Manfred S. Frings papers

Manfred S. Frings (1925-2008) was a professor emeritus of Philosophy at DePaul University in Chicago. According to the Max Scheler Society of North America, Frings was born February 27, 1925 in Cologne-Lindenthal, Germany to Gottfried and Maria Frings. During World War II, both his home and school were destroyed during a bombing in Cologne. Frings rescued his mother Maria by pulling her from the wreckage of their house. Near the end of the war, he was drafted into the German military and during his active duty, he was captured by American forces and sent to a POW camp near Rouen, France.

After the war, Frings attended the University of Cologne, where he studied philosophy, French and English. He received his doctorate in philosophy in 1953. In 1958, he emigrated to America to accept an invitation to teach philosophy at the University of Detroit. In 1962, he accepted an appointment to teach philosophy at Duquesne University in Pittsburgh. From 1966 to his retirement in 1992, he taught at DePaul University in Chicago and subsequently continued teaching part-time at the University of New Mexico. He also served as a visiting professor and lecturer at the Universities of Cologne, Freiburg, Oxford, and Sorbonne.

Frings initiated the annual International Heidegger Conference at DePaul in 1966. He was one of six scholars chosen by Martin Heidegger to be the original editors of Heidegger’s Collected Works (Gesamtausgabe). From 1970 until his death in 2008, he served as editor of the Collected Works (Gesammelte Werke) of Max Scheler (1874-1928). He was President of the international Max Scheler Society (Max-Scheler-Gesellschaft), and a founder of the Max Scheler Society of North America.

He published several books and monographs, more than a hundred articles, and edited twenty-four books, including his notable The Mind of Max Scheler: The First Comprehensive Guide Based on the Complete Works (1997, 2nd ed. 2001). His publications have been translated into Chinese, French, Japanese, and German. His work was recognized in a special audience with Pope John Paul II, himself an accomplished Scheler scholar, and by Martin Heidegger in personal meetings in Freiburg (https://mssna.wordpress.com/announcements/ accessed July 12, 2017).