2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
THE INTIMATE HEIDEGGER, November 20, 2007
This review is from: Encounters and Dialogues with Martin Heidegger, 1929-1976 (Hardcover)
After reading this excellent memoir I find myself on more intimate terms with Martin Heidegger! The author, a close friend of Heidegger for many years, clearly loved and respected him. This is not an "unbiased" or critical recollection of the philosopher; it is a loving and detailed portrait.
I learned much that I didn't already know. For example, I had no idea that Heidegger liked Frederico Garcia Lorca, or that he identified with the character of Don Martin in Lorca's "Dona Rosita." He also loved Karl Orff's opera "Antigone" and Mozart's the "The Marriage of Figaro." While Heidegger was no film buff, he liked Kurosawa's "Rashomon." I hadn't appreciated quite how much Heidegger loved Cezanne, either.
Aside from Heidegger's cultural and academic interests and influences, this memoir interestingly recounts several "encounters and dialogues" that the author had with Heidegger, as well as conversations the philosopher had with others (such as Clara Rilke, Jean-Paul Sartre, and a marvelous exchange with a Tibetan monk who visited Heidegger at his home). Petzet often jotted down Heidegger's conversations, either while they happened or just afterwards when they were still fresh in his memory.
The book also sheds light on Heidegger's day to day activities, describing home and workplace, as well as life at his famed "hut." It goes through the different stages of Heidegger's life. Many have criticized Heidegger's brief and unfortunate involvement with the Nazis, but Petzet claims Heidegger and the Nazis were enemies. The Nazis spied on Heidegger via the Gestapo, blacklisted, and harshly censored him. They even prevented him from lecturing and traveling.
Petzet's memoir is truly an intimate portrait, fleshing out the historical Heidegger and showing his very tender relationships with people from all over the world and from many walks of life. My only warning to readers is that the book contains a flood of names that are more well known in Germany than elsewhere. Also, those who want to read about Heidegger's philosophy should look elsewhere, as this book concentrates more on the man than on his thinking.
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2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
STIRRING AND PROVOCATIVE RECOLLECTION OF TIME WELL SPENT, April 4, 2007
This review is from: Encounters and Dialogues with Martin Heidegger, 1929-1976 (Hardcover)
Heinrich Petzet and his family cultivated a lifelong friendship with Martin Heidegger and his family, and thus this recollection presents an insider's view of who in fact Martin was and where he stood on issues political, philosophical, poetic, and even soccer. While this is neither a guide to Heidegger's pathways of thinking, nor an apology, nor even a biography as such, it none the less is an eyewitness account of what Martin said, did, felt, believed in the depths of his thinking, and at those cross roads at which he has been unjustly vilified.
In no uncertain terms, this sets the record straight on the assault on Martin's character by those who would like to capitalize on the sins of Nazi Germany. From an ethical standpoint, which is worse? In any case, Petzet makes it clear how and why Heidegger's rectoral address was misinterpreted - consider who stood to gain - why the Nazis were pissed at him and put a Gestapo tail on him, forbidding him to publish and restricting his travel, and then moves on to what in fact are very enlightening and humanistic snapshots of a life spent in friendship and dedication between these two men. Heidegger, for his part, never endorsed the idea of a biography - he was never into the cult of personality, which in itself was a sublime rebuke to those who sought to crucify him. He was first and foremost about the pathways and contributions to thinking and recovering what was lost after the epoch of Parmenides and Heracleitus and Sophocles.
Through the course of this wonderful book, Heidegger's interest in Carl Orff, Picasso, Klee, and especially world cup soccer are also presented. Those who were his friends and colleagues knew what the real man was like, and this is a glimpse of him. Like Socrates, he took the hemlock of opinion because he knew his efforts would stand on their own merit. He was a caring and compassionate friend who suffered the loss of friends and neighbors like so many others in WW2, who was more or less under house arrest, whose family was threatened because he steadfastly refused to espouse and embrace the Nazi racist ideals, and in fact, as rector at Freiburg, Heidegger demanded that anti-semitic banners not be displayed. No other German intellectual put his life on the line as Martin did. This sets the record straight. Anything else you have heard or read is a lie. I remember reading an incredibly stupid and libellous retard by Woody Allen when Heidegger died, and it struck me then that there was an industry about demonizing those one couldn't refute on their own terms. Unlike Allen, Heidegger walked the walk. He was the genuine article at a time in history when such authenticity was extraordinarily dangerous.
As his life drew to a close, Martin Heidegger never lost his sight of how endearing his family and friends had been to him, and his final words to Petzet are both heroic and deeply touching. We should all muster such nobility, dignity, respect and grace. The last giant left us in 1976. There will never be another quite like him. We are fortunate to have Petzet's account. We would all do well to take up the path of thinking Martin pointed to. In the end, that is what is most sacred about being.
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