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Paul, I see that you were none too pleased about my revisions made to this article. I expected someone to do something like that. Do you understand Heidegger's work? The neat thing about revisions is that the evidence is, then, right there for doing hermeneutical work on the variance of readings, vis-à-vis available scholarship on the matter. So, I've copied your pages, and I shall have a good time with your preferences, via another venue. As someone who has a lot of background on this issue, I'm confident about the January 6, 2008, version of this article. In time, the truth of the matter, re: divergent readings, will win out.
Paul responds (as first item on my "Talk" page): "Your revisions were pure special pleading. They were not NPOV, but turned the article into an apologia. I am not sure that most of your comments on my talk page are designed to serve any discernable purpose other than to gratify yourself." Those "comments" that Paul refers to are what I've noted above (more or less).
"...special pleading....apologia...to gratify yourself..."? What could address his uncertainty about this ("I am not sure") but to dwell with the text, relative to Heidegger's work and discerning attention to context? This would be tedious, but that's what would have to be done. Gedavis ( talk) 19:42, 1 March 2008 (UTC)
(completed discussion as some text was left out for unknown reasons) Coffeepusher ( talk) 19:21, 2 July 2009 (UTC)
Today, I've made some revisions to this article that retains full fidelity with all quoted material, while extracting incriminatory asides that are not commentary on quoted material. My intent, as student of Heidegger's thinking for many years, is to venture a Heideggerian balance to the incriminatory slant of the article, as it existed prior to today. To my mind, I don't pretend to make the issue uncontroversial, but only to imply new kinds of questions (tacit in my revisions). One question: How is critically constructive engagement possible within domination? One may reject Heidegger's brief hope for a sense of national renewal that lacked clairvoyance or a post-1945 perspective on 1933. But one should appreciate that Heidegger never endorsed Hitlerism. (No part of Habermas' essay on the Heidegger controversy, in The New Conservatism, 1989, shows that Heidegger endorsed Hitlerism, though Habermas surely believes otherwise, in his extended caricature.) However, a complete sense of the issue takes monographic proportions, and there are those monographs other than Victor Farias, such as Fred Dallmayr's The Other Heidegger; Julian Young's book on the matter; Hans Sluga, of course; Otto Pöggler, Heidegger's Path of Thinking; Theodore Kisiel's definitive work on the development of Heidegger's thinking; and more. No one, as far as I know, has responded to Habermas' caricature from an avowedly Heideggerian point of view (a rubric which has only heuristic value anyway). In my view, Heidegger's thinking remains largely missed by most readers, which of course just reads as a self-serving comment by nobody you know, and that's OK with me. What's most important is that we, planet wide, work to make our localities contribute to solving global issues, such as global warming, reification of The Other (that still reaches genocidal proportions), predatory capital, etc. in light of some truly practicable sense of humanistic union that advances human potential, efficacy of the United Nations, global public health, and the like. Gedavis ( talk) 08:32, 6 January 2008 (UTC)
Most of the points made here are irrelevant or illogical. On anti-semitism, see Berel Lang's Heidegger's Silence. On whether a philosopher's "private" beliefs conflict with his public positions, and how one should read them, there are numerous books one could consult, but again, Lang's book has a brief but pointed discussion. On whether he was in his essence a Nazi, Farias has an excellent, though to my mind too short, discussion, for which see Farias, passim. The Fuhrer-prinzip was not Heidegger's to modify or change, but a basic principle of organization in Nazi political culture. On Heidegger's assisting individual Jews, see the transcript of the Wansee Conference which addresses the issue and how it was seen by top-level Nazi bureaucrats. You might begin with Mark Roseman's The Villa, The Lake, The Meeting, which is excellent on that conference. On Heidegger's criticism of Nazism, which became sharper as the war went on, it was not related to its fundamental beliefs or policies, but rather criticized it from the point of view of a conservative nationalist revolution. As Heidegger is forced further away from actual power within the German university system, his valorization of Germany qua heimat, its language, its culture, becomes greater and greater; and Heidegger was never under Gestapo surveillance as such. The Gestapo asked students and colleagues around him to keep them informed, but they did that with virtually everyone who had been associated, as Heidegger had, with the Roehm faction. If Heidegger could criticize Nazism, as the above alleges, then why would he want to be Hitler's philosopher? And not that this point conflicts with point 7, the philosopher as critic and Socratic gadfly. Point 11 I admit I don't understand, but it sounds awfully like the kind of arguments Bloch uses, that is, terms created for arguments in such a way that the outcome is guaranteed, that is, a philosophy that proceeds by coining definitions and stringing them together rather than by actually arguing anything. In commonsense terms, admittedly, not Heidegger's strong point or one he would recognize, the motorization of the Wermacht isn't a metaphysical act, and to even link it to metaphysics seems a sort of special pleading, both for the metaphysics, and for the soldiers. As to the concentration camps, no he is not talking about Chinese labour camps, but rather about published accounts in the West about the disastrous famine that accompanied Mao's "Great Leap Forward." More could be said, but this should be a start. This entire article seems to have been edited/vandalized by Heidegger partisans. Theonemacduff ( talk) 07:06, 3 February 2014 (UTC)
Santa Sangre, if you're going to split this off from the main Heidegger entry, could you shorten the section you copied? Currently this is just a copy of the Heidegger and Nazi Germany section. Deleuze 16:44, 17 June 2006 (UTC)
This is still not really a lot more than in the original article and not an article in its own right. I think it should just be reintegrated. -- Kricket 21:57, 10 December 2006 (UTC)
This page claims that he did not dismiss Husserl. The main page claims he did. Which is it?
This article does not follow NPOV and is not written like an encyclopedia article.
This quote from Derrida, which I am not doubting the veracity of, is utilized in a reductive and misrepresentative fashion. It can be easily argued that Derrida's most important influence was Heidegger, and while Derrida may never have denied Heidegger's Nazi past, he certainly would not have implicated Heidegger's philosophy as being fascistic having borrowed many of his important ideas from Heidegger. In fact, even the Wikipedia article on Heidegger contradicts this errantly deployed quote.
As a result, I took the quote out until someone properly contextualizes it. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Dieziege ( talk • contribs) 06:35, 28 October 2007 (UTC)
I find this section unclear. It claims that critics cite this relationship. Critics of what or whom? Furthermore, it is not clear what citation of this relationship implies. Can anyone clarify this? Brackfalker ( talk) 05:32, 26 March 2008 (UTC)
His work Mindfulness (Besinnung) was not available until very recently, and when Heidegger wrote it he intended its publication to be very delayed. In it, he clearly denounces Nazism. The translators, in their introduction, point out that this is evidence of his position against Nazism: unequivocally in his actual beliefs, and equivocal in his actions during that period probably for self-interested reasons. Anyone curious about his writings against Nazism in Mindfulness should read the section #47, 'Truth and Usefulness,' on page 102 of the English Continuum edition, and the translators' introduction for reference to other passages. Heidegger associates Nazism with machination, which he contrasts with that in which he places stock in this work, namely leap into be-ing enownment (or whatever).
Ark2120 ( talk) 03:52, 1 March 2009 (UTC)
Shouldn't it be spelled "Naziism"? Lestrade ( talk) 17:13, 19 April 2009 (UTC)Lestrade
You might want to note this book review "Heil Heidegger!" of the publication of the English-language translation of Heidegger: the Introduction of Nazism into Philosophy" by Emmanual Faye published by Yale University Press. http://chronicle.com/article/Heil-Heidegger-/48806/ Regards, Rumjal --rumjal 20:04, 25 October 2009 (UTC) —Preceding unsigned comment added by Rumjal ( talk • contribs)
I don't think this article can be considered a reliable source, as its tone is racist and offensive. (Sample quote: "Would we not think about things that exist without this ponderous, existentialist Teuton?") Wwallacee ( talk) 10:50, 5 April 2010 (UTC)
I made several changes to this section based on a review of one of the principal sources, Thomas Sheehan's New York Review of Books article. [1] In general, the source was quoted in a biased way with the intention of slamming Heidegger and exaggerating the extent of his Anti-semitism. A more balanced use of the source does not diminish Heidegger's evident collaboration with the Nazi authorities, but it makes it clear that Heidegger's involvement was political rather than racist. Wwallacee ( talk) 10:40, 5 April 2010 (UTC)
I must apologize for making a thorough edit to this article in the form of numerous small edits rather than one big edit. I had initially intended to make only a small edit, but I began to learn so much while doing so, that I felt compelled to continue editing as I checked on additional references and found new material.
In my last several edits, I forgot to log in, so I was identified only by my I.P. address. Among others I worked on the following issues:
In some cases, I added significantly to the length of block quotes. I feel this is warranted because of the controversial nature of the material - by giving more context, the reader is enabled to come to his own conclusions, rather than being spoon-fed smaller excerpts which support a particular interpretation.
Wwallacee ( talk) 00:04, 6 April 2010 (UTC)
Here is another scathing review of Faye's book. 86.44.89.116 ( talk) 20:29, 19 April 2010 (UTC)
This piece in the New York Times also casts doubts on the integrity of Faye's scholarship. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 86.44.89.116 ( talk) 21:34, 8 May 2010 (UTC)
quote" Emmanuel Faye claims Heidegger criticized the "Judaization" ("Verjudung") of German universities in 1916, and favored instead the promotion of the "German race" ("die deutsche Rasse").[2] However, this claim is based on indirect evidence: a non-extant letter of Heidegger's quoted by Husserl twenty years later.[3] "
The letter using the term Verjudung is in print. Heidegger was a far-right supporter of the dominance of the German VOLK - this is not biological racism - it is rather a language-based but extreme ethno-extremism - and as dangerous and vile.
The letter was referenced by Jaspers - as having read it - in the famous Jaspers letter to Heidegger - also now in print.
The term Verjudung is in the Eduard Baumgarten advocacy letter - advocating for preference to be given to a non-Jew for financial aid.
The passage is also quoted in its entirety in the Cambridge Companion to Heidegger, pg 87.
Heidegger's wife was the straight-forward anti-Semite: see the letter to her by Hannah Arendt ... and Elfride's letter to Malvine Husserl - also in print. G. Robert Shiplett 15:13, 20 April 2010 (UTC)
I'm surprised that the chief exploration of Heidegger's anti-Semitism is nowhere cited in this article. Berel Lang argues, in his book, Heidegger's Silence, that Heidegger was an anti-semite all his life, that he held the view from an early age, and never once changed it. The argument is subtle, and is constructed mostly around specific absences in Heidegger, both in his philosophical writings and in his personal writings. Yes, I know this sounds a little specious (how do you prove a negative?) but read the book and I have no doubt Lang will convince. I will try to extract the key features of the argument and amend the Anti-Semitism section. Theonemacduff ( talk) 18:54, 11 May 2011 (UTC)
I added a new section with well known testimonies, I hope it's ok. If I may, the phrase at the beginning "His first act as Rector was to eliminate all democratic structures, including those that had elected him Rector" need referencies and explanations. I think it should actually be removed, because it's already a value judgement. Thanks Filinthe ( talk) 15:44, 15 May 2012 (UTC)
Student testimonials
Among Heidegger's students, Günther Anders saw in Heidegger's lectures a "reactionary potential", and Karl Löwith told that his master spoke of Hitler enthusiastically, but most of them agree that Heidegger was actually an adversary of Nazism. Walter Biemel, Heidegger's student in 1942, testified in 1945 [1] :
"Heidegger was the only professor to not give any Nazi salutations prior to beginning his courses, even though it was administratory obligatory. His courses... were among the very rare ones where remarks against National Socialism were risked. Some conversations in those times could cost you your head. I had many such conversations with Heidegger. There is absolutely no doubt he was a declared adversary of the regime."
Siegfried Bröse (who was relieved of his functions as Sub prefect by the National socialists in 1933 and became one of Heidegger's teaching assistant in 1934) wrote to the de-Nazification hearing :
"One could see - and this was often confirmed to me by the students - that Heidegger lectures were attended en masse because the students wanted to form a rule to guide their own conduct by hearing National Socialism characterized in all its non-truth... Heidegger's lectures were attended not only by students but also by people with long-standing professions and even by retired people, and every time I had the occasion to talk with these people, what came back incessantly was their admiration for the courage with which Heidegger, from the height of his philosophical position and in the rigor of his starting point, attacked National Socialism" [2].
Equally, Hermine Rohner, a student of 1940 to 1943, bears testimony to the fact Heidegger "wasn't afraid, as for him, even in front of students from all faculties (so not only "his" students), to attack National Socialism so openly that I hunched up my shoulders" [3]
Georg Picht in 1933 : "The way Heidegger conceived of the revival of the university, this became clear to me on the occasion of a memorable event. To give the first lecture within the framework of „political education“ - a compulsory measure introduced at the universities by the Nazis - Heidegger, rector at that time, invited my mother's brother in law, Victor von Weizsäcker. Everyone was puzzled, because it was well-known that Weizsäcker was no Nazi. But Heidegger's word was law. The student he had chosen to lead the philosophy department thought he should pronounce introductory words on national socialist revolution. Heidegger soon manifested signs of impatience, then he shouted with a lout voice that irritation strained : "this jabber will stop immediately !" Totally prostrated, the student disappeared from the tribune. He had to resign from office. As for Victor von Weizsäcker, he gave a perfect lecture on his philosophy of medicine, in which national socialism was not once mentioned, but far rather Sigmund Freud." [4]
Because of what he calls a "spiritual resistance", czech resistant fighter and former Heidegger's student Jan Patocka includes his master among the Heroes of our times.
Filinthe ( talk) 18:15, 16 May 2012 (UTC)
Ok, both of you back down a bit. Filinthe, if you have read WP:SYNTH you know that it isn't enough that the testimonials appeared in another work,you need to place them in the same context that the other work placed them. also if you read WP:WEIGHT you know that yes in fact you are supporting a minority view. There were some heavy hitters in that view and you have a good list, but there are more scholars who support the idea that Heidegger personally and philosophically aligned himself with the Nazi party line. I agree that mfhiller should strike the cry baby comment, and filinthe needs to strike the comment about negationism. Once you guys calm down maybe we can look at how to best deal with this. Coffeepusher ( talk) 21:32, 18 May 2012 (UTC)
OK, yes, sorry Filinthe. I withdraw my comment about holocaust denying cry-babies. I wasn't, however, accusing just anyone of negationism; I was accusing Heidegger of negationism (majority view). My problem with your edits are: you do not provide edit summaries, and, you give equal weight to a minority view based on primary sources. Wikipedia has clear rules that your editing ignores. Coffeepusher has given you the links. To be perfectly honest I am sympathetic with a lot of Heidegger's philosophy, particularly the Introduction of Being and Time (the only part Husserl considered phenomenological) and his later writings on the end of philosophy. Regarding the question of Heidegger and National Socialism, I am open to all interpretations; your editing, however, needs to conform to Wikipedia practices. Mfhiller ( talk) 21:32, 19 May 2012 (UTC)mfhiller
Filinthe ( talk) 19:53, 22 May 2012 (UTC)
Good news, thanks, so all what's in his book, I may use it? I added the section on the main page together with Löwith's testimony, feel free to change or remove it. I also tried to make the lede more neutral. Filinthe ( talk) 08:33, 26 May 2012 (UTC)
I've moved some good text concerning the "Heidegger controversy" from the Martin Heidegger's page to this one. I'd like to reorganize that a bit, if I may. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Filinthe ( talk • contribs) 14:52, 29 May 2012 (UTC)
I've read that a Mitläufer is actually no sympathiser, to the contrary : he gives in to peer pressure without conviction nor resistance, so no fellow traveler either, and plays no role. ( German Wikipedia : Ein Mitläufer schließt sich nicht aus innerer Überzeugung einer Gruppe oder Handlung an, sondern folgt einem Gruppenzwang oder sucht die soziale Umgebung. Er nimmt auch keine tragende oder treibende Rolle ein. Im Gegensatz dazu bezeichnet man jemanden, der aus Überzeugung handelt, als einen Sympathisanten.) Filinthe ( talk) 13:41, 11 June 2012 (UTC)
I am proposing that only Fedier references that can be cited from English sources should be kept. Wikipedia standards do not allow unverifiable information. The statement "so-and-so (never translated into English by a recognised translator) says"... cannot be allowed on English WP insofar as the source is inherently unverifiable and therefore un-encylcopeadic. I don't mind a few references here and there, but now that an entire article is being over-written on the basis of dubious French sources, I'm becoming uneasy. In the first instance, Tom Rockmore, in his book on Heidegger's French legacy, has stated something to the effect of "Fedier's arguments are so ridiculous that one can hardly call them arguments, let alone waste their time translating them." I believe Richard Wolin takes a similar position. I can provide good sarcastic quotes from Rockmore. Also from Wolin too, both good, highly respected Heidegger scholars. Mfhiller ( talk) 23:28, 26 June 2012 (UTC)mfhiller
Ok, I don't mind, Safranski and Young are sufficient, but why Farias and Faye's insane books would have the honour to be translated and not his? It's unfair. "Fedier's arguments are so ridiculous that one can hardly call them arguments, let alone waste their time translating them." :D Sarcasm is easier than argumentation. As far as I know, noone has refuted Fèdier's argumentation, but he indeed refuted completely Farias' book. Rockmore and Wolin are certainly good scholars, but here they obviously don't know what they're talking about. Rockmore believes Heidegger's beer and sausages Science Camp in the Black Forest was a "reeducational camp" (does he know what a "reeducational center" really is?) and they both agree with Farias that Heidegger's ambiguous way of speaking about Nazism between 1935 and 1945 hides his own Nazism. But why would one hide their own Nazism during Nazism itself, when it was an everyday obligation to show enthusiasmus for Hitler? They also think Heidegger should have cancelled his NSDAP membership. Imagine the letter : "Dear Führer, I'm sorry but I must confess I don't agree anymore with your politics." It was totalitarism, they would have him killed on the spot, he and all his family. Filinthe ( talk) 12:32, 10 July 2012 (UTC) But please, give me the sarcastic quotes from Rockmore. cheers Filinthe ( talk) 06:50, 11 July 2012 (UTC) I found some comments on Fédier in Rockmore's On Heidegger's Nazism and Philosophy. He really has no arguments but sarcasm to oppose. "The rectoral address shows an explicit concern (which Heidegger there stresses but later minimizes) to utilize the university for the purpose of achieving a goal schared by the nazis : the realization of the historical destiny of the German people." To share a goal with someone doesn't prove anything. Which people doesn't believe in its historical destiny? I like to quote Tony Blair's last speech as Premier Minister, May 10, 2007 : "This country is a blessed country. The British are special. The world knows it, we know it, this is the greatest country on earth." This is not specifically nazi. I would even say that it is not nazi at all, because as Arendt shows it Nazis were actually no nationalists but rather internationalists. They had only one goal : worldwide antisemitism. Filinthe ( talk) 07:31, 11 July 2012 (UTC) All these people who speak of Heidegger's nazism are not aware of the danger : if one of the greatest thinkers of all times was a real nazi, then nazism is no insane ideology but can be justified. Until the 70's was Heidegger considered as a left wing thinker (Sartre), but now, thanks to Farias and Faye, right wing extremists and even antisemitics begin to quote Heidegger! Heidegger antisemitic, what a gift! We can't allow that, this is the main reason Fédier fight so hard (he told it once), and the reason I'm here too. Filinthe ( talk) 09:34, 11 July 2012 (UTC)
Heidegger did take risks, not all of them, but it was sufficient to repair his error as Arendt recognised it. He was no lemming in 1933, that's for sure, he believed in the revolution, but not in Hitler's one. Heidegger rejected Pan-Germanism, and he even said he was no nationalist. He was either fascist nor ultraconservativ nor antisemitic. This revolution he imagined was the contrary of nazism (he was so blind it took him 10 months to see it, but Europe needed several years, in 1936 the Olympics Games are a success). The so-called "Conservative Revolution" is a particular german movement proposing a "third way" between bolchevism und liberalism, and has nothing to do with antisemitism. The main figure for Heidegger is Hölderlin who called for a "revolution of all ways of thinking", but Nietzsche and Hofmannsthal are mostly seen as representative : rejection of the modern world and call for a new one but linked to the tradition. Hitler claimed he represented this ideal but of course it was a lie. This is a common error to interpret Nazism as a nationalist movement, nazis were either nationalists nor socialists (see Arendt). Nazism is not an extreme form of nationalism, but is as well internationalist as bolchevism, his right name is totalitarism. I'm personnaly no nationalist, but I can understand it, for instance in Germany after the Treatise of Versailles, or in France during the Occupation. French think they have a historical spiritual mission, Jews too, Russians, Americans too, all of them, this is a normal way of thinking for a people. Filinthe ( talk) 17:11, 12 July 2012 (UTC) I checked up in Fédier about the SA-uniform, he says Heidegger never wore it. Filinthe ( talk) 13:20, 18 July 2012 (UTC)
The article now states that Richard Rorty is both a critic and a supporter. I deem that this would be not only logically inconsistent, but also not the case. My expertise does not allow me to solve this problem, so I hope one of you could! — Preceding unsigned comment added by 213.127.130.3 ( talk) 15:45, 16 March 2013 (UTC)
-- Mauro Lanari ( talk) 18:59, 20 May 2013 (UTC)
The account of the Baumgarten denuciation is incorrect. See Baumgarten's own account in the Appendix to Lang, Heidegger's Silence. Theonemacduff ( talk) 07:17, 3 February 2014 (UTC)
The article should contain something about the Black Notebooks. I've proposed on the Black Notebooks talk page that the Black Notebooks article be merged here. Any thoughts? Mfhiller ( talk) 03:57, 28 September 2014 (UTC)
I would question the very relevance of this article. What does it matter whether one German philosopher was or was not a supporter of Nazism? I don't recall any articles on whether any given Russian composer, poet or philosopher was a supporter of Communism. 122.59.167.152 ( talk) 10:09, 26 June 2015 (UTC)
I have added the image for the November 1933 election. I feel we could add a bit more as Heidigger is focusing on the election from a philosophical point of view. basically there was only one list and the image gives an important cue as regards the circumstances of H.s endorsement. Leutha ( talk) 23:24, 19 December 2016 (UTC)
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Who is Eduard Langwald? Is this advocate in favor of Heidegger the best authority on Heidegger and Nazism? Why must many evidences on Heidegger and Nazism be concluded by «Eduard Langwald thinks the contrary»? This amounts to give again and again the last word to Eduard Langwald on important points. -- Dominique Meeùs ( talk) 10:00, 12 January 2019 (UTC)
This article needs to be revised in order to incorporate new research on the topic, most importantly, Richard Wolin's new book:
Wolin, Richard. HEIDEGGER IN RUINS: Between Philosophy and Ideology. 1st ed., Yale University Press, 2023, https://doi.org/10.12987/9780300269130. p. 488.
The book updates many of the issues addressed in this article. There is plenty of textual evidence to support Wolin's case. I will refrain from doing the update as I am not a Heidegger expert. Fvelasqu ( talk) 12:44, 10 May 2023 (UTC)
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Paul, I see that you were none too pleased about my revisions made to this article. I expected someone to do something like that. Do you understand Heidegger's work? The neat thing about revisions is that the evidence is, then, right there for doing hermeneutical work on the variance of readings, vis-à-vis available scholarship on the matter. So, I've copied your pages, and I shall have a good time with your preferences, via another venue. As someone who has a lot of background on this issue, I'm confident about the January 6, 2008, version of this article. In time, the truth of the matter, re: divergent readings, will win out.
Paul responds (as first item on my "Talk" page): "Your revisions were pure special pleading. They were not NPOV, but turned the article into an apologia. I am not sure that most of your comments on my talk page are designed to serve any discernable purpose other than to gratify yourself." Those "comments" that Paul refers to are what I've noted above (more or less).
"...special pleading....apologia...to gratify yourself..."? What could address his uncertainty about this ("I am not sure") but to dwell with the text, relative to Heidegger's work and discerning attention to context? This would be tedious, but that's what would have to be done. Gedavis ( talk) 19:42, 1 March 2008 (UTC)
(completed discussion as some text was left out for unknown reasons) Coffeepusher ( talk) 19:21, 2 July 2009 (UTC)
Today, I've made some revisions to this article that retains full fidelity with all quoted material, while extracting incriminatory asides that are not commentary on quoted material. My intent, as student of Heidegger's thinking for many years, is to venture a Heideggerian balance to the incriminatory slant of the article, as it existed prior to today. To my mind, I don't pretend to make the issue uncontroversial, but only to imply new kinds of questions (tacit in my revisions). One question: How is critically constructive engagement possible within domination? One may reject Heidegger's brief hope for a sense of national renewal that lacked clairvoyance or a post-1945 perspective on 1933. But one should appreciate that Heidegger never endorsed Hitlerism. (No part of Habermas' essay on the Heidegger controversy, in The New Conservatism, 1989, shows that Heidegger endorsed Hitlerism, though Habermas surely believes otherwise, in his extended caricature.) However, a complete sense of the issue takes monographic proportions, and there are those monographs other than Victor Farias, such as Fred Dallmayr's The Other Heidegger; Julian Young's book on the matter; Hans Sluga, of course; Otto Pöggler, Heidegger's Path of Thinking; Theodore Kisiel's definitive work on the development of Heidegger's thinking; and more. No one, as far as I know, has responded to Habermas' caricature from an avowedly Heideggerian point of view (a rubric which has only heuristic value anyway). In my view, Heidegger's thinking remains largely missed by most readers, which of course just reads as a self-serving comment by nobody you know, and that's OK with me. What's most important is that we, planet wide, work to make our localities contribute to solving global issues, such as global warming, reification of The Other (that still reaches genocidal proportions), predatory capital, etc. in light of some truly practicable sense of humanistic union that advances human potential, efficacy of the United Nations, global public health, and the like. Gedavis ( talk) 08:32, 6 January 2008 (UTC)
Most of the points made here are irrelevant or illogical. On anti-semitism, see Berel Lang's Heidegger's Silence. On whether a philosopher's "private" beliefs conflict with his public positions, and how one should read them, there are numerous books one could consult, but again, Lang's book has a brief but pointed discussion. On whether he was in his essence a Nazi, Farias has an excellent, though to my mind too short, discussion, for which see Farias, passim. The Fuhrer-prinzip was not Heidegger's to modify or change, but a basic principle of organization in Nazi political culture. On Heidegger's assisting individual Jews, see the transcript of the Wansee Conference which addresses the issue and how it was seen by top-level Nazi bureaucrats. You might begin with Mark Roseman's The Villa, The Lake, The Meeting, which is excellent on that conference. On Heidegger's criticism of Nazism, which became sharper as the war went on, it was not related to its fundamental beliefs or policies, but rather criticized it from the point of view of a conservative nationalist revolution. As Heidegger is forced further away from actual power within the German university system, his valorization of Germany qua heimat, its language, its culture, becomes greater and greater; and Heidegger was never under Gestapo surveillance as such. The Gestapo asked students and colleagues around him to keep them informed, but they did that with virtually everyone who had been associated, as Heidegger had, with the Roehm faction. If Heidegger could criticize Nazism, as the above alleges, then why would he want to be Hitler's philosopher? And not that this point conflicts with point 7, the philosopher as critic and Socratic gadfly. Point 11 I admit I don't understand, but it sounds awfully like the kind of arguments Bloch uses, that is, terms created for arguments in such a way that the outcome is guaranteed, that is, a philosophy that proceeds by coining definitions and stringing them together rather than by actually arguing anything. In commonsense terms, admittedly, not Heidegger's strong point or one he would recognize, the motorization of the Wermacht isn't a metaphysical act, and to even link it to metaphysics seems a sort of special pleading, both for the metaphysics, and for the soldiers. As to the concentration camps, no he is not talking about Chinese labour camps, but rather about published accounts in the West about the disastrous famine that accompanied Mao's "Great Leap Forward." More could be said, but this should be a start. This entire article seems to have been edited/vandalized by Heidegger partisans. Theonemacduff ( talk) 07:06, 3 February 2014 (UTC)
Santa Sangre, if you're going to split this off from the main Heidegger entry, could you shorten the section you copied? Currently this is just a copy of the Heidegger and Nazi Germany section. Deleuze 16:44, 17 June 2006 (UTC)
This is still not really a lot more than in the original article and not an article in its own right. I think it should just be reintegrated. -- Kricket 21:57, 10 December 2006 (UTC)
This page claims that he did not dismiss Husserl. The main page claims he did. Which is it?
This article does not follow NPOV and is not written like an encyclopedia article.
This quote from Derrida, which I am not doubting the veracity of, is utilized in a reductive and misrepresentative fashion. It can be easily argued that Derrida's most important influence was Heidegger, and while Derrida may never have denied Heidegger's Nazi past, he certainly would not have implicated Heidegger's philosophy as being fascistic having borrowed many of his important ideas from Heidegger. In fact, even the Wikipedia article on Heidegger contradicts this errantly deployed quote.
As a result, I took the quote out until someone properly contextualizes it. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Dieziege ( talk • contribs) 06:35, 28 October 2007 (UTC)
I find this section unclear. It claims that critics cite this relationship. Critics of what or whom? Furthermore, it is not clear what citation of this relationship implies. Can anyone clarify this? Brackfalker ( talk) 05:32, 26 March 2008 (UTC)
His work Mindfulness (Besinnung) was not available until very recently, and when Heidegger wrote it he intended its publication to be very delayed. In it, he clearly denounces Nazism. The translators, in their introduction, point out that this is evidence of his position against Nazism: unequivocally in his actual beliefs, and equivocal in his actions during that period probably for self-interested reasons. Anyone curious about his writings against Nazism in Mindfulness should read the section #47, 'Truth and Usefulness,' on page 102 of the English Continuum edition, and the translators' introduction for reference to other passages. Heidegger associates Nazism with machination, which he contrasts with that in which he places stock in this work, namely leap into be-ing enownment (or whatever).
Ark2120 ( talk) 03:52, 1 March 2009 (UTC)
Shouldn't it be spelled "Naziism"? Lestrade ( talk) 17:13, 19 April 2009 (UTC)Lestrade
You might want to note this book review "Heil Heidegger!" of the publication of the English-language translation of Heidegger: the Introduction of Nazism into Philosophy" by Emmanual Faye published by Yale University Press. http://chronicle.com/article/Heil-Heidegger-/48806/ Regards, Rumjal --rumjal 20:04, 25 October 2009 (UTC) —Preceding unsigned comment added by Rumjal ( talk • contribs)
I don't think this article can be considered a reliable source, as its tone is racist and offensive. (Sample quote: "Would we not think about things that exist without this ponderous, existentialist Teuton?") Wwallacee ( talk) 10:50, 5 April 2010 (UTC)
I made several changes to this section based on a review of one of the principal sources, Thomas Sheehan's New York Review of Books article. [1] In general, the source was quoted in a biased way with the intention of slamming Heidegger and exaggerating the extent of his Anti-semitism. A more balanced use of the source does not diminish Heidegger's evident collaboration with the Nazi authorities, but it makes it clear that Heidegger's involvement was political rather than racist. Wwallacee ( talk) 10:40, 5 April 2010 (UTC)
I must apologize for making a thorough edit to this article in the form of numerous small edits rather than one big edit. I had initially intended to make only a small edit, but I began to learn so much while doing so, that I felt compelled to continue editing as I checked on additional references and found new material.
In my last several edits, I forgot to log in, so I was identified only by my I.P. address. Among others I worked on the following issues:
In some cases, I added significantly to the length of block quotes. I feel this is warranted because of the controversial nature of the material - by giving more context, the reader is enabled to come to his own conclusions, rather than being spoon-fed smaller excerpts which support a particular interpretation.
Wwallacee ( talk) 00:04, 6 April 2010 (UTC)
Here is another scathing review of Faye's book. 86.44.89.116 ( talk) 20:29, 19 April 2010 (UTC)
This piece in the New York Times also casts doubts on the integrity of Faye's scholarship. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 86.44.89.116 ( talk) 21:34, 8 May 2010 (UTC)
quote" Emmanuel Faye claims Heidegger criticized the "Judaization" ("Verjudung") of German universities in 1916, and favored instead the promotion of the "German race" ("die deutsche Rasse").[2] However, this claim is based on indirect evidence: a non-extant letter of Heidegger's quoted by Husserl twenty years later.[3] "
The letter using the term Verjudung is in print. Heidegger was a far-right supporter of the dominance of the German VOLK - this is not biological racism - it is rather a language-based but extreme ethno-extremism - and as dangerous and vile.
The letter was referenced by Jaspers - as having read it - in the famous Jaspers letter to Heidegger - also now in print.
The term Verjudung is in the Eduard Baumgarten advocacy letter - advocating for preference to be given to a non-Jew for financial aid.
The passage is also quoted in its entirety in the Cambridge Companion to Heidegger, pg 87.
Heidegger's wife was the straight-forward anti-Semite: see the letter to her by Hannah Arendt ... and Elfride's letter to Malvine Husserl - also in print. G. Robert Shiplett 15:13, 20 April 2010 (UTC)
I'm surprised that the chief exploration of Heidegger's anti-Semitism is nowhere cited in this article. Berel Lang argues, in his book, Heidegger's Silence, that Heidegger was an anti-semite all his life, that he held the view from an early age, and never once changed it. The argument is subtle, and is constructed mostly around specific absences in Heidegger, both in his philosophical writings and in his personal writings. Yes, I know this sounds a little specious (how do you prove a negative?) but read the book and I have no doubt Lang will convince. I will try to extract the key features of the argument and amend the Anti-Semitism section. Theonemacduff ( talk) 18:54, 11 May 2011 (UTC)
I added a new section with well known testimonies, I hope it's ok. If I may, the phrase at the beginning "His first act as Rector was to eliminate all democratic structures, including those that had elected him Rector" need referencies and explanations. I think it should actually be removed, because it's already a value judgement. Thanks Filinthe ( talk) 15:44, 15 May 2012 (UTC)
Student testimonials
Among Heidegger's students, Günther Anders saw in Heidegger's lectures a "reactionary potential", and Karl Löwith told that his master spoke of Hitler enthusiastically, but most of them agree that Heidegger was actually an adversary of Nazism. Walter Biemel, Heidegger's student in 1942, testified in 1945 [1] :
"Heidegger was the only professor to not give any Nazi salutations prior to beginning his courses, even though it was administratory obligatory. His courses... were among the very rare ones where remarks against National Socialism were risked. Some conversations in those times could cost you your head. I had many such conversations with Heidegger. There is absolutely no doubt he was a declared adversary of the regime."
Siegfried Bröse (who was relieved of his functions as Sub prefect by the National socialists in 1933 and became one of Heidegger's teaching assistant in 1934) wrote to the de-Nazification hearing :
"One could see - and this was often confirmed to me by the students - that Heidegger lectures were attended en masse because the students wanted to form a rule to guide their own conduct by hearing National Socialism characterized in all its non-truth... Heidegger's lectures were attended not only by students but also by people with long-standing professions and even by retired people, and every time I had the occasion to talk with these people, what came back incessantly was their admiration for the courage with which Heidegger, from the height of his philosophical position and in the rigor of his starting point, attacked National Socialism" [2].
Equally, Hermine Rohner, a student of 1940 to 1943, bears testimony to the fact Heidegger "wasn't afraid, as for him, even in front of students from all faculties (so not only "his" students), to attack National Socialism so openly that I hunched up my shoulders" [3]
Georg Picht in 1933 : "The way Heidegger conceived of the revival of the university, this became clear to me on the occasion of a memorable event. To give the first lecture within the framework of „political education“ - a compulsory measure introduced at the universities by the Nazis - Heidegger, rector at that time, invited my mother's brother in law, Victor von Weizsäcker. Everyone was puzzled, because it was well-known that Weizsäcker was no Nazi. But Heidegger's word was law. The student he had chosen to lead the philosophy department thought he should pronounce introductory words on national socialist revolution. Heidegger soon manifested signs of impatience, then he shouted with a lout voice that irritation strained : "this jabber will stop immediately !" Totally prostrated, the student disappeared from the tribune. He had to resign from office. As for Victor von Weizsäcker, he gave a perfect lecture on his philosophy of medicine, in which national socialism was not once mentioned, but far rather Sigmund Freud." [4]
Because of what he calls a "spiritual resistance", czech resistant fighter and former Heidegger's student Jan Patocka includes his master among the Heroes of our times.
Filinthe ( talk) 18:15, 16 May 2012 (UTC)
Ok, both of you back down a bit. Filinthe, if you have read WP:SYNTH you know that it isn't enough that the testimonials appeared in another work,you need to place them in the same context that the other work placed them. also if you read WP:WEIGHT you know that yes in fact you are supporting a minority view. There were some heavy hitters in that view and you have a good list, but there are more scholars who support the idea that Heidegger personally and philosophically aligned himself with the Nazi party line. I agree that mfhiller should strike the cry baby comment, and filinthe needs to strike the comment about negationism. Once you guys calm down maybe we can look at how to best deal with this. Coffeepusher ( talk) 21:32, 18 May 2012 (UTC)
OK, yes, sorry Filinthe. I withdraw my comment about holocaust denying cry-babies. I wasn't, however, accusing just anyone of negationism; I was accusing Heidegger of negationism (majority view). My problem with your edits are: you do not provide edit summaries, and, you give equal weight to a minority view based on primary sources. Wikipedia has clear rules that your editing ignores. Coffeepusher has given you the links. To be perfectly honest I am sympathetic with a lot of Heidegger's philosophy, particularly the Introduction of Being and Time (the only part Husserl considered phenomenological) and his later writings on the end of philosophy. Regarding the question of Heidegger and National Socialism, I am open to all interpretations; your editing, however, needs to conform to Wikipedia practices. Mfhiller ( talk) 21:32, 19 May 2012 (UTC)mfhiller
Filinthe ( talk) 19:53, 22 May 2012 (UTC)
Good news, thanks, so all what's in his book, I may use it? I added the section on the main page together with Löwith's testimony, feel free to change or remove it. I also tried to make the lede more neutral. Filinthe ( talk) 08:33, 26 May 2012 (UTC)
I've moved some good text concerning the "Heidegger controversy" from the Martin Heidegger's page to this one. I'd like to reorganize that a bit, if I may. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Filinthe ( talk • contribs) 14:52, 29 May 2012 (UTC)
I've read that a Mitläufer is actually no sympathiser, to the contrary : he gives in to peer pressure without conviction nor resistance, so no fellow traveler either, and plays no role. ( German Wikipedia : Ein Mitläufer schließt sich nicht aus innerer Überzeugung einer Gruppe oder Handlung an, sondern folgt einem Gruppenzwang oder sucht die soziale Umgebung. Er nimmt auch keine tragende oder treibende Rolle ein. Im Gegensatz dazu bezeichnet man jemanden, der aus Überzeugung handelt, als einen Sympathisanten.) Filinthe ( talk) 13:41, 11 June 2012 (UTC)
I am proposing that only Fedier references that can be cited from English sources should be kept. Wikipedia standards do not allow unverifiable information. The statement "so-and-so (never translated into English by a recognised translator) says"... cannot be allowed on English WP insofar as the source is inherently unverifiable and therefore un-encylcopeadic. I don't mind a few references here and there, but now that an entire article is being over-written on the basis of dubious French sources, I'm becoming uneasy. In the first instance, Tom Rockmore, in his book on Heidegger's French legacy, has stated something to the effect of "Fedier's arguments are so ridiculous that one can hardly call them arguments, let alone waste their time translating them." I believe Richard Wolin takes a similar position. I can provide good sarcastic quotes from Rockmore. Also from Wolin too, both good, highly respected Heidegger scholars. Mfhiller ( talk) 23:28, 26 June 2012 (UTC)mfhiller
Ok, I don't mind, Safranski and Young are sufficient, but why Farias and Faye's insane books would have the honour to be translated and not his? It's unfair. "Fedier's arguments are so ridiculous that one can hardly call them arguments, let alone waste their time translating them." :D Sarcasm is easier than argumentation. As far as I know, noone has refuted Fèdier's argumentation, but he indeed refuted completely Farias' book. Rockmore and Wolin are certainly good scholars, but here they obviously don't know what they're talking about. Rockmore believes Heidegger's beer and sausages Science Camp in the Black Forest was a "reeducational camp" (does he know what a "reeducational center" really is?) and they both agree with Farias that Heidegger's ambiguous way of speaking about Nazism between 1935 and 1945 hides his own Nazism. But why would one hide their own Nazism during Nazism itself, when it was an everyday obligation to show enthusiasmus for Hitler? They also think Heidegger should have cancelled his NSDAP membership. Imagine the letter : "Dear Führer, I'm sorry but I must confess I don't agree anymore with your politics." It was totalitarism, they would have him killed on the spot, he and all his family. Filinthe ( talk) 12:32, 10 July 2012 (UTC) But please, give me the sarcastic quotes from Rockmore. cheers Filinthe ( talk) 06:50, 11 July 2012 (UTC) I found some comments on Fédier in Rockmore's On Heidegger's Nazism and Philosophy. He really has no arguments but sarcasm to oppose. "The rectoral address shows an explicit concern (which Heidegger there stresses but later minimizes) to utilize the university for the purpose of achieving a goal schared by the nazis : the realization of the historical destiny of the German people." To share a goal with someone doesn't prove anything. Which people doesn't believe in its historical destiny? I like to quote Tony Blair's last speech as Premier Minister, May 10, 2007 : "This country is a blessed country. The British are special. The world knows it, we know it, this is the greatest country on earth." This is not specifically nazi. I would even say that it is not nazi at all, because as Arendt shows it Nazis were actually no nationalists but rather internationalists. They had only one goal : worldwide antisemitism. Filinthe ( talk) 07:31, 11 July 2012 (UTC) All these people who speak of Heidegger's nazism are not aware of the danger : if one of the greatest thinkers of all times was a real nazi, then nazism is no insane ideology but can be justified. Until the 70's was Heidegger considered as a left wing thinker (Sartre), but now, thanks to Farias and Faye, right wing extremists and even antisemitics begin to quote Heidegger! Heidegger antisemitic, what a gift! We can't allow that, this is the main reason Fédier fight so hard (he told it once), and the reason I'm here too. Filinthe ( talk) 09:34, 11 July 2012 (UTC)
Heidegger did take risks, not all of them, but it was sufficient to repair his error as Arendt recognised it. He was no lemming in 1933, that's for sure, he believed in the revolution, but not in Hitler's one. Heidegger rejected Pan-Germanism, and he even said he was no nationalist. He was either fascist nor ultraconservativ nor antisemitic. This revolution he imagined was the contrary of nazism (he was so blind it took him 10 months to see it, but Europe needed several years, in 1936 the Olympics Games are a success). The so-called "Conservative Revolution" is a particular german movement proposing a "third way" between bolchevism und liberalism, and has nothing to do with antisemitism. The main figure for Heidegger is Hölderlin who called for a "revolution of all ways of thinking", but Nietzsche and Hofmannsthal are mostly seen as representative : rejection of the modern world and call for a new one but linked to the tradition. Hitler claimed he represented this ideal but of course it was a lie. This is a common error to interpret Nazism as a nationalist movement, nazis were either nationalists nor socialists (see Arendt). Nazism is not an extreme form of nationalism, but is as well internationalist as bolchevism, his right name is totalitarism. I'm personnaly no nationalist, but I can understand it, for instance in Germany after the Treatise of Versailles, or in France during the Occupation. French think they have a historical spiritual mission, Jews too, Russians, Americans too, all of them, this is a normal way of thinking for a people. Filinthe ( talk) 17:11, 12 July 2012 (UTC) I checked up in Fédier about the SA-uniform, he says Heidegger never wore it. Filinthe ( talk) 13:20, 18 July 2012 (UTC)
The article now states that Richard Rorty is both a critic and a supporter. I deem that this would be not only logically inconsistent, but also not the case. My expertise does not allow me to solve this problem, so I hope one of you could! — Preceding unsigned comment added by 213.127.130.3 ( talk) 15:45, 16 March 2013 (UTC)
-- Mauro Lanari ( talk) 18:59, 20 May 2013 (UTC)
The account of the Baumgarten denuciation is incorrect. See Baumgarten's own account in the Appendix to Lang, Heidegger's Silence. Theonemacduff ( talk) 07:17, 3 February 2014 (UTC)
The article should contain something about the Black Notebooks. I've proposed on the Black Notebooks talk page that the Black Notebooks article be merged here. Any thoughts? Mfhiller ( talk) 03:57, 28 September 2014 (UTC)
I would question the very relevance of this article. What does it matter whether one German philosopher was or was not a supporter of Nazism? I don't recall any articles on whether any given Russian composer, poet or philosopher was a supporter of Communism. 122.59.167.152 ( talk) 10:09, 26 June 2015 (UTC)
I have added the image for the November 1933 election. I feel we could add a bit more as Heidigger is focusing on the election from a philosophical point of view. basically there was only one list and the image gives an important cue as regards the circumstances of H.s endorsement. Leutha ( talk) 23:24, 19 December 2016 (UTC)
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Who is Eduard Langwald? Is this advocate in favor of Heidegger the best authority on Heidegger and Nazism? Why must many evidences on Heidegger and Nazism be concluded by «Eduard Langwald thinks the contrary»? This amounts to give again and again the last word to Eduard Langwald on important points. -- Dominique Meeùs ( talk) 10:00, 12 January 2019 (UTC)
This article needs to be revised in order to incorporate new research on the topic, most importantly, Richard Wolin's new book:
Wolin, Richard. HEIDEGGER IN RUINS: Between Philosophy and Ideology. 1st ed., Yale University Press, 2023, https://doi.org/10.12987/9780300269130. p. 488.
The book updates many of the issues addressed in this article. There is plenty of textual evidence to support Wolin's case. I will refrain from doing the update as I am not a Heidegger expert. Fvelasqu ( talk) 12:44, 10 May 2023 (UTC)