“Review of Martin Heidegger’s Changing Destinies: Catholicism, Revolution, Nazism by Guillaume Payen (Yale University Press, 2023) and Heidegger in Ruins: Between Philosophy and Ideology by Richard Wolin (Yale University Press, 2023)”
“He had set himself up to be Nazism’s philosophical preceptor. Shortly after the Nazis seized power, he maneuvered to become rector of the University of Freiburg. He carefully stage-managed his inaugural address. Flanked by SA and SS members, he outlined his view of nazified university life; then the whole room sang the Horst-Wessel-Lied, the anthem of National Socialism”
“Later, Heidegger claimed that he had only been loyal to Nazism for a few months, having stumbled innocently into “error,” before he turned into a regime critic. His followers have uncritically repeated that line even in the face of mounting evidence, but the historical record cannot be dismissed”
“his outlook reflects a clear and deep-seated commitment to the worldview of Nazism”
“Solely by “complete and total devastation” could Germany “shatter the 2,000-year reign of metaphysics.” He referred to the Jews as “rootless” because of their supposedly “cosmopolitan” and “nomadic” racial nature; it threatened, he believed, the German Volk’s destiny”
“Germany, by reconnecting with its tribal Teutonic origin, could lead Europe toward a “new Beginning;” rekindling Greek glory — the linkage of Germany with Sparta was a mainstay of Nazi cliché”
“This “new Beginning” required a new philosophy — supplied by Heidegger himself, naturally — that encouraged struggle and “veneration of a Volk for the sake of hardness.” Accordingly, he believed in the redemptive power of Nazi violence: it served as a counterforce to Enlightenment “nihilism.””
“Heidegger’s rhetoric provided a rationale for genocide. Killing thought, in effect, meant killing the thinker. They were condemned not for what they wrote but for who they were, and Heidegger knew it. As Joseph Roth said, “They will burn our books and mean us.””
“One can learn much from reading habits: in the morning, even before Hitler became chancellor, Heidegger would read the Nazi Völkischer Beobachter or the ultrareactionary Die Tat; in the evening, he would curl up in bed with some fascist tract”
“What caused Heidegger to side with the Nazis? Payen places much emphasis on Heidegger’s fanatical wife Elfride, but also cites his experience in the First World War, which converted him to the cult of heroic violence”