Heidegger's Hut [Hardcover]

Adam Sharr (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 27, 2006

"This is the most thorough architectural 'crit' of a hut ever set down, the justification for which is that the hut was the setting in which Martin Heidegger wrote phenomenological texts that became touchstones for late-twentieth-century architectural theory."--from the foreword by Simon SadlerBeginning in the summer of 1922, philosopher Martin Heidegger (1889-1976) occupied a small, three-room cabin in the Black Forest Mountains of southern Germany. He called it "die Hütte" ("the hut"). Over the years, Heidegger worked on many of his most famous writings in this cabin, from his early lectures to his last enigmatic texts. He claimed an intellectual and emotional intimacy with the building and its surroundings, and even suggested that the landscape expressed itself through him, almost without agency. In Heidegger's Hut, Adam Sharr explores this intense relationship of thought, place, and person.Heidegger's mountain hut has been an object of fascination for many, including architects interested in his writings about "dwelling" and "place." Sharr's account--the first substantive investigation of the building and Heidegger's life there--reminds us that, in approaching Heidegger's writings, it is important to consider the circumstances in which the philosopher, as he himself said, felt "transported" into the work's "own rhythm." Indeed, Heidegger's apparent abdication of agency and tendency toward romanticism seem especially significant in light of his troubling involvement with the Nazi regime in the early 1930s.Sharr draws on original research, including interviews with Heidegger's relatives, as well as on written accounts of the hut by Heidegger and his visitors. The book's evocative photographs include scenic and architectural views taken by the author and many remarkable images of a septuagenarian Heidegger in the hut taken by the photojournalist Digne Meller-Markovicz.There are many ways to interpret Heidegger's hut--as the site of heroic confrontation between philosopher and existence; as the petit bourgeois escape of a misguided romantic; as a place overshadowed by fascism; or as an entirely unremarkable little building. Heidegger's Hut does not argue for any one reading, but guides readers toward their own possible interpretations of the importance of "die Hütte."

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Heidegger's cabin in the Black Forest has been the focal point of his work, and it has been shrouded in mystery and rumor. Adam Sharr has cast on it the light of diligent research, architectural expertise, and liberal judgment, and he has given us a clearer idea of where Heidegger's thought has come from." Albert Borgmann, Regents Professor of Philosophy, The University of Montana

"As Adam Sharr reveals in his remarkable study Heidegger's Hut, the philosopher's timber-shingled cabin (which had no running water and, at least for the first decade, no electricity) can be interpreted as a locus of contemplation, a romantic escape, and a place where, given the politically problematic nature of Heidegger's writings, fascist over-tones cannot but linger" Andrea Walker Bookforum

Heidegger's Hut, a slim, provocative volume, answers the question: Why the architectural interest in the drab, three room, 20-foot square Black Forest hut without running water or electricity inhabited by the German philosopher Martin Heidegger throughout his career? Norman Weinstein Architectural Record

" Heidegger"s Hut is and is not a book about a hut. It"s about how a place inspired a life"s work, and how that work inspired modern architectural theory and, to a lesser degree, the sustainability movement.... Many of the book"s photos are posed, though the light is beautiful. The hut has a confidence, a rightness that is oddly indisputable, making in the end, even the philosopher"s work seem transient and insubstantial." The Los Angeles Times

About the Author

The intense relationship between philosopher Martin Heidegger and his cabin in the Black Forest: the first substantial account of "die Hütte" and its influence on Heidegger's life and work.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 163 pages
• Publisher: The MIT Press (October 27, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0262195518
• ISBN-13: 978-0262195515
• Product Dimensions: 7.8 x 7.8 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #171,286 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

17 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Much ado..... about being, time, nothingness, and a place in the woods, February 20, 2007

By 

o dubhthaigh (north rustico, pei, canada) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Heidegger's Hut (Hardcover)

If you have an interest in Heidegger, this is a clever little monogram on the place where Heidegger wrote or was inspired throughout the course of his career. The funny thing is, it is such a meager, crappy little hut that I guess he had no choice but to think profoundly. As architecture - well, it's laughably German: bare essentials, hardly comfortable, no cross ventilation, no indoor plumbing. And somehow that last factor takes the wind, so to speak, out of all that hermeneutics. Nothing like imagining Martin bent over a log to de-mythologize one of humanity's greatest thinkers.
The hut is still in the hands of his family, so it is not really a tourist site, but there is enough interest for the local government to signpost it and then ask everyone to respect the family's privacy. The black and white photos are collected from a series done in the sixties, and the author notes that they are somewhat staged. That's alright. It gives you the impression of how close the quarters were. Spartan is far too luxurious a concept. Nonetheless, this is where Martin came to follow those paths that led to the clearings wherein he began to consider how to uncover what had been appropriated. And all that is to say, that for its barren uncomfortableness, it is all the more remarkable that it was in such a setting that such piety was contemplated.
In short, the hut had precious little to do with it, I suppose. The landscape must be spectacular. Considering who came to visit him here, it is all the more remarkable. The place must have reeked. My estimation and admiration for both Elfride Heidegger and Hannah Arendt has increased exponentially. If you have had any experience travelling with Germans over the summer, you'll know what I'm talking about.
Against this setting is also a consideration of the more suburban digs Martin and his brood occupied in Freiburg. It seems more comfortable and while I gather Marty wasn't as keen on it, at least there was running water. The two settings compose an almost Monty Python pastiche of the life of Martin Heidegger - a bit like the Sartre sketch Cleese and Idle did: "OW, 'e's in his room sulkin again - all what about I dunno".
Much is made about Heidegger's brief flirtation with the Nazis, and his banishment to Todtnauberg (mostly self imposed, mind you), and as an ardent student of his work, I think it's time for a reality check: one, he gave up the Nazi post within a year, and in fact five years before Kristallnacht (ever wonder why? Of course not, it would force you to admit and forgive), and two, Hannah forgave him for being pissed at Jewish students who were annoying him and stating incredibly stupid propoaganda policies. And if she could forgive him, that's good enough for me.
Besides, look who is ghetto-izing and annhilating a minority now - as Victor Hugo would have it, those who refuse to learn from history.....
In any case, yer not likely, mate, to find hidden swastikas and egyptian icons writ backwards and cryptic messages stating "Paul is the walrus" anywhere around. This was a simple, really basic, unattractive hut in a beautiful setting that Martin found ideal for his enterprises. Hardly sacred space, but sacred enough for him.
The book is a quick read, but file it definitely under the cult of personality studies that seek vicarious approximation to glory in fetishizing the most insignificant details that have nothing to do with the heart of being, Being, Martin.

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Importance of Dwelling & Place, November 16, 2008

By 

Stefan Buchta (San Francisco, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Heidegger's Hut (Hardcover)

I found this book when the summer was still young, read every page several times over, with greatest pleasure! What a thinkers' paradise Heidegger's wife built there for her husband (a sign in Todnauberg contradicts Sharr's book, suggesting that Heideggers wife built the hut from her inheritance -- she was familiar with the village from ski holidays).

Here one finds embodied in a building Zengetsu's suggestion for the Zen student, "Poverty is your treasure. Don't exchange it for an easy life".

Of course it is difficult for anyone, including Heidegger himself, to really make sense of the place. It has significance only for Heidegger the thinker, as a place that came to support and sustain his thinking, in which he could be creative, in which he felt comfortable. He probably dind't know himself why this place "worked" for him and it probably would not work for anyone else (unless you grew up near the High Black forest and were intimately familiar with the landscape and its people). For Nietsche it was the Engadin, for Heidegger the High Black Forest -- German thinkers seem to have a long tradition of attachment to place and so do Japanese. So, does Sharr's book really have any significance beyond the pretty pictures?

I think it does. It made me contemplate when and where I will build my own hut. It made me understand embodiment. The simplicity of the philosopher's hut keeps reminding me of what is truly essential and strips away everything else. Here Heidegger could dwell directly in the elements of unpolluted-by-modernity-life itself -- the wind, the trees, the rocks, the traditions of the region.

0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Interesting, though thin, April 20, 2009

By 

Mr. Steiner (New York) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Heidegger's Hut (Hardcover)

Martin Heidegger was a thinker of dwelling. His essays after the so called 'turn' indicate an increasing preoccupation with one's environment, dwelling, and world. Adam Sharr is an architect who has done a tremendous job presenting a visual representation of Heidegger's famous place of work in Todtnauberg (the black and white photographs in this monograph are extraordinary) while attempting to link the place of Heidegger's work with the work. Unfortunately, Sharr's knowledge of Heidegger's philosophy is clearly a bit weak, and this text often borders on fetishism. Still, an intimate picture of this notoriously isolated thinker emerges as Sharr traces the particular significance of this location for Heidegger's lifelong pursuit into the meaning of being.