Dieter Leisegang

Dieter Leisegang was born on November 25, 1942, the eleventh child to painter and cartographer Gustav Leisegang. He spent his childhood in the city of Wiesbaden until his family relocated to Offenbach am Main in 1959. His first literary works and poems appeared in the 1950s and were published in newspapers, magazines, and anthologies.

After graduating secondary school, Leisegang studied History, German, and Philosophy at the Johann Wolfgang Goethe University, primarily under the instruction of Theodor W. Adorno and Julius Jakob Schaaf. Leisegang took Schaaf's approach of “Universal Relational Theory” and developed it further into a “draft of a philosophy of relationships”, with which “Leisegang leaves behind a self-contained philosophical oeuvre, in which, with a staggering systematic power at the highest level of both introspection and argumentation, profound historical knowledge of the entire history of philosophy seamlessly unites” (Julius Schaaf).

In 1963 Leisegang met typographer and publisher Horst Heiderhoff, together with whom he released the poetry series “Das Neuste Gedicht” (”The Newest Poem”). In the same year, however, he was forced to take a break from his studies at the university due to a serious lung condition. After an operation, he was able to return to his studies in 1967. Already during his years at university Leisegang worked a variety of different jobs: as a teaching assistant for an aesthetics course at the Werkkunstschule (College of Design Offenbach) (1968-1960); as a lecturer for text and rhetoric at the Technical College for Industrial Advertising and Sales Promotion in Kassel (1968-1971); and as a freelancer in the editorial department “Art and Literature” for the Hessischer Rundfunk (Hessisch Broadcasting).

In 1969 he finished his doctorate in Philosophy (Julius Schaaf/Theodore W. Adorno), German (Paul Stöcklein), and East European History (Klaus Zernack) with a dissertation on "The Three Powers of Relation". Leisegang was then given a position at Frankfurt University as a lecturer for the History of Philosophy, with particular emphasis on the philosophy of art theory (1971-1973), which he used to work on a philosophical analysis of the works of both Franz Kafka and Karl May. During this time, Leisegang began intensively examining fundamental questions underlying graphic design. This culminated in his Prolegomena on a Theory of Design, which Leisegang published in the newspaper design international in 1971 (whose editors were Leisegang himself, Anton Stankowski, and Horst Heiderhoff). In addition to this, he also toyed with prime numbers.

Leisegang put his teaching position in Frankfurt on hold in 1972 in order to take up a position as guest lecturer at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg (South Africa). Here, alongside a relational theory drafted in English, he began plans for a philosophic political paper on "Apartheid and Integration as Moments of a True Political Relationship between Black and White in South Africa" (Letter to Julius Schaaf on July 20, 1972). Unfortunately, his posit that one-sided political relationships would inevitably lead to foreseeable social and economic catastrophe, which drew from examples from South Africa, never came to fruition in the form of a paper, as his manuscript went missing during a move. However, it was discussed during his lectures. While still in South Africa, Leisegang explicitly withdrew his application for a chair position at J.W. Goethe University and left his lecturer position there to rest (Letter to J. Schaaf, July 20, 1972).

In August 1972 he returned to Germany due to the death of his father. He held the seminar "Philosophical Aspects of Literature, Karl May: Ardistan and Dschinnistan" in the winter semester of 1972/73, which, in a certain sense, came to be his legacy. Despite his successes, Leisegang committed suicide in the early hours of March 21, 1973. Shortly before this, he had written a letter informing the police of his impending suicide.

• Julius Schaaf, Beziehung und Idee. Eine platonische Besinnung, in: Parusia. Studien zur Philosophie Platons und zur Problemgeschichte des Platonismus, Pub. K. Flasch, Frankfurt 1965, p. 3–20.
• Julius Schaaf, Statt eines Nachwortes. Rede zur Trauerfeier am 27. März, in: Leisegang, Aus privaten Gründen, Frankfurt 1973.
• Jörg Engelmann, Gesellschaft als Beziehung. Aspekte einer relationstheoretischen Soziologie des Denkens, Frankfurt 1974.
• Reiner Kunze, Rezension von Unordentliche Gegend und Aus privaten Gründen, in: [Source?] 1976 [quoted in: Corino, Das rettungslose Ich, p. 199–200].
• Karl Corino, Das rettungslose Ich. Zur Lyrik Dieter Leisegangs, in: Leisegang, Lauter letzte Worte, p. 199–213.
• Christoph von Wolzogen, Das Skandalon des Ich. Anmerkungen zur Lyrik Dieter Leisegangs, Review by: Leisegang, Lauter letzte Worte, in: Neue Zürcher Zeitung, Feuilleton, 18. September 1980, p. 37–38.
• Hans Dieter Schäfer, Dieter Leisegang, in: Die deutsche Lyrik 1945–1975, Düsseldorf 1981.
• Christoph von Wolzogen, Die autonome Relation. Zum Problem der Beziehung im Spätwerk von Paul Natorp. Ein Beitrag zur Geschichte der Theorien der Relation, Würzburg/Amsterdam 1984.
• Rüdiger Bolz (1985), "Leisegang, Dieter", Neue Deutsche Biographie (NDB) (in German), 14, Berlin: Duncker & Humblot, p. 154; (full text online)
• Harald Hartung, Das leergelebte Leben, in: Frankfurter Anthologie 9, Frankfurt 1985.
• Christoph von Wolzogen, Artikel Relation IV – 20. Jahrhundert, in: Historisches Wörterbuch der Philosophie, Bd. 8, Basel 1992, p. 602–606.
• Petra Ernst, Dieter Leisegang, in: Lexikon der deutschsprachigen Gegenwartsliteratur, 2 Bde., pub. Thomas Kraft, München 2002.
• Paul Drechsel, on the „Logik der Globalisierung“, Kap. 2, Exkurs: Die Logik der Relation aRb as synopsis of separating and connecting, www.drechsel-science.de/Globalisierungs-Vortrag/Buch-Kapitel-2.pdf [vgl. full manuscript: www.drechsel-science.de/webseiten/globalisierung.htm].

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Dieter Leisegang.

• Literature by and about Dieter Leisegang in the German National Library catalogue
• Glanz und Elend – Autorenporträt und das Gedicht „Coca-Cola“
• Zwischen Absolutem und Kahlschlag; 2012 wäre Dieter Leisegang 70 Jahre alt geworden, retrieved on 3. Oktober 2018
• Gedichte von Dieter Leisegang (deutsch und spanisch)
• Philosophie der Beziehung und Logik der Globalisierung – Kap. 2 aus Paul Drechsels Globalisierungs-Buch mit Hinweis auf Leisegang (S. 84–85) (PDF; 450 kB)

• Beziehung und Idee, in: Parusia, Hg. Kurt Flasch, Frankfurt 1965, S. 3.
• Beziehung und Idee, in: Parusia, Hg. Kurt Flasch, Frankfurt 1965, S. 17.
• Die drei Potenzen der Relation, Frankfurt 1969, S. 100.
• Dimension und Totalität, Frankfurt 1972, S. 40.