Helmut Lethen

Helmut Lethen (14 January 1939 – 13 August 2026) was a German literary and cultural scholar who taught at Utrecht University from 1977 to 1985 and at the University of Rostock from 1996 to 2004. He was director of the International Research Centre for Cultural Studies in Vienna from 2007 to 2016. Lethen was known internationally for books such as (Cool Conduct) about the Weimar Republic and , a study of Gottfried Benn (2006).

Life and career Lethen was born in Mönchengladbach to the merchant Wilhelm Lethen and his wife Ilse née Plücken, a secretary. His father was a soldier in World War II. He studied the science of literature, sociology and philosophy of religion at the University of Bonn, and in Amsterdam and West Berlin until 1969. From 1971 to 1976, he was an assistant at the Free University of Berlin. The institute became part of the University of Art and Design Linz The couple separated in 1984. He then married the writer in 1998, who since the mid-2010s has become connected with the Neue Rechte and the Identitarian movement. The couple's relationship has attracted a number of articles, including The New York Times coverage "When Old Left and Far-Right Share a Bedroom" in 2018. The couple had three sons.

Lethen died in Vienna on 13 August 2026, at the age of 87.

Publications Neue Sachlichkeit. 1924–1932. Studien zur Literatur des „Weißen Sozialismus". Metzler, Stuttgart 1970 (= dissertation at the FU Berlin, 1970). Stoische Gangarten. Rowohlt August 2025.