二十世紀上半葉，德國仍然係歐洲最具活力嘅哲學重鎮，呢一番景像一直保持到希特勒上臺為止。希特勒上臺之後，一大批最優秀嘅德國哲學家——其中大部分係猶太人或者係左翼學者——佢地不斷走到海外（尤其係美國），令到德國哲學界日漸沈寂。同樣嘅情形亦都同時發生喺法蘭克福學派上。同一個時期，亦有一啲哲學家留咗喺到，例如海德格爾——佢係當時德國最傑出的哲學家之一，佢信奉納粹主義。但當納粹失勢之後，呢批人發現佢咃唔單止禁止咗教學，甚至佢哋本人，亦都連同他們嘅哲學一齊被世人拋棄。
In the first half of the twentieth century, Germany remained the most dynamic philosophical center in Europe, and this was the case until Hitler came to power. After Hitler came to power, a large number of the best German philosophers – most of them Jews and perhaps left-wing scholars – continued to go abroad (especially in the United States), leaving Germany's philosophical scene silent. The same happened at the same time in the Frankfurt School. During the same period, philosophers remained, such as Heidegger, one of the most prominent philosophers of the time in Germany, who believed in Nazism. But when the Nazis lost power, they found themselves angry that not only had they banned teaching, but that they themselves had been abandoned along with their philosophy.