Christoph Menke (born November 22, 1958, in Cologne[1]) is a German philosopher and Germanist.

He completed his habilitation in 1995 at the Free University of Berlin with the thesis Tragödie im Sittlichen.

In addition, Menke held the following positions: from 1995 to 2004, co-applicant of the Research Training Group Repräsentation-Rhetorik-Wissen at the European University Viadrina in Frankfurt (Oder); from 2001, co-director of the Menschenrechtszentrums (Human Rights Center) at the University of Potsdam; from 2003, project leader in the SFB 626 Ästhetische Erfahrung im Zeichen der Entgrenzung der Künste (Aesthetic Experience in the Context of the Dissolution of Boundaries in the Arts); from 2005, spokesperson of the Research Training Group Lebensformen und Lebenswissen (Life-froms and Life-knowledge).

Menke's work focuses on political and legal philosophy (democracy and equality; the history and concept of subjective rights; human rights), theories of subjectivity (abilities and action; mind and inner nature), ethics (success and failure; theories of tragedy) and aesthetics (aesthetics of modernity; tragedy and theater).

Against this background, particular attention is paid to the figure of subjective rights, which characterizes the form of government in modern societies.