Martin Buber (German: [ˈmaʁtiːn̩ ˈbuːbɐ]; Hebrew: מרטין בובר; Yiddish: מארטין בובער; 8 February 1878 – 13 June 1965) was an Austrian-Israeli philosopher most famous for his ideas about dialogue, a way of thinking about life and human relationships that focuses on the difference between how people connect with others and how they see objects.
Born in Vienna, Buber came from a family of Jews who followed religious traditions. However, he chose to study non-religious subjects in philosophy instead of following religious customs. He wrote about Zionism, a movement supporting the creation of a Jewish homeland, and worked with groups in the Zionist movement for nearly 50 years across Europe and the Near East. In 1923, Buber wrote his famous essay on existence, Ich und Du (later translated into English as I and Thou). In 1925, he began translating the Hebrew Bible into the German language.
He was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature ten times and for the Nobel Peace Prize seven times.
Biography
Martin Buber was born in Vienna to an Orthodox Jewish family. He was a direct relative of the 16th-century rabbi Meir Katzenellenbogen, known as the Maharam (meaning "Mordechai, the Rabbi, Meir" of Padua). Karl Marx was also a relative. After his parents divorced when he was three years old, Buber was raised by his grandfather, Solomon Buber, in Lemberg (now Lviv, Ukraine). Solomon Buber was a scholar who studied Jewish religious texts. At home, Buber spoke Yiddish and German. In 1892, he returned to live with his father in Lemberg.
Although Buber was believed to be related to the royal Davidic line through his family, he experienced a personal religious crisis and stopped following Jewish religious customs. He began reading works by philosophers such as Immanuel Kant, Søren Kierkegaard, and Friedrich Nietzsche. These authors inspired him to study philosophy. In 1896, Buber moved to Vienna to study philosophy, art history, German studies, and the study of languages and texts.
In 1898, Buber joined the Zionist movement, helping with meetings and organizing activities. In 1899, while studying in Zürich, he met his future wife, Paula Winkler, a Catholic writer from a Bavarian peasant family. In 1901, Paula left the Catholic Church, and in 1907, she converted to Judaism.
At first, Buber supported World War I, calling it a "world historical mission" for Germany to bring civilization to the Near East. Some scholars believe that during and after World War I, Buber was influenced by the writings of Jacob L. Moreno, especially the term "encounter."
In 1930, Buber became an honorary professor at the University of Frankfurt am Main. However, he resigned from his position in protest after Adolf Hitler became the leader of Germany in 1933. Buber then helped create the Central Office for Jewish Adult Education, which became vital after the German government banned Jewish people from public education. In 1938, Buber left Germany and moved to Jerusalem, Mandatory Palestine, where he became a professor at Hebrew University and taught anthropology and sociology. In 1947, he had to leave his home in Abu Tor, Jerusalem, because of the Arab Liberation Army’s advance. After Israel became a country in 1948, Buber became the most well-known Israeli philosopher.
Buber and Paula had two children: a son, Rafael Buber, and a daughter, Eva Strauss-Steinitz. They helped raise their granddaughters, Barbara Goldschmidt and Judith Buber Agassi, who were born from their son Rafael’s marriage to Margarete Buber-Neumann. Buber’s wife, Paula Winkler, died in 1958 in Venice. He died at his home in the Talbiya neighborhood of Jerusalem on June 13, 1965.
Major themes
Martin Buber wrote in a style that was expressive and often used poetic language. His work focused on themes such as sharing stories from Hasidic and Chinese traditions, explaining parts of the Bible, and having discussions about deep philosophical ideas. As a cultural Zionist, Buber worked in Jewish and educational communities in Germany and Israel. He supported the idea of a shared solution for Jewish and Arab people in Palestine. After Israel became a country, he also promoted the idea of a regional group that included Israel and Arab nations. His ideas have had a lasting impact on many areas of study, especially in social psychology, social philosophy, and religious existentialism.
Buber's views on Zionism were connected to his goal of promoting "Hebrew humanism." According to Laurence J. Silberstein, the term "Hebrew humanism" was created to show how Buber's form of nationalism was different from the official Zionist movement. It also highlighted how the challenges faced by Israel were a specific example of problems that all humans face. Buber believed that Israel's role as a nation was closely connected to the broader goals of all humanity.
Zionist views
Martin Buber had different views on Zionism compared to Theodor Herzl. Herzl did not see Zionism as a movement with religious goals. Instead, Buber believed Zionism could help improve Jewish society and spiritual life. For example, Buber said that after the creation of the Israeli state, changes in Judaism might be needed, like what Pope John XXI did for the Catholic Church. Herzl and Buber respected each other’s ideas but worked toward different goals for the rest of their lives. In 1902, Buber became the editor of Die Welt, a key publication for the Zionist movement. A year later, he became involved with the Jewish Hasidic movement. Buber admired how Hasidic communities practiced their religion in daily life and culture. Unlike busy Zionist groups that focused on politics, Hasidic communities emphasized values Buber believed Zionism should adopt. In 1904, Buber left much of his Zionist work to focus on study and writing, publishing a thesis about religious thinkers.
In a 1910 essay titled "He and We," Buber compared Herzl (who died in 1904) and himself as having opposite views on Zionism. Buber described Herzl as someone who acted quickly to help Jews, without spending much time on learning. Buber also compared Herzl to Baal Shem Tov, the founder of Hasidism, saying both wanted to help the Jewish people, but Herzl worked through history while Baal Shem Tov focused on religion. During this time, Buber wrote about Zionism and nationalism, especially during World War I. In 1915, he debated with philosopher Hermann Cohen about nationalism. Cohen believed Jewish people were important for German identity, but Buber argued that Judaism should remain a distinct part of humanity, not disappear.
Buber continued to write about Zionism, including a 1916 letter titled "Concepts and Reality." He said nationalism was not natural and that Zionism was more about religion than politics. He also believed the Hebrew language was important for expressing Jewish values. In the 1920s, Buber supported the idea of a shared Jewish-Arab state, where both groups could live in peace and develop together. He disagreed with seeing Zionism as just a national movement and wanted a society where Jews and Arabs could coexist without Jewish dominance. He was influenced by Ahad Ha’am, a cultural Zionist, and helped create the group Brit Shalom in 1925, which promoted a binational state. Buber hoped Jews and Arabs could one day live together in peace.
In a 1929 essay, Buber explained why Jews had a right to the land of Israel. He said this right came from their ancient connection to the land, their recent efforts to farm it, and the future role of Israel as a cultural and social model, like the kibbutzim. He also said that some injustice is necessary for survival but argued that a binational state could allow both Jews and Arabs to live together while maintaining independence. Later, Buber became more politically active in Jerusalem and co-founded the Ihud party in 1942, which supported a bi-national program. He remained friends with many Zionists and philosophers from Europe and Jerusalem.
In a 1948 essay titled "Zionism and Zionism," Buber discussed two views of Zionism: one focused on restoring a spiritual Jewish society and the other on becoming a "normal" nation with a land, language, and independence. He warned that as Israel became more like other nations, the spiritual goals of Zionism might be lost. After Israel was created in 1948, Buber supported Israel joining a federation of "Near East" states beyond Palestine. He believed Israel could help create peace in the region by working with Arab nations as equal partners in a shared homeland.
Literary and academic career
From 1905, he worked as a lecturer at the publishing house Rütten & Loening. There, he started and oversaw the completion of a series of books called Die Gesellschaft, which focused on social psychology.
From 1906 to 1914, Buber published collections of Hasidic, mystical, and mythic texts from Jewish and global traditions. In 1916, he moved from Berlin to Heppenheim.
During World War I, he helped create the Jewish National Committee to improve the lives of Eastern European Jews. At that time, he became the editor of Der Jude (meaning "The Jew" in German), a Jewish monthly publication until 1924. In 1921, Buber began a close partnership with Franz Rosenzweig. In 1922, he and Rosenzweig worked together on Rosenzweig’s House of Jewish Learning, known in Germany as Lehrhaus.
In 1923, Buber wrote his famous essay Ich und Du (later translated as I and Thou). Though he revised the work later in life, he did not change its main ideas. In 1925, he and Rosenzweig began translating the Hebrew Bible into German (Die Schrift). He called this process Verdeutschung ("Germanification") because it used new, dynamic phrases instead of standard German to better reflect the original Hebrew text. Between 1926 and 1930, Buber co-edited the quarterly Die Kreatur ("The Creature").
In 1930, Buber became an honorary professor at the University of Frankfurt am Main. He resigned from his position in protest after Adolf Hitler came to power in 1933. On October 4, 1933, Nazi authorities banned him from teaching. In 1935, he was removed from the Reich Chamber of Literature. He then founded the Central Office for Jewish Adult Education, which became vital as the German government stopped Jews from attending public schools. The Nazi government increasingly blocked this organization’s work.
In 1938, Buber left Germany and moved to Jerusalem, then the capital of Mandate Palestine. He became a professor at Hebrew University, where he taught anthropology and introductory sociology. His lectures from the first semester were published in a book called The Problem of Man (Das Problem des Menschen). In these lectures, he explored how the question "What is Man?" became central to philosophical anthropology. He participated in discussions about Jewish challenges in Palestine and the Arab question, drawing on his work in Jewish texts, philosophy, and Hasidism.
He joined a group called Ihud, which aimed to create a shared state for Arabs and Jews in Palestine. Buber believed this bi-national idea better reflected the goals of Zionism than a state for Jews alone. In 1949, he published Paths in Utopia, where he described his views on community and a theory of "dialogical community" based on personal relationships.
After World War II, Buber gave lectures in Europe and the United States. In 1952, he had a disagreement with Carl Jung about whether God exists.
Philosophy
Martin Buber is well-known for his idea of dialogical existence, which he explained in his book I and Thou. His work covered many topics, such as religious awareness, modern life, the idea of evil, ethics, education, and how to understand the Bible.
Buber did not want to be called a "philosopher" or "theologian." He said he was not interested in abstract ideas, only in personal experiences. He also said he could not talk about God directly, only about the relationships people have with God.
In terms of politics, Buber’s ideas about how society should be organized share some similarities with anarchism. However, he never claimed to be an anarchist. He believed a government could exist under certain conditions.
In I and Thou, Buber introduced his theory about how people exist. He was influenced by the works of Ludwig Feuerbach and Søren Kierkegaard. He believed that life is about encounters. He used two pairs of words, Ich-Du and Ich-Es, to describe how people interact with others, objects, and the world. These pairs explain different ways of thinking, acting, and being. Buber argued that people are always connected to the world through one of these two ways.
The main idea Buber used to describe these two ways is dialogue (Ich-Du) and monologue (Ich-Es). He used the idea of communication, especially through language, to explain how people relate to each other and the world.
Ich-Du ("I-You") describes a relationship where two people or beings connect fully and equally. In this kind of relationship, neither person sees the other as an object or idea. Instead, they meet each other as real, whole beings. This kind of connection cannot be measured or proven, but Buber said it is real and can be felt. Examples of Ich-Du relationships include two lovers, a person and a cat, an author and a tree, or two strangers on a train. Words like meeting, dialogue, and mutuality can describe this kind of relationship.
Buber believed that a person can have a Ich-Du relationship with God. He said this is the only way to connect with God. He also claimed that any Ich-Du relationship with someone or something is connected to the eternal relationship between humans and God.
To have a Ich-Du relationship with God, a person must be open to it but not actively try to create it. Trying too hard to form this kind of relationship can lead to Ich-Es thinking, which focuses on objects and ideas rather than real connections. Buber said that if a person is open to Ich-Du, God may respond. Because the God Buber described has no qualities, this relationship continues as long as the person wants it. However, if the person shifts back to Ich-Es thinking, it can stop deeper connections with others and with God.
Ich-Es ("I-It") is the opposite of Ich-Du. In Ich-Es, a person sees others or objects as things to be used or studied, not as real beings. This idea is similar to the work of philosopher Immanuel Kant, who said that people only experience objects through their own minds. In Ich-Es, a person treats others as tools or ideas, not as people. This kind of thinking focuses on how things can help the individual.
Buber believed that life is a balance between Ich-Du and Ich-Es. He said that Ich-Du moments are rare. He also argued that modern life’s problems, like loneliness and feeling disconnected from others, come from focusing too much on Ich-Es thinking. He believed this way of seeing the world devalues people and the meaning of life itself.
Students and colleagues
Martin Buber was a mentor to Gershom Scholem and Walter Benjamin, a Jewish scholar known as the "Kabbalist of the Holy City" and a philosopher called the "Marxist Rabbi" in Berlin. These events took place before, during, and after the Holocaust. Walter Benjamin died while trying to leave Europe, but Buber stayed in contact with Scholem after World War II.
Buber’s relationship with Scholem and Benjamin was sometimes difficult, as the students sometimes criticized their teacher. However, Buber supported their work by helping promote their ideas, publishing their writings, and assisting in their careers. Scholem later helped Buber move to Palestine, a region in the Middle East, during the rise of Adolf Hitler.
Scholem and Buber also wrote letters to each other about their work with Brit Shalom, a group that studied ways to create peace between Israel and Palestine more than twenty years before Israel became a country. They also discussed Jewish religious texts, including ancient writings filled with spiritual and mystical ideas. They kept in touch about their shared interests and important books in their fields. Scholem later dedicated his book about the Zohar, an important Jewish religious text, to Buber.
Hasidism and mysticism
Martin Buber was a scholar, interpreter, and translator of Hasidic stories and teachings. He believed that Hasidism helped Judaism stay strong and fresh by focusing on community, relationships with others, and finding meaning in daily tasks, such as how a worker treats their tools. According to Buber, the Hasidic way of life meant living with God’s presence in every part of life, without separating daily routines from spiritual experiences. This idea greatly influenced Buber’s view of human life, which he believed was built on conversation and interaction between people.
In 1906, Buber published Die Geschichten des Rabbi Nachman, a book that shared the stories of Rabbi Nachman of Breslov, a well-known Hasidic leader, retold in a style that reflected new Hasidic ideas. In 1908, Buber published Die Legende des Baalschem, a collection of stories about the Baal Shem Tov, who started the Hasidic movement.
Published works
The book Chinesische Geister- und Liebesgeschichten contains the first German translation of Strange Stories from a Chinese Studio. Alex Page translated this work as Chinese Tales, which was published in 1991 by Humanities Press.
Werke (3 volumes, 1962–1964)
Martin Buber Werkausgabe (MBW). Edited by Paul Mendes-Flohr, Peter Schäfer, and Martina Urban for the Berliner Akademie der Wissenschaften and the Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities. A total of 21 volumes are planned to be published from 2001 onward.
Correspondence spanning seven decades (1897–1965), published between 1972 and 1975.
Several of his original writings, including his personal archives, are preserved in the National Library of Israel. This library was formerly known as the Jewish National and University Library and is located on the campus of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.