War, Life and Jewish Destiny: Rereading Martin Buber’s Wartime Writings

This article reexamines Martin Buber's writings from the First World War, arguing that they constitute a philosophically coherent expression of Lebensphilosophie, rather than a transient deviation preceding I and Thou. Against the prevailing tendency to minimize or bracket these texts, it situates Buber's wartime thought within the broader »philosophy of life« constellation shaped by Simmel, Bergson, Nietzsche and Dilthey. It shows how Buber interprets the war through kinesis, Erlebnis, temporal rupture and organic unity, reading it as a regenerative moment that discloses life's creative and unconditioned forces. The article further demon-strates that Buber radicalizes Lebensphilosophie by integrating it into a specifically Jewish vision of communal renewal and historical vocation. Contextualizing these reflections reveals how this phase exposes both the generative scope and internal dynamics of Lebensphilosophie, while also inviting a reconsideration of Buber's later dialogical turn as an ethical reconfiguration of the philosophy of life within the interpersonal sphere of relation.