Giwi Margvelashvili

Philosopher and writer Giwi Margvelashvili was born in 1927, Berlin, in Georgian emigrant Tite Margvelashvili’s family.

In 1946, along with his son, Tite Margvelashvili was taken to Berlin’s Soviet occupation zone by deception.

The father and the son were incarcerated and placed in Sachsenhausen concentration camp. Tite Margvelashvili was shot, while Giwi Margvelashvili was sent back to Georgia, where he was permitted to live with his relatives in Tbilisi.

Giwi Margvelashvili graduated from Tbilisi Ilia Chavchavadze State Institute of Foreign Languages and worked there as the German Language teacher afterwards. He was also a scientific officer in the Institute of Philosophy of Science Academy of Georgia.

Back then, Giwi Margvelashvili wrote novels, stories and plays in the German language; however, unfortunately, none of his works was then published.

Only in late 80s, in the wake of “perestroika” (Russian “restructuring” program brought to the Soviet Union by Gorbachev) was he permitted to return to the Federal Republic of Germany.

In 1991-1992, 2 volumes — the first of which was translated into Georgian by Karlo Jorjaneli — of Giwi Margvelashvili’s multi volume novel “Captain Vakush” were published; this was followed by the other novels, such as “Mutsali” — which was translated into Georgian by Maia Badridze — and “Die große Korrektur” (“The Great Revision”); as well his prose works “Der ungeworfene Handschuh ” (“The Gauntlet That Was Not Thrown”) and “Leben im Ontotext” (“Living The Ontotext”).

The writer was instantly hailed as one of the eminent modern artists. Giwi Marvelashvili was also featured in a documentary film, and was first invited as a “city writer” in Gersweiler, while later was asked to deliver lectures in the universities of the US and Germany.

Apart from this, Giwi Margvelashvili has been known as a philosopher and an acclaimed specialist of German existentialism.

In 1997, Giwi Margvelashvili was chosen as an honourable doctor of Tbilisi State University.

In 2006, Mr Margvelashvili was awarded the Goethe Medal.

Today, the writer lives in the capital city of Germany, Berlin.

Especially noteworthy is Margvelashvili’s endeavour to advance Georgian philosophical thinking:

Giwi Margvelashvili’s phenomenological works, which comprised the conceptions of Husserl, Hartmann, Scheler and Heidegger, proved to be a driving force for the development of this discipline in Georgia.

Particularly noteworthy are some of Giwi Margvelashvili’s publications in Georgian and Russian languages, such as:

“Theme Time and Existential Time”(Tbilisi, 1973),”The Existential and the Categorical in Martin HeideggerÕs Ontology”(Tbilisi, 1975),”The Finality Problem in the Ontologies of Nikolai Hartmann and Martin Heidegger,”(Tbilisi, 1982),”The Civilized World Problem in the Existential Ontology”(Tbilisi, 1998),”Philosophical Works, 5 volumes,” (Tbilisi, 1999-2000).