The Open Society and Its Enemies

Key aspects of Karl Popper’s biography shaped his ideas in The Open Society and Its Enemies in a number of ways. Let us briefly examine his family and educational background as well as his political activism in his youth for this purpose. First, Karl Popper was born in 1902 in Vienna, Austria. His family was of Jewish descent both culturally and religiously. However, a number of family members, including Popper’s father, converted to Lutheranism shortly prior to Popper’s birth. Historians describe Popper and his Viennese social circle during his formative years as “assimilated Jews” (Hacohen, Malachi Haim. Karl Popper—The Formative Years, 1902-1945: Politics and Philosophy in Interwar Vienna, Cambridge University Press, 2002, p. 31; Weinstein, David. Jewish Exiles and European Thought in the Shadow of the Third Reich, Cambridge University Press, 2017, p. 77).

Popper himself strove to surpass traditional markers like religion in his ideal open society. However, historians argue that he did not live in such a society and his background was relevant. For instance, historian David Weinstein writes that Popper’s father was a prominent lawyer vulnerable under an anti-Semitic mayor, Karl Lueger, hence his potential