Stranger from abroad : Hannah Arendt, Martin Heidegger, friendship, and forgiveness

262 Pages·2010·1.24 MB·English

by  Arendt

STRANGER ABROAD
FROM
STRANGER ABROAD
FROM
Hannah Arendt, Martin Heidegger, Friendship and Forgiveness
D M -K
ANIEL AIER ATKIN
W. W. NORTON & COMPANY
NEW YORK LONDON
Copyright © 2010 by Daniel Maier-Katkin All rights reserved
Since this page cannot legibly accommodate all the copyright notices, Credits
constitute an extension of the copyright page.
For information about permission to reproduce selections from this book, write
to Permissions, W. W. Norton & Company, Inc.,
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Maier-Katkin, Daniel,
1945–
Stranger from abroad: Hannah Arendt, Martin Heidegger, friendship, and
forgiveness / Daniel Maier-Katkin.—1st ed.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references.
ISBN: 978-0-39307731-5
1. Arendt, Hannah, 1906–1975—Friends and associates. 2. Heidegger, Martin,
1889–1976—Friends and associates. I. Title.
B945.A694M35 2010
320.5092—dc22
[B]
2009043992
W. W. Norton & Company, Inc.
500 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10110
www.wwnorton.com
W. W. Norton & Company Ltd.
Castle House, 75/76 Wells Street, London W1T 3QT
To the memory of my parents,
who brought me into one world,
and to Birgit,
who showed me another
Contents
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Chapter 35
Chapter 36
Notes
CREDITS
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
I am grateful to my children, Andrew, Rebecca, Rosalia and Hannah, for their
support and encouragement during long years when I must have seemed too
often preoccupied with Hannah Arendt. Rebecca was among the most thorough
and thoughtful of my readers and Hannah was always happy to discuss whatever
I was working on, especially on our long morning drives to the Magnolia
School. Other readers for whose helpful suggestions I am grateful include Maria
Foscarinis, Nathan Stoltzfus, Elliott Currie, Bill Cloonan, Neil Jumonville,
Martin Kavka, Karl Sabbagh, Mary Delina Wright, Peter Fleming, John Davis,
Edward Katkin, Sylvia Katkin, and Caryn Pally. Sumner Twiss, my colleague at
the Center for the Advancement of Human Rights, has been invaluable as a
source of ideas and references.
Conversations with Jerome Kohn, when I was just beginning to think that
the story of Hannah Arendt and Martin Heidegger had never been properly told,
helped to shape my thinking. I am indebted to Bert Lockwood, editor of Human
Rights Quarterly, and Christina Thompson, editor of the Harvard Review, who
both saw the value of this project early on; without their decisions to publish
early versions of the story the book might never have come to fruition. Dan
O’Connell also saw the value of the project early on. His support and advice
were immensely helpful to me.
My tough, challenging, and gifted editor, Alane Mason, taught me how to
turn a story into a book and never stopped demanding additional detail, clearer
thinking, and better, more precise, and more elegant use of language. I should
add too how impressed I have been by the kindness and competence of the
people who work with her at W. W. Norton.
I also want to acknowledge several friends, Bruce and Lisa Bullington, Ray
and Nonnie Fleming, Frank Kron, Alex Wender, Teddy Tollet, Diop Kamau, and
Lorenz Böllinger, from whom I have learned a great deal over many years about
people and the diversity of cultures. Their influence on my way of thinking
about human relationships is reflected between the lines and in the fundamental
conception of the story I have tried to tell.
Then there is Birgit, my beloved life companion and guide to all things
European and to scholarship in the humanities. Without Birgit there would never
have been the germ of the idea that has culminated in Stranger from Abroad nor
the will or skill to write it.
Much of what has been written in the past about the relationship between
Arendt and Heidegger is the work of their detractors. Arendt was judgmental and
controversial, and her youthful love affair and subsequent reconciliation with
Heidegger have been used to throw some of her critical judgments into doubt. I
have tried to tell their story differently, more accurately and with greater
sensitivity to the complexity of their thinking and feelings. If I have not
succeeded, the responsibility, despite all the help I have acknowledged here, is
mine alone.
STRANGER ABROAD
FROM