Karl Löwith and Leo Strauss are thinkers who have not been reckoned with together too frequently. This state of things seems to be the more striking since at a first glance they appear to agree on some crucial points regarding the situation of the modern man. In this article I will try to explore their respective views on modernity with a particular emphasis on its political consequences. The first impression is that both Löwith and Strauss share a negative view of modernity and their writings provide a deeply insightful account of that dissatisfaction. But there are some other reasons that seem to encourage an attempt to compare their thought and life. They came to know each other during the tumultuous Weimar era and to some extent followed similar life paths by sharing the fates of émigrés. Given the footnotes, reviews and explicit quotations, Strauss and Löwith read each other's works, and maintained lifelong correspondence. It is not a completely negligible fact that in a letter from April 28, 1954 to Alexandre Kojève Strauss asked him to send a copy of On Tyranny to Karl Löwith saying that he would have an understanding of the issue controversial between him and the Frenchman.

However, one should not forget that in the final analysis Leo Strauss came to be seen as a political philosopher who had attempted something very ambitious, namely, a thoroughgoing critique of the modern historical malady, the revival of classical political philosophy, and establishment of a school of political thinking. Compared to that Karl Löwith may seem to be a more restrained and introverted personality.