Born to German parents in Amsterdam, Reiner Schürmann (1941-1993) served on the Philosophy Department faculty at the Graduate Faculty of the New School for Social Research for nearly twenty years. Schürmann came to the United States in 1971 as a Dominican priest, having earned a degree in religious studies from Le Centre d'études du Saulchoir in France in 1969. He earned additional degrees in philosophy from La Sorbonne, including a doctorate in philosophy in 1981. Schürmann authored three major philosophical works: Maître Eckhart et la joie errante (1972); Le Principe d'anarchie, Heidegger et la question de l'agir (1982), and Des Hégémonies brisées, published posthumously in 1996. Les Origines, Schürmann's only work of literary fiction (awarded the Prix Broquette-Gonin by the Académie Française in 1977), has autobiographical elements, exploring paths to redemption from the guilt of being born German during World War II. Schürmann left the priesthood in 1976, around the time he came to the New School. Before the New School, he held teaching posts at the Catholic University of America in Washington D.C. and Duquesne University, in Pittsburgh. Former students remember Schürmann as a committed, demanding, and inspirational teacher, part of a European philosophical tradition that extended from Alfred Schutz to Hans Jonas and Hannah Arendt. Reiner Schürmann died of AIDS-related complications on August 20, 1993 in New York City.

Sources:

Christopher P. Long, "Remembering Reiner Schürmann," online edition of Graduate Faculty Philosophy Journal, November 3, 2015.

“Reiner Schürmann,” Wikipedia, last modified November 20, 2016, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reiner_Schürmann.