Generations of East German students encountered him when Sophocles' "Antigone" was taught in its brilliant new translation during German classes: Rudolf Schottlaender (1900-1988). Today, the philosopher, classical philologist, translator, and publicist is largely unknown - unjustly so, as his memoirs reveal: they prove to be a kaleidoscope of German intellectual history in the "Age of Extremes" (Hobsbawm), in which Schottlaender occupied a mediating position that caused him to clash equally in both East and West. Having left the Jewish community in 1921, Schottlaender studied philosophy in Heidelberg (under Jaspers) and in Freiburg im Breisgau (under Husserl, Heidegger, and Hartmann). He had connections to the George Circle, met Günther Stern (later known as Günther Anders), and married his sister. After earning his doctorate in Heidelberg, he emerged as the first German translator of Proust.