Kullmann, Eugen, 1915-2002

Eugen Kullmann was born in Erlenbach, Germany on March 20, 1915. Beginning in 1934 he studied at a rabbinical institution as well as at the Freies Jüdisches Lehrhaus in Frankfurt am Main. Later that year he went to the University of Basel in Switzerland, where he studied philosophy, philology and Biblical and ancient languages, among other subjects. In 1941 he received his doctorate. In Basel he met Paula Philippson and may have known Hedwig Joël.

In 1946 Eugen Kullmann joined his parents in the United States. From 1947-1968 he taught courses in philosophy at the New School for Social Research in New York City and was also a visiting professor at the Academy of Higher Jewish Learning (later the Academy for Jewish Religion), Bard College, the Jewish Theological Seminary and Smith College. In 1968 he became professor of religion at Kenyon College in Gambier, Ohio. In 1984 he retired from teaching; he died on June 24, 2002.

Karl Joël (sometimes spelled Joel) was born in 1864 and became a philosopher and professor who spent much of his career at the University of Basel, where he first became a professor in 1893. In 1912 his most well-known work, Seele und Welt, was published. In 1913 he became rector of the university. He died in Basel in 1934.

The Philippson family was a German-Jewish family with roots in Saxony. The name Philippson was first used by Moses Philippson of Dessau. Moses Philippson married Marianne Levy-Wust; they had four children: Phöbus, Johanna, Ludwig and Julius. Phöbus became a physician, and established himself with a practice in Magdeburg. Six years later he moved to Klötze. In 1832 he married his cousin Sara Gottschalk; after Sara's death he married her sister Pauline. Ludwig Philippson was a writer and a rabbi. In 1833 he became the rabbi in Magdeburg. He married Mathilde Hirsch in 1844; they had six children. On doctor's recommendations he left Magdeburg for Bonn in 1862. Moritz Philippson was the eldest son of Phöbus Philippson and his first wife Sara. Like his father Moritz also became a physician and opened a medical practice in Berlin. In 1872 he married his cousin Meta Philippson, the eldest daughter of Ludwig and Mathilde Philippson. Moritz and Meta had only one child: Paula. After her husband's death in 1877, Meta and her daughter went to live in Ludwig Philippson's home in Bonn. Paula became a physician and studied in several cities to pursue this goal. She never married and died in Basel, Switzerland in 1949.

From the guide to the Eugen Kullmann Collection, 1828-1949, bulk 1845-1934, (Leo Baeck Institute)