Born in Hanover, Germany, he studied in Bonn and Munich and in Freiburg where he became a Protestant. In 1908 he began to teach at the Technical High School in Hanover but moved to the history of ideas, on which he wrote many books. Influenced by Zionism, he returned to Judaism and wrote a classic study of 'Jewish self-hatred'. In 1925 he was the object of anti-Semitic attacks after opposing Hindenburg's election as president of Germany. He moved to Marienbad (now Marianske Lazne, in the Czech Republic), where he was assassinated by German Nazis sent there expressly to kill him.

Bibliography:

LESSING, Theodor. Ausgewahlte Schriften. Bremen: Donat, [199?]-

LESSING, Theodor. Deutschland und seine Juden. Pp. 31. Prag: Neumann, 1933

LESSING, Theodor. Europa und Asien (Untergang der Erde am Geist). Pp. viii, 358. Leipzig: F. Meiner, c1930

LESSING, Theodor. Der juedische Selbsthass. Pp. 254. Berlin: Zionistischer Bucher-Bund (Judischer Verlag), c1930

LESSING, Theodor. "Wir machen nicht mit!": Schriften gegen den Nationalismus und zur Judenfrage. Hrsg. von Jorg Wollenberg; unter Mitarbeit von Helmut Donat; mit Beitragen und Zeichnungen von Walter Grab und Alfred Hrdlicka. Pp. 312. Bremen: Donat, c1997

LESSING, Theodor. Feind im Land: satire. Pp. 152. Hannover: W. A. Adam, 1924

LESSING, Theodor. Einmal und nie wieder: Lebenserinnerungen. Pp. viii, 361. Prag: H. Mercy, 1935

Links:

Der Mord an Theodor Lessing