Helmuth Plessner, born in Wiesbaden in 1892, was an important source of inspiration for European philosophy, biology, and sociology, and is still considered one of the most important representatives of "philosophical anthropology."

He lived in the "world spa town" until he was 20. His father was a well-respected sanatorium doctor and director of Jewish origin. After graduating from the Alexander von Humboldt Gymnasium, Plessner studied zoology and philosophy in Heidelberg, then philosophy in Göttingen and Erlangen. After completing his habilitation in 1920, he pursued his career as a private lecturer in philosophy at the newly founded University of Cologne alongside Max Scheler.

In 1933, he was dismissed from university service because of his father's Jewish origins and went into exile in Groningen, Netherlands. After his remigration in 1949, he became one of the most important intellectuals of the young Federal Republic of Germany ("Verspätete Nation" or "Belated Nation") as a sociologist in Göttingen alongside Horkheimer, Adorno, and Gehlen.

Plessner's work "The Levels of the Organic and the Human," which has recently been translated into English, is one of the most discussed approaches in philosophical anthropology. After 1989, his study on the "Limits of Community" also attracted considerable attention outside of academic circles.

• 2023 Prof. Dr. Gérard Raulet (French philosopher and Germanist)
• 2020 Prof. Dr. Onora O’Neill (British philosopher and politician)
• 2017 Prof. Dr. Peter Sloterdijk (German philosopher, cultural scientist, and author)
• 2014 Prof. Dr. Michael Tomasello (US anthropologist and behavioral scientist)