Richard Kroner was born on 8 March 1884 in Wrocław (Breslau), Poland. A German neo-Hegelian philosopher, he authored Von Kant bis Hegel, a classical history of German idealism, and formulated Hegel as ‘the Protestant Aquinas’. Under Nazi legislation, his Jewish ancestry led to his suspension from his position at Kiel. He was replaced by Hans-Georg Gadamer, a friend. American philosopher Otis Lee studied with Kroner in 1933 and aided his escape to the United States, where he took a position at Manhattan’s Union Theological Seminary.
Kroner’s ideas on Hegel, including his influence from Kierkegaard, were adopted by some existentialist thinkers, including Lev Shestov and Nikolai Berdyaev. Prominent works include Zweck und Gesetz in der Biologie. Eine logische Untersuchung (1913), Kant’s Weltanschauung (1914), Hegel zum 100. Todestag (1932), Die Selbstverwirklichung des Geistes. Prolegomena zur Kulturphilosopie (1928), Speculation in Pre-Christian Philosophy (1957), Selbstbesinnung. Drei Lehrstunden (1958), Speculation and Revelation in Modern Philosophy (1961), Between Faith and Thought: Reflections and Suggestions (1966), and Freiheit und Gnade (1969).