Born in 1934 in Essen, Bernhard Waldenfels studied philosophy, psychology, classical philology, and history in Bonn, Innsbruck and Munich. He earned his PhD from the University of Munich in 1959. From 1960 to 1962 he studied modern French philosophy in Paris with Merleau-Ponty and Ricoeur. In 1967 he finished his Habilitation in Munich. He subsequently taught there until 1976, when he was appointed Professor of Philosophy at the Ruhr-Universität Bochum. Since 1999 he has been Professor Emeritus. He has been a visiting professor at major seats of learning in cities including Rotterdam, Paris, New York, Prague, Rome and San Jose. He is co-founder of the German Society for Phenomenological Research.He has written extensively about phenomenology, dialog theory, structures of behavior, and order and normativity. His most recent book ›Ortsverschiebungen, Zeitverschiebungen: Modi leibhaftiger Erfahrung‹ was published in 2009 (Suhrkamp).