EXCERPT The often viciously partisan positions his extreme views have invoked meant that Bergmann was always surrounded by a fog of often ill-founded rumours, a situation exacerbated by his refusal to communicate with the media. Like one of his mentors, the Danish religious philosopher Kierkegaard, Bergmann professed a deep hatred of the press; a contempt extending beyond mere refusal to cooperate into occasional examples of outright violence. One— notorious—incident last year, in which a photographer threatened a legal case for assault, was ultimately settled out of court.…