Max Stirner

25 October 1806 – 26 June 1856

Max Stirner
● 1806 ➢ Born 25 October 1806 Bayreuth, Bavaria
○ Born as “Johann Kaspar Schmidt” to a lower middle class family

● 1807 ➢ Father dies of consumption

● 1809 ➢ Mother moves to Kulm, West Prussia
Schooling ● 1826 ➢ University of Berlin
○ Studied philology, philosophy, & theology
○ Attends the lectures of Hegel on the history
Humboldt University
philosophy, religion, and the subjective spirit
○ Graduated with little academic distinction
Schooling ● 1827 ➢ University of Erlangen
○ Attended same time as
Ludwig von Feuerbach

University of Erlangen

Munich
The Young Hegelians
● 1841 ➢ Met in Wine bars
○ “Die Freien” (The Free Ones)

○ Ludwig Feuerbach, Karl Marx, Friedrich

Engels, Bruno Bauer and Arnold Ruge

○ Stirner was good friends with Engels

○ Unknown whether he met Marx

○ Attended but didn’t speak much

○ When he did, often provoked fierce

argument

○ Break with Hegel lead by

Feuerbach & Bauer
 Essays
● 1842 ➢ Das unwahre Prinzip unserer Erziehung
○ “ The False Principle of Our Education”
■ published in Rheinische Zeitung (edited by Marx at the time)
■ a reaction to Otto Friedrich Theodor Heinsius' treatise Humanism vs. Realism
■ Criticises “classical humanist” method and “practical realist” method of
education

● 1842 ➢ Kunst und Religion

○ “Art and Religion”
■ Critic of Bruno Baur’s critic of Hegel called:
Hegel's Doctrine of Religion and Art Judged
From the Standpoint of Faith.
The Ego and Its Own
● 1844 ➢ Publication of:
○ Der Einzige und sein Eigentum, “The Ego and Its Own”
○ Critical success, but failed to find financial success
○ dedicated “to my sweetheart Marie Dähnhardt.”
○ a radical anti-authoritarian and individualist critique of
contemporary Prussian society
○ in part is a polemic against:
Ludwig von Feuerbach

& Bruno Baur

○ also against Wilhelm Weitling

(communists)

○ and against Pierre-Joseph Proudhon

(anarchists)
After the Ego and Its Own
● 1843 ➢ Married his 2nd wife Marie Dähnhardt
○ member of Die Freien
○ Opened up a dairy shop with her inheritance
○ Failed to find a customer base
● 1845 ➢ Stirner’s Critics
○ Additionally Translated:
■ Adam Smith's The Wealth of Nations
■ Jean-Baptiste's Traite d'Economie Politique

● 1847 ➢ Marriage ends in separation

○ “A sly man who she had neither respected nor loved and
described their marriage as more of a cohabitation

● 1852 ➢ History of Reaction

○ compilation of texts
● 1856 ➢ dies of an “infected insect bite”
○ Never really found any financial success,
○ Frequently falling into debtors prison
The Nietzsche-Stirner Connection
● It is certain that Nietzsche read ABOUT The Ego and Its Own
○ mentioned in Friedrich Albert Lange's History of Materialism
○ Karl Robert Eduard von Hartmann's Philosophy of the Unconscious

● No indication that he actually read Stirner however

● Did meet with Eduard Mushacke in 1865, an friend of Stirner from the 1840’s

● Did not stop accusations of plagiarism to become widespread by the early 20th century when the
popularity of the two men grew exponentially

● Majority view today:

○ Accusations mostly based on the superficial similarities between the two men’s writings

● A significant minority still holds up the connection

○ Deleuze suggests that Stirner was a critically important negative influence on Nietzsche