Günter Figal

Günter Figal (15 July 1949 – 17 January 2024) was a German philosopher and professor of philosophy at University of Freiburg.

He was born in Langenberg. He was a specialist in the thought of Hans-Georg Gadamer and Martin Heidegger. His research focused on hermeneutics, phenomenology, German classical philosophy, and the history of metaphysics. Figal became the president of the Martin-Heidegger-Society in 2003 and resigned in 2015.

During a radio interview in 2015, Figal explicitly mentioned the Black Notebooks as a motivating factor for his resignation, specifying their antisemitic content—such as Heidegger's remark that Husserl's Jewishness limited his philosophical progression. Figal said these remarks were unworthy of a philosopher and that the content of the notebooks had come as a complete surprise to him. He drew a distinction between Heidegger's earlier work, up to and including Being and Time, and the mid-1930s writings where the antisemitic remarks appear.

Figal died in Ulm at the age of 74.