Heidegger and Nazism

The relations between Martin Heidegger and Nazism are a controversial subject in philosophy, although no one denies his historical engagement for the NSDAP, which he joined on May 1, 1933, nearly three weeks after being appointed Rector of the University of Freiburg. Heidegger resigned the Rectorship about one year later, in April 1934, but remained a member of the NSDAP until the end of World War II. His first act as Rector was to eliminate all democratic structures, including those that had elected him Rector. There were book burnings on his campus (though he successfully stopped some of them), as well as some student violence.

Heidegger's period at the Rectorate

Heidegger implemented at the Rectorate the "Gleichschaltung" totalitarian policy, suppressing all opposition. According to Emmanuel Faye, along with Ernst Krieck and Alfred Baeumler, he spearheaded the "conservative revolution" enforced by the Nazis. Heidegger's aim was to "spiritualize" the Nazi movement. [ See Jacques Derrida, "Of Spirit: Heidegger and the Question" (1987, transl. 1989) ] He sent a public telegram to Hitler on May 20, 1933.

Inaugural Address

Heidegger's inaugural address, delivered May 27, 1933, the [http://www.eco.utexas.edu/~hmcleave/350kPEEHeideggerSelf-Assertion.pdf#search=%22%22The%20Self-Assertion%20of%20the%20German%20University%22%22 Rektoratsrede] , was entitled "The Self-Assertion of the German University," and later became notorious. It culminated in three "Heil Hitlers". In this speech, he declared that "the essence of University was science", as well as the need to "exploit at its best the fundamental possibilities of the originally German stock and to conduct it to domination." [ "Gesamtausgabe", t. 36-37, p. 89 ] His discourse was a call to his students for a national regeneration, during which he openly positioned himself in favor of Hitler: "Let not theories and 'ideas' be the rule of your being. The Führer himself and he alone is German reality and law, today and for the future." [http://www.stanford.edu/dept/relstud/faculty/sheehan/pdf/88-nazi.PDF Heidegger and the Nazis] , review of Victor Farias' "Heidegger et le nazisme" by Thomas Sheehan, in "The New York Review of Books", Vol. XXXV, n°10, June 16, 1988, pp.38-47 ]

Heidegger praised "the historical mission of the German Volk, a Volk that knows itself in its state." He also invoked "the power to preserve, in the deepest way, the strengths [of the Volk] which are rooted in soil and blood."

Discourse of Tübingen

In his Discourse of Tübingen of 30 November 1933, he spoke about the "National-Socialist Revolution" as the "complete overturning of our German "Dasein"."

Emmanuel Faye

According to the philosopher Emmanuel Faye, Heidegger said of Spinoza that he was "ein Fremdkörper in der Philosophie", a "foreign body in philosophy" — Faye notes that "Fremdkörper" was a term which belonged to Nazi vocabulary, and not to classical German. [ Emmanuel Faye, "Heidegger, l'introduction du nazisme dans la philosophie", Albin Michel, 2005. See [http://muse.jhu.edu/login?uri=/journals/south_central_review/v023/23.1faye.html Nazi Foundations in Heidegger's Work] , "South Central Review", Volume 23, Number 1, Spring 2006, pp. 55-66 ] Faye also underlines that already by 1916, Heidegger had criticized the "Verjudung" ("Judaization") of German universities, to which he opposed the promotion of the "German race" ("die deutsche Rasse"). [ Letter to Elfride Heidegger of 18 October 1916, quoted by Husserl in his Letter to Dietrich Manke of May 1935 (quoted by E. Faye) ] Faye mentioned in particular Volumes 36 and 37 of the "Gesamtausgabe". As early as 1918, Heidegger mentioned the "necessity of a Führer" for Germany. [ Emmanuel Faye, 2005 ] The widow of Ernst Cassirer claimed she had heard of Heidegger's "inclination to anti-Semitism" by 1929.

peech to Student Association

Heidegger's June 30, 1933 speech to the Heidelberg Student Association stated:

[The university] must be integrated into the Volksgemeinschaft and be joined together with the state ...

Up to now, research and teaching have been carried on at the universities as they were carried out for decades.... Research got out of hand and concealed its uncertainty behind the idea of international scientific and scholarly progress. Teaching that had become aimless hid behind examination requirements.

A fierce battle must be fought against this situation in the National Socialist spirit, and this spirit cannot be allowed to be suffocated by humanizing, Christian ideas that suppress its unconditionality ...

Danger comes not from work for the State. It comes only from indifference and resistance. For that reason, only true strength should have access to the right path, but not halfheartedness ...

University study must again become a risk, not a refuge for the cowardly. Whoever does not survive the battle, lies where he falls. The new courage must accustom itself to steadfastness, for the battle for the institutions where our leaders are educated will continue for a long time. It will be fought out of the strengths of the new Reich that Chancellor Hitler will bring to reality. A hard race with no thought of self must fight this battle, a race that lives from constant testing and that remains directed toward the goal to which it has committed itself. It is a battle to determine who shall be the teachers and leaders at the university. [ [http://www.wsws.org/articles/2000/apr2000/heid-a03.shtml The Case of Martin Heidegger, Philosopher and Nazi (part 1)] , which quotes Richard Wolin, "The Heidegger Controversy: A Critical Reader", ed. Richard Wolin, Cambridge: MIT Press, 1998 (Martin Heidegger, “The University in the New Reich” Wolin, pp. 44-45) ]

Karl Löwith

The same month, Karl Löwith criticized "The Protocols of the Elders of Zion", a forgery supporting anti-Semitic conspiracy theories, to which Heidegger responded: "But there is a dangerous international alliance of Jews."

Führerprinzip

On August 21, 1933 Heidegger established the "Führerprinzip" at Freiburg: thereafter, the rector was to be appointed by the Nazi Minister of Education instead of being elected by the faculty. Heidegger was nominated as Führer of Freiburg University on October 1, 1933. It is in that function that he issued on November 3 a decree applying the Nazi racial policies to the students. The decree awarded economic aid to students belonging to the SS, the SA and other military groups. "Jewish or Marxist students" or anyone considered "non-Aryan" would be denied financial aid. [ [http://www.wsws.org/articles/2000/apr2000/heid-a03.shtml The Case of Martin Heidegger, Philosopher and Nazi (part 1)] ]

Denounced Jews, non-Nazis

Heidegger also leaked information about colleagues to the Nazis. The chemist Hermann Staudinger, for instance, who had been a pacifist during World War I, was fired owing to Heidegger's intervention.

Heidegger also wrote a letter about his student Eduard Baumgarten, calling him "anything but a National-Socialist" and underlining his links to "the Heidelberg circle of liberal-democratic intellectuals around Max Weber." In this letter, he mentioned the "Jew Fränkel." Heidegger also fired the Catholic anti-Nazi Max Müller, a former student of his from 1928 to 1933.

In 1915 he had worked with Edith Stein editing the papers of Edmund Husserl for publication, both being appointed as assistants to Husserl the following year. Stein, who like Husserl was a Jewish convert to Christianity, visited both Husserl and Heidegger at Freiburg in April 1929, the month of Husserl's 70th birthday. She and her sister were gassed at Auschwitz in 1942.
* [http://parolesdesjours.free.fr/loups.pdf Réponses de Gérard Guest (1) (au dossier publié dans "Magazine Littéraire")] fr icon
* [http://parolesdesjours.free.fr/loups2.pdf Réponses de Gérard Guest (2) ( au dossier publié dans "Le Point")] fr icon
* [http://www.dailymotion.com/ESTETTE/video/x1asyb_heidegger-14 François Fédier, Pascal David et Faye.Multimedia] fr icon
* [http://www.paris4philo.org/article-10504198.html Heidegger contre le nazisme (paris4philo-sorbonne)]
* [http://www.nybooks.com/articles/2618 Heidegger and Nazism: An Exchange]
* [http://www.stanford.edu/dept/relstud/faculty/sheehan/pdf/NormalNa.pdf A Normal Nazi Thomas Sheehan On Heidegger]