Martin Heidegger: A Political Life PDF
Preview Martin Heidegger: A Political Life
MARTIN HEIDEGGER meeeoitticald Life mvGO OL Trepstated by Allan Blunden ‘It is becoming more and more apparent that when we look back over the twentieth century the two dominant philosophers will clearly be Wittgenstein and Heidegger.’ GEORGE STEINER, London Review of Books, 1988 Martin Heidegger’s Being and Time, one of the most influential philosophical works of the twentieth century, was published in 1927, the same year as the second volume of Hitler’s Mein Kampf. The coincidence is appropriate: although Heidegger’s is a conspicuously abstract philosophy, delivered in a language whose enigmas often defeat interpretation, it is firmly ‘grounded’ (one of Heidegger’s favourite terms) in its time and circumstances. Heidegger was a private supporter of Nazism from its inception, and in the 1930s made public his personal belief, pronouncing his support for Hitler. But Heidegger was not only a Nazi in his political affiliation: he believed his philosophy to be the spiritual parallel to Hitler’s leadership. In 1933 he was made Rektor of Freiburg University, a position which he hoped would enable him to put into practice his political and social views. He became one of the main instigators of the Nazification of German universities, encouraging students to participate in paramilitary exercises, and to salute him as if he were himself the Fiihrer. This was an aspect of the self-mythology to which he was prone: Hannah Arendt, his one- time pupil and lover, said his involvement with Nazism could be attributed ‘partly to the delusion of genius, partly to desperation’. His political beliefs also deeply affected his closest personal and intellectual relationships. In the name of the Reich, (Continued on back flap) 0893 Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2022 with funding from Kahle/Austin Foundation https://archive.org/details/martinheideggerp000O0otth o®,O ca MARTIN HEIDEGGER MARTIN HEIDEGGER A Political Life HUGO OTT Translated by Allan Blunden aad pate BasicBooks A Division of HarperCollinsPublishers Copyright © 1993 by Hugo Ott Published by BasicBooks, A Division of HarperCollins Publishers, Inc. Published simultaneously in the United Kingdom by HarperCollins Publishers Ltd. 77-85 Fulham Palace Road Hammersmith London W6 8JB England All rights reserved. Manufactured in the United Kingdom by HarperCollins Publishers Ltd. No part of this book may be reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews. For information, address BasicBooks, 10 East 53rd Street, New York, NY 10022-5299. JB CEU Wo Gil, 93} 7G & eg 7 Il Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Ott, Hugo, 1931- {Martin Heidegger, English] Martin Heidegger, a political life/Hugo Ott: translated by Allan Blunden. p. em. Translation of: Martin Heidegger. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0-465-02898-5 1. Heidegger, Martin, 1889-1976. 2. Philosophers--Germany- -Biography, 3. Heidegger, Martin, 1889-1976--Political and social views. I. Title. B3279.H4908613 1993 193--dc20 [B] 91-59018 CIP CONTENTS INTRODUCTION PART ONE Indications First Indication: “The voice of the poet from his tower’ Second Indication: the perpetual Advent Third Indication: dialogue without communication ParT Two ‘The struggle with the faith of my birth’ From Messkirch to Freiburg The student of theology: early works The enforced termination of Heidegger’s theological studies and the start of his academic career as a philosopher The break with the ‘system of Catholicism’ 106 The Marburg years 1923-1928 PART THREE ‘The failure of the rectorship’ ‘National Socialism: Germany’s preordained path’ 133 How Heidegger became rector 140 The curious yearning for hardness and rigour — placing the rectorship address in its martial context 149 Edmund Husserl and Martin Heidegger: a personal and political profile 172 The rector’s dilemma: caught between Scylla and Charybdis 187 The case of Hermann Staudinger or ‘Operation Sternheim’ — a classic example of collaboration within the National Socialist cadre of _university teachers 210 The ‘academic summer camp’ project The turning-point of the rectorship ParT Four Heidegger’s career after the rectorship Return from Syracuse What is man? Philosophy derided, or: what is humanism? After the war, the void ParT Five The post-war years: Heidegger under scrutiny Coming to terms with the political past The search for Heidegger’s successor Towards a rehabilitation of Heidegger EPILOGUE AFTERWORD NOTES BIBLIOGRAPHY INDEX
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