Dieter Leisegang

Dieter Leisegang was born on November 25, 1942, the eleventh child of painter and cartographer Gustav Engelbert Leisegang (1896-1972) and Margaretha Gretel Horn (1904-1980). Dieter spent his childhood in the city of Wiesbaden until his family relocated to Offenbach am Main in 1959. His first literary works and poems appeared in the 1950s and were published in newspapers, magazines, and anthologies. After graduating from secondary school, Leisegang attended Johann Wolfgang Goethe University (Frankfurt am Main) for several years. In 1963 he met publisher and typographer Horst Heiderhoff, together with whom he released the poetry series "Das Neuste Gedicht" ("The Newest Poem"). In the same year, however, Leisegang was forced to take a break from his studies at the university, due to a serious lung condition. After an operation, he was able to return to his studies in 1967. Already during his years at university, Leisegang worked a variety of different jobs: as a teaching assistant for an aesthetics course at the Werkkunstschule (College of Design) (in Offenbach) (1968–1960); as a lecturer for text and rhetoric at the Technical College for Industrial Advertising and Sales Promotion (in Kassel) (1968–1971); and as a freelancer in the editorial department “Art and Literature” for the Hessischer Rundfunk (Hessisch Broadcasting). In 1969 Leisegang finished his doctorate in philosophy (under philosophers Julius Jakob Schaaf and Theodor W. Adorno) at the Johann Wolfgang Goethe University with a dissertation titled Die drei Potenzen der Relation (Frankfurt: Heiderhoff, 1969) (The Three Powers of Relation). In his dissertation Leisegang took Schaaf's approach of "Universal Relational Theory" and developed it further into a "draft of a philosophy of relationships". Commenting on Leisegang's Die drei Potenzen der Relation, Schaaf stated that "Leisegang leaves behind a self-contained philosophical oeuvre, in which, with a staggering systematic power at the highest level of both introspection and argumentation, profound historical knowledge of the entire history of philosophy seamlessly unites". While a student at the university Leisegang had also studied German, German literature, and art history (under Paul Stöcklein), and East European History (under Klaus Zernack). After graduating as a doctor in philosophy from Johann Wolfgang Goethe University, Leisegang obtained a position at Frankfurt University as a lecturer on the History of Philosophy, with particular emphasis on the philosophy of art theory (1971–1973), which he used to work on a philosophical analysis of the works of both Franz Kafka and Karl May. During this time, Leisegang began intensively examining fundamental questions underlying graphic design. This culminated in his Prolegomena on a Theory of Design, which he published in the newspaper Design International in 1971 (whose editors were Leisegang himself, Anton Stankowski, and Horst Heiderhoff). In addition to this, he also toyed with the subject of prime numbers. Leisegang put his teaching position in Frankfurt on hold in 1972 to take up a position as guest lecturer at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg (South Africa). Here, alongside a relational theory drafted in English, he began plans for a philosophic political paper on "Apartheid and Integration as Moments of a True Political Relationship between Black and White in South Africa" (Letter to Julius Schaaf on July 20, 1972). Unfortunately, his posit that one-sided political relationships would inevitably lead to foreseeable social and economic catastrophe, which drew from examples from South Africa, never came to fruition in the form of a paper, as his manuscript went missing during a move. However, it was discussed during his lectures. While still in South Africa, Leisegang explicitly withdrew his application for a chair position at J.W. Goethe University and left his lecturer position there to rest (Letter to J. Schaaf, July 20, 1972). In August 1972 he returned to Germany due to the death of his father. He held the seminar "Philosophical Aspects of Literature, Karl May: Ardistan and Dschinnistan" in the winter semester of 1972/73, which, in a certain sense, came to be his legacy. Despite his successes, Leisegang committed suicide in the early hours of March 21, 1973. Shortly before this, he had written a letter informing the police of his impending suicide. ==Works==