Martin Heidegger (; ; 26 September 188926 May 1976) was a German philosopher and a seminal thinker in the Continental tradition and philosophical hermeneutics, with a growing influence on Analytic philosophy. According to the IEP, he is "widely acknowledged to be one of the most original and important philosophers of the 20th century." Heidegger is best known for his contributions to Phenomenology and Existentialism, though as the SEP cautions, "his thinking should be identified as part of such philosophical movements only with extreme care and qualification."