17 Facts About Otto Weininger

Otto Weininger was born on 3 April 1880 in Vienna, a son of the Jewish goldsmith Leopold Weininger and his wife Adelheid.

Otto Weininger studied philosophy and psychology but took courses in natural sciences and medicine as well.

Otto Weininger learned Greek, Latin, French and English very early, later Spanish and Italian, and acquired passive knowledge of Swedish, Danish and Norwegian.

Otto Weininger met Sigmund Freud, who did not recommend the text to a publisher.

Otto Weininger's professors accepted the thesis and Weininger received his Ph.

In 1902 Otto Weininger went to Bayreuth, where he witnessed a performance of Richard Wagner's Parsifal, which impressed him deeply.

The decision to take his own life gradually took shape; after a long discussion with his friend Artur Gerber Otto Weininger realized that "it is not yet time".

Otto Weininger was attacked by Paul Julius Mobius, professor in Leipzig and author of the book On the Physiological Deficiency of Women and was accused of plagiarizing.

Otto Weininger told the landlady that he was not to be disturbed before morning, since he planned to work and then to go to bed late.

Otto Weininger died in the Wiener Allgemeines Krankenhaus and was buried in the Matzleinsdorf Protestant Cemetery in Vienna.

Otto Weininger argues that genius never applies solely to a specific field such as mathematics or music, but there is only the universal genius, in whom everything exists and makes sense.

Otto Weininger decries the decay of modern times, and attributes much of it to feminine character.

Otto Weininger is rather non-moral, neither very good nor very bad.

Wittgenstein is recalled as saying that he thought Otto Weininger was "a great genius".

However, Wittgenstein's deep admiration of Otto Weininger's thought was coupled with a fundamental disagreement with his position.

Isolated parts of Otto Weininger's writings were used by Nazi propaganda, despite the fact that Otto Weininger actively argued against the ideas of race that came to be identified with the Nazis.

Otto Weininger is played by Paulus Manker in Ildiko Enyedi's My 20th Century.