#1 Hannah Arendt
In April 1963, the first episode of the now legendary German television series called “Zur Person” aired for the first time. In it, Günter Gaus interviewed prominent political and cultural figures of the day. In the early years, his guests ranged from Konrad Adenauer to Rudi Dutschke, and from Helmut Schmidt to Gustaf Gründgens. On October 28, 1964, Günter Gaus interviewed Hannah Arendt. Looking back, he would say about this encounter that it was the best interview he had ever conducted.
The timing of the program was certainly not left to chance. The German translation of Eichmann in Jerusalem, a compilation of the reports that Arendt had written for The New Yorker on the 1961 trial of SS officer Adolf Eichmann, had been published a few months earlier, in spring 1964. The conversation with Gaus also centered on the Eichmann trial, but covers far more than that. What emerges is an intellectual, multifaceted portrait of Hannah Arendt that touches on political philosophy, her passion for understanding, the principles of open-minded, procedural thinking; the question of Jewish identity in Germany and the world, the concept of Zionism, and the idea and reality of the State of Israel; the contrast between the old Europe and the new, the significance of one’s native language for academic work, and finally the ability to forgive as the basis of the human condition.
In her book on Eichmann, Arendt shows that, in the shadow of Auschwitz, evil acquired a new dimension that goes beyond causal models of interpretation. In an ethics lecture in New York in 1965, she said, “Real evil is what causes us speechless horror, when all we can say is: This should never have happened.” In this sense, Arendt’s thinking, particularly its incorruptibility, is testimony to a deep humanity. A humanity that knows that there is no such thing as infallibility on Earth and that our life’s venture consists in having to keep placing a fundamental trust in other people. The necessity and imposition of this trust, which is not easy to maintain in view of the horrors of the 20th century – but also in our times – is highlighted in the interview that Günter Gaus conducted with Hannah Arendt on October 28, 1964.
Peter-André Alt
Date October 28, 1964
Length 72 mins
Title, series Hannah Arendt in conversation with Günter Gaus, Zur Person
Language German
Video ZDF-Mediathek