CACrown ArchivesThe cinema collection
Menu
Research dossier · People & Ideas

Robert Zimmer (philosopher)

German philosopher

Correspondence, annotated notebooks and portrait silhouettes prepared for research
People and ideasInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionSep 1, 2026
Entity authorityQ108086 ↗
Source-derived summary

Robert Zimmer (born 25 October 1953) is a German philosopher and essayist who writes biographies and popular introductions to philosophy and to the history of philosophy.

Life and career

Robert Zimmer was born in Trier, West Germany on 25 October 1953. He was educated at the German universities of Saarbrücken and Düsseldorf and wrote his doctoral dissertation on Edmund Burke. From 1986 - 2013 he lived as a freelance writer and publicist in Berlin. In 2013 he moved to Stuttgart. His most popular book so far has been “Das Philosophenportal”, a collection of 16 essays on 16 different classical works of philosophy, which has been translated into more than a dozen languages (not yet in English). In 2010 he published a biography of Arthur Schopenhauer. He also translated a selection of essays by the 19th Century French critic and writer Charles Augustin Sainte-Beuve.

Zimmer is a follower of critical rationalism. Together with Martin Morgenstern he wrote a short and popular biography of Karl Popper and edited the correspondence between Popper and Hans Albert.

Editorial summary

This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Robert Zimmer (philosopher)” as german philosopher. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.

Editorial reviewA productive starting point for separating a subject’s documented career from later reputation and commemoration. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1953, 1986, 2013, 2010—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1953-10-25. The account is most persuasive where Robert, Zimmer and philosopher can be independently traced.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The subject matters to the people & ideas register because the source frames it as german philosopher. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.

Evidence profile

Chronology provides the most reliable spine for this subject; interpretation should follow only after identities and dates are secure. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 1, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q108086. VIAF identifies the subject as 73983132. The Library of Congress control number is n85042598. 3 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1953, 1986, 2013 and 2010.

Critical limits

A concise life account rarely captures disputed attribution, private networks or the changing language used to describe a career. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Read biographical claims against dates, named institutions and the cited references. Distinguish a subject’s later reputation from evidence produced during their lifetime.

Best used for
  • Establishing names and roles
  • Building a first chronology
  • Locating cited institutions
Verify next

Personal papers, civil or court records, institutional files and the scholarship cited by the source.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Robert Zimmer (philosopher)”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Robert Zimmer (philosopher) primary sources, Robert Zimmer (philosopher) archive and Robert research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Robert Zimmer (philosopher)”?
  2. How has the subject’s reputation changed across later accounts?
  3. Which primary records establish identity, chronology and institutional ties?
Subject index

Search terms from this dossier

Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Robert Zimmer (philosopher)” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.