The website Hannah Arendt. Complete Works. Critical Edition makes the collected writings of the author, with the exception of correspondence, available online (publication schedule). At present, the digital publication of the thematic complexes 2: Rahel Varnhagen. Lebensgeschichte einer deutschen Jüdin / The Life of a Jewess / The Life of a Jewish Woman, 3: Sechs Essays / Die verborgene Tradition and 6: The Modern Challenge to Tradition. Fragmente eines Buchs are complete.

The digital edition of the writings of Hannah Arendt complements the printed volumes of the Critical Edition, and has been conceived as an environment in which users can pursue more advanced research. Facsimiles and diplomatic transcriptions of Arendt’s typescripts and manuscripts can be viewed alongside the constituted texts, which are accompanied by extensive notes on their genesis as well as detailed textual commentaries. These commentaries also systematically integrate information about the holdings of Arendt’s personal library, now at Bard College (New York), including about annotations of passages cited in her own texts. The digital edition includes a powerful and flexible full-text search with a variety of filters and options. The TEI/XML documents that underlie the presentation of the texts can also be displayed.

Hannah Arendt. Complete Works. Critical Edition offers a unique view into the author’s thinking and writing processes: for the first time, it is possible to follow the emergence of her works step by step, in as much detail as the available evidence allows. This also makes it possible to check the editorial decisions made in the production of the Critical Edition, down to the level of the decipherment and construal of individual words.

The project Hannah Arendt. Complete Works. Critical Edition was granted long-term sponsorship by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft in 2020.