Reception of Heidegger's Nazism

The reception of Heidegger's Nazism is a part of the continuing reception of his thought in an enormous and rapidly growing literature. The reception of Heidegger's Nazism, although not always under that name, has been under way for several decades, at least since the 1930s^[1] Heidegger was sympathetic to Nazism before he became a member of the NSDAP. If we date Heidegger's Nazism from his official adherence to the Nazi party, then its reception began in the reaction in newspaper

reports and by his philosophical colleagues to his rectoral address in May 1933.^[2]

From the beginning, the reaction to Heidegger's Nazism was sharply divided between those who condemned the association of philosophy and Nazism and those who were able to perceive something good even in the turn to the clearest example of absolute evil in our time. Among the earliest reactions by colleagues, we have already noted Croce's complaint that Heidegger dishonored philosophy in the rectoral address^[3] and Jaspers's congratulatory note to Heidegger on receipt of the text of the speech.^[4] These were isolated reactions. The first philosophical debate between representatives of different views of Heidegger's Nazism began only about a decade and a half later, in the second half of the 1940s in the pages of the French intellectual journal Les Temps Modernes .^[5] In the main, the debate has often been as heated as it was uninformed. The uninformed nature of the debate is due to the successful efforts of determined Heidegger enthusiasts even now to exclude material, important for an informed judgment, from public and even scholarly access. The first study of the available information was provided in 1960 by Guido Schneeberger in a bibliography, whose appendixes attracted attention.^[6] Two years later Schneeberger published a reader of relevant materials.^[7] In both instances, he was forced to publish his works privately in order to escape the restrictions of German copyright law with respect to material for which he could not receive permission to publish.

Until recently the reception of Heidegger's Nazism developed in a largely desultory fashion, attracting little attention, with occasional bursts of activity. Significantly, as late as the mid-1970s, in a detailed study of Heidegger's political thought, an observer could state that only three books required mention.^[8] Although the reception of Heidegger's Nazism was never as tranquil as ordinary scholarly debate, it was burst asunder, literally transformed, by two publications in the late 1980s: Farias's resolute effort under difficult conditions finally to study Heidegger's Nazism in a wider historical context,^[9] and Ott's historically more careful but even more damning effort toward a Heidegger biography.^[10] Farias's book served as a catalyst for a strident debate virtually across western Europe, which now gives signs of spreading, in more scholarly, less virulent form, to the United States.^[11] It is a measure of the subversive character of Farias's assault on the Heideggerian establishment that although he lives and teaches in Germany, he was only finally able to publish his book in France.

In the multiple phases of the discussion of Heidegger and politics, the controversy in France stands out for several reasons, including its extension over some four decades, the passion with which it has been conducted, the sense of importance it has been accorded, and the degree of

attention it has aroused. It further stands out for the clear way in which the lines have been drawn, unusual in scholarly debate, for or against Heidegger. At present, the main defense of Heidegger, as well as the main attack, are both being waged within the limits of the French-language discussion of his thought. For this reason, the French discussion of Heidegger's Nazism provides the outstanding example of how later philosophers have confronted the multiple problems posed by the Nazism of one of the main philosophical thinkers of this century. Accordingly, the aim of this chapter is to come to grips, not with the French reception of Heidegger,^[12] but with the more limited topic of the French reception of Heidegger's Nazism.^[13] In view of the scope of the French discussion, major stress will be placed on an understanding of the significance of the main lines of the controversy as distinguished from an encyclopedic presentation of all the material.^[14]