Minima Moralia: Reflections from Damaged Life

Theodor Adorno was a philosopher and musicologist. He was born on September 11th, 1903, in the German city of Frankfurt. Adorno came from a well-off, upper-middle class family, but one where both his parents were outsiders to Germany in one way or another. His mother was a former professional singer from Corsica named Maria Calvelli-Adorno della Piana, while his father, the owner of a wine export business, was Oscar Alexander Wiesengrund, a Jewish man who converted to Protestantism. As his mother was proud of her aristocratic heritage, she insisted on something rare at the time, which was that Adorno be given both his parental surnames, becoming “Theodor Wiesengrund-Adorno.” It was shortened to just Adorno later in his life.

Over the course of his adult life, Adorno worked as a concert reviewer and as a university philosophy teacher. His thought and writing were deeply shaped by his life during the World War II era. Since his father Oscar was Jewish, Theodor faced persecution and was banned from any position teaching philosophy at universities under the Nazi regime. Adorno was able to migrate to Britain in 1934 and later to the United States. He would not return to Germany until 1949. Adorno’s experiences with persecution and state authority informed his deeply negative views on modern governments, especially his view that even non-fascist modern governments are increasingly authoritarian.