Heinrich Meier

Heinrich Meier (born 8 April 1953) is a German philosopher. He has published on subjects including political theology, Leo Strauss and Carl Schmitt. He led the Carl Friedrich von Siemens Foundation from 1985 to 2022.

As a young man, Meier was engaged in radical politics as a nationalist and as a socialist, but became disillusioned with both ideologies. He began his academic career with studies of Jean-Jacques Rousseau. He then came to focus on political theology, Friedrich Nietzsche and Leo Strauss.^[1]

Meier's book Carl Schmitt and Leo Strauss: The Hidden Dialogue (1988) is about the both open and private intellectual exchange between Carl Schmitt and Strauss.^[2] Meier argues that political theology is at the centre of Schmitt's work and that his influence on Strauss was considerable.^[3]

In The Lesson of Carl Schmitt: Four Chapters on the Distinction between Political Theology and Political Philosophy (1994), Meier further analyses Schmitt as a political theologian.^[3]

Meier was the editor of Strauss' collected works in German.^[4] Meier's book Leo Strauss and the Theologico-Political Problem (2003) evaluates Strauss and his critics, with the aim of encouraging self-criticism among philosophers.^[5] The book argues that Strauss' main concern was never politics, but the conflict between reason and revelation.^[4]

Robert Howse is critical of Meier's interpretation of the Schmitt–Strauss connection, arguing that Meier both exaggerates Schmitt's influence on Strauss and gives it an unfounded political dimension. Howse argues that the relationship between them was merely professional.^[6]

From 1985 to 2022, Meier was the managing director of the Carl Friedrich von Siemens Foundation. Since 1999, he has taught as Honorarprofessor [de] at the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich.^[1]

• Faculty page – Ludwig Maximilian University