Martin Heidegger: A Political Life [Hardcover]

Hugo Ott (Author), Allan Blunden (Translator)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 1993

A documented account of how one of this century's leading philosophers came to embrace and promote Nazism, with fateful consequences for both his thought and German intellectual life in general.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

This meticulously detailed, important study demolishes the notion that famed German philosopher Martin Heidegger (1889-1976), who joined the Nazi party, was a politically naive intellectual caught up against his will in a movement he did not understand. According to German social historian Ott, Heidegger, who made many pronouncements acclaiming Adolf Hitler as the Fuhrer, was waiting for the promised National Socialist revolution and saw himself as the true apostle of the movement's quasi-mystical essence. Ott establishes that Heidegger assumed the rectorship of the University of Freiburg (a position from which the philosopher later resigned) as the trusted agent of a small circle of Nazi professors who wanted him to undertake a reform of the university in line with the dictates of Hitler's program. Ott, a professor at the University of Freiburg, also refutes Heidegger's postwar attempt to justify his links to Nazism and to minimize their importance.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Kirkus Reviews

An exhaustive, fascinating examination of the controversial role played by Heidegger in the early years of the Nazi regime. Heidegger (1889-1976) has been regarded as one of the greatest German philosophers of the century--but controversy has swirled around his role in the betrayal of the German universities, particularly in 1933, when he was rector of the University of Freiburg (where author Ott teaches economic and social history). Ott's careful dissection of the archival evidence leaves little doubt that the philosopher aspired to transform the universities into Nazi institutions that he would then lead. Heidegger's writing, as well as his actions in a number of hitherto obscure episodes, suggests the degree of his commitment to Nazism: ``The Fhrer himself and he alone is the German reality, present and future, and its law...Heil Hitler!'' So Heidegger said at Hitler's inauguration--but the Nazi Party, ready to use celebrities such as Heidegger but not willing to entrust them with any power, gave the leadership of the universities to reliable party mediocrities. With that rebuff, the philosopher's enthusiasm for Nazism seems to have ebbed, although, in the latter part of WW II, he was still telling a pupil that the only worthy life for a German was a life at the front. Ott admits that the view of Heidegger as Nazi hasn't gone unchallenged: Gerhard Ritter, a member of the 1944 bomb plot to kill Hitler, testified that the philosopher ``was secretly fiercely opposed to National Socialism after 30 June 1934....'' Such testimony, plus a number of passionate adherents helped to rescue Heidegger from the humiliations of the immediate postwar period, after which his reputation reached new heights. A curious combination of scholarship, exactness, and disorganization: a difficult but rewarding read for those not students of the period. -- Copyright ©1993, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 407 pages
• Publisher: Basic Books (November 1993)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0465028985
• ISBN-13: 978-0465028986
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.2 x 1.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.9 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,655,511 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Heidegger's Political Life, September 8, 2008

By 

Robin Friedman (Washington, D.C. United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Martin Heidegger: A Political Life (Hardcover)

In the 1980s and 1990s, the philosoper Martin Heidegger's (1889 -- 1976) association with Nazism came under increasing scrutiny. I have been struggling with Heidegger again and rereading "Being and Time" (1927). In the process, I wanted to learn more about the nature of Heidegger's ties to Nazism. Thus, I read with interest this book by Hugo Ott, "Martin Heidegger: A Political Life" (1993) which has become one of the standard treatments of the subject. Ott is Professor of Economics and Social History at the University of Freiburg. Heidegger spent most of his philosophical career at Freiburg, as an assistant to the famous philosopher Edmund Husserl and then, following a period at Marburg where he wrote "Being and Time" assuming Husserl's chair at Freiburg in 1928. Infamously, Heidegger became Rector at Freiburg in 1933 where he was a strongly activist supporter of Hitler.

In his latter years, with an inteview he gave to the German newspaper Der Spiegel in 1966 (not published until after his death) and in a book called "Facts and Thoughts", Heidegger tried to downplay his association with Nazism. Many of Heidegger's supporters have tried to characterize the philosopher as a political innocent who had no real idea of the nature of the political views he claimed to espouse. Using archival material. letters, and Heidegger's own writings, Ott shows that Heidegger's claims and those of apologists do not stand up. From the early days of the 1930s Heidegger became increasingly involved with Nazism and with remaking the German universitites in its image. His involvement continued well into the 1930s, following his resignation from the Rectorship in April, 1934. Heidegger was indeed a committed follower of Hitler and National Socialism and he vied albeit unsuccessfully with other less intellectually gifted and more unscrupulous individuals for a position of intellectual leadership within the movement.

Ott's book is not a full biography of Heidegger. It is sketchy on matters other than the philosopher's political involvement and includes little of his intellectual development -- the books he read that influenced him -- and his personal life. Ott also does not discuss Heidegger's philosophy in much detail. His account of the writing of "Being and Time" is scant in the extreme. Ott claims that philosophy is not within his expertise. Beyond some rather broad generalizations, he does relatively little in exploring the extent and nature of the link between Heidegger's philosophy and his politics.

Thus, in his study, Ott shows Heidegger increasingly involved with Nazi activity, but I still was unsure how, why and when Heidegger became attracted to Nazism. Ott gives a detailed portrayal of Heidegger's activites during his Rectorship, including his inaugural speech, his attempt to reshape the German universities, his informing on a chemist named Herman Staudinger, a subsequent recipient of the Nobel Prize, and his shabby treatment of Edmund Husserl, his former mentor. Ott also describes Heidegger's career after his rectorship in which he remained, for a time, committed to Nazism. Ott discusses the difficult question of Heidegger's attitude towards Jews and finds considerable evidence at some periods of his life of Anti-Semitism. As the 1930s continued, Heidegger came under surveillance from the Nazis who tried to censor or ban some of his writings.

In 1945, with the end of WW II and the occupation of Freiburg, Heidegger was subjected to a lengthy denazification proceeding. The result was a ban on Heidegger teaching which remained in place until 1951. Ott offers a full account of this proceeding. The evidence that was introduced remains critical in understanding Heidegger's relationship to Nazism. Heidegger, in the course of his long post-war life, never fully came to terms with Nazism or explained or apologized for his role.

In addition to discussing Heidegger and Nazism, Ott offers insight into the philosopher's relationship to Catholicism. Heidegger, born to a devout Catholic family, was able to pursue his studies only because of Catholic financial assistance. He briefly thought of becoming a priest. He abandoned Catholicism around 1916-1917, but Ott points out that his attitude to his former faith remained ambivalent. "Being and Time" for example rebels against scholasticism even while its author remains deeply steeped in it. Ott argues that Heidegger struggled with Catholicism throughout his life. I think he is correct in this, and that Heidegger's religious seekings are an integral part of his thought, as important as are the political dimensions.

Many readers, myself included, struggle with Heidegger because of the sense his works convey of insight. Thus in his report to the Denazification Commission, Karl Jaspers, who was severly critical of Heidegger wrote: "In the full flow of his discourse he occasionally succeeds in hitting the nerve of the philosophical enterprise in a most mysterious and marvellous way." (Ott, p. 338) Ott's book nowhere denies the importance of Heidegger's thought or on the fascination it exerts on people who are far from the Nazism that captured the philosopher. Ott's book, nevertheless, offers grounds for pause and for careful reflection in reading and coming to an understanding of the thought of Heidegger.

Robin Friedman