Dietrich von Hildebrand

Dietrich von Hildebrand
Born	Dietrich Richard Alfred von Hildebrand (1889-10-12)12 October 1889 Florence, Italy
Died	26 January 1977(1977-01-26) (aged 87) New Rochelle, New York, US
Alma mater	University of Munich University of Göttingen
Spouses	Margarete Denck ​ ​ (m. 1912; died 1957)​ Alice M. Jourdain ​ (m. 1959)​
Children	Franz von Hildebrand
Era	Contemporary philosophy
Region	Western philosophy
School	Continental philosophy Phenomenology Munich phenomenology Personalism
Main interests	Axiology Christianity Ethics Metaphysics Philosophy of Religion Aesthetics

Dietrich Richard Alfred von Hildebrand (12 October 1889 – 26 January 1977) was a German Roman Catholic philosopher and religious writer.

Hildebrand was called "the twentieth-century Doctor of the Church"^[1] by Pope Pius XII. He was a leading philosopher in the realist phenomenological and personalist movements, producing works in every major field of philosophy, including ethics, metaphysics, epistemology, philosophical anthropology, social philosophy, and aesthetics. Pope John Paul II greatly admired the philosophical work of Hildebrand, remarking once to his widow, Alice von Hildebrand, "Your husband is one of the great ethicists of the twentieth century." Benedict XVI also had a particular admiration and regard for Hildebrand, who knew Ratzinger as a young priest in Munich: "When the intellectual history of the Catholic Church in the twentieth century is written, the name of Dietrich von Hildebrand will be most prominent among the figures of our time."

Hildebrand is known for his consistent, public opposition to Nazism before and during World War II.