Ferdinand Ebner (January 31, 1882 in Wiener Neustadt – October 17, 1931 in Gablitz, Austria), was an Austrian elementary school teacher and philosopher.
After ten years in Waldegg, in 1912 his job took Ebner to Gablitz near Vienna, from where he could again take refuge in the Viennese cultural scene.
He spent whole days visiting Vienna's churches, museums, concert halls, theaters and coffee houses.
He read Otto Weininger's Sex and Character, later Pascal, Arthur Schopenhauer, Søren Kierkegaard and Friedrich Nietzsche, to name a few.
In 1923 Ebner became reluctantly the head of the school, but he had to retire soon due to further illnesses and depressions, which led him to two suicide attempts.
Ebner´s personalism and religious thought has influenced both the Protestant and the catholic world, from E. Brunner, D. Bonhöffer and Jürgen Moltmann to K. Rahner, H. Küng and J. Ratzinger.
But when the right I-Thou encounter takes place we do not separate theory and praxis anymore, because we are able to understand Matthew 25,40: "as you did this to one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did it to me".
Living in a real, true relationship with God and our neighbour means waking up to the "spiritual realities", the end of our just "dreaming of the spirit".