Max Stirner

Max Stirner, born Johann Kaspar Schmidt in 1806 in Bayreuth, Bavaria, was a German philosopher known for his influential work "The Ego and Its Own" (1844). He is considered a foundational figure in individualist anarchism and existentialism, advocating radical individual autonomy and critiquing societal institutions and authority. Stirner's life details are largely known through the biography by John Henry Mackay.