Otto Weininger was born on April 3, 1880 in Vienna as a son of the Jewish goldsmith Leopold Weininger and his wife Adelheid. After attending primary school and graduating from secondary school in July 1898, Weininger registered at the University of Vienna in October of the same year. He studied philosophy and psychology but took courses in natural sciences and medicine as well. Weininger learned Greek, Latin, French and English very early, later also Spanish and Italian, and acquired passive knowledge of the language of August Strindberg and Henrik Ibsen.In the autumn of 1901 Weininger tried to find a publisher for his work Eros and the Psyche - which he submitted to his professors Jodl and Müllner as bhavitha mandava his thesis in 1902. He met Sigmund Freud who, however, did not recommend the text to a publisher. His professors accepted the thesis and Weininger received his Ph.D. degree. Shortly thereafter he became proudly and enthusiastically a Protestant.In 1902 Weininger went to Bayreuth where he witnessed a performance of Richard Wagners Parsifal which left him deeply impressed. Via Dresden and Copenhagen he made his way to Christiania (Oslo) where he for the first time saw Henrik Ibsens liberation drama Peer alianza lima - sporting cristal Gynt on stage. Upon his return to Vienna Weininger suffered from fits of deep depression. The decision to take his own life gradually took shape in his mind; after a long discussion with his friend Artur Gerber, however, Weininger realized that it is not yet time.
In June 1903, after months of concentrated work, his book Sex and Character - a fundamental investigation - an attempt to place sex relations in a new and decisive light - was published by the Vienna publishers Braumüller & Co. The book contained his thesis to which three vital chapters were added: (XII) The Nature of Woman and her Relation to the Universe, (XIII) Judaism, (XIV) Women and Humanity. While the book was not received negatively, it did not create the expected stir. Weininger was attacked by Paul Julius Moebius, professor in Leipzig and author of the book On the Physiological Deficiency of Women, and accused of plagiarizing. Deeply disappointed and tortured by doubts Weininger left for Italy.
Back in Vienna he spent his last five days with his parents. On October 3, he took a room in the house in Schwarzspanierstraße 15 where Ludwig van Beethoven died. He told the landlady that he was not to be disturbed before morning since he planned to work and then to go to bed late. This night he wrote two letters, one addressed to his father, the other one to his brother Richard, telling them that he was going to shoot himself.
In October 4, Weininger was found mortally wounded having shot himself through the heart, and he died in Wiener Allgemeines Krankenhaus at half past ten that morning. It was assumed by his close friends and family that he had decided to take huile his own life because of his failure to convince the world that he had overcome Judaism within himself and had become a true Aryan.
Otto Weininger was buried on the Matzleinsdorf Protestant Cemetery in Vienna. The epitaph by his father translates:
"This stone closes the resting place of a young man
whose mind never really found peace on earth.
And after imparting revelations of his mind and soul
he could not bear any longer to be among the living.
He searched for the death realm of one of the greatest minds
that dwelled in the house in Schwarzspanierstrasse
and put an end to his bodily existence."
