger died on 18 April 2021, aged 82.[1]
Burger is well appreciated for his elegant style as an essayist and his avid love forintellectualcriticism. His cynicism stirred some controversies, starting in 1990, when he opened theGünther Anders symposium of the city of Vienna by speaking ofmoralistic extortion, comparing Anders andHeidegger, equating their philosophies, and finally stating:
Though - as a biological species - the human is no value on itself, but rather - after the death of God - just a fact. It depends always only on thesingle being and the structure of the relations with those we live with, we love, we hate. And this surrounding is limited, also in the shadow of the bomb.
— Rudolf Burger, Opening Speech at the Günther Anders Symposium[2]
PhilosopherKonrad Paul Liessmann defendedAnders and responded:[...] therefore the circumstances are dancing; but where is the rose?.[3] In 1992 Burger both criticised Austria's foreign policy at theBalkans aswarmonger (in German: kriegsgeil) and at the same time requested to let the parties of the warexsanguinate.[4] These comments caused a nationwide controversy. In 2000 Burger criticised theThursday Demonstrations against theSchüssel/Haider coalition as anantifascist carnival[5] and again unchained a national debate. Finally, in 2001 he angered a lot of critical intellectuals with his request to forget and close the debates on guilt and remembrance.[6] Historian Heribert Schiedel therefore named himthe black and blue court philosopher,[7] black referring toÖVP, blue toFPÖ.
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