If only he had never praised Nazism: who is Martin Heidegger?

In addition to Heidegger's philosophy, his understanding of politics has been and continues to be discussed for years. Martin Heidegger was born on September 26, 1889, in the town of Messkirch, in the German state of Baden. During his childhood years, he helped some of the church workers in the church where his father was a sexton and was raised as a Catholic.

After finishing secondary school, he was sent to the city of Konstanz with the help of the church, as his family could not afford it. Here, thanks to the high school principal, he receives a scholarship on the condition that he study theology at the University of Freiburg. For this reason, Heidegger ends his education in Konstanz, attends a high school in Freiburg, and graduates from there.

Martin Heidegger (26 September 1889 – 26 May 1976) was a German philosopher who is best known for contributions to phenomenology, hermeneutics, and existentialism. He is among the most important and influential philosophers of the 20th century. He has been widely criticized for supporting the Nazi Party after his election as rector at the University of Freiburg in 1933, and there has been controversy about the relationship between his philosophy and Nazism.

While Heidegger was in high school, he read Franz Brentano's doctoral thesis, entitled On the Multiple Meanings of Beings According to Aristotle, by Franz Brentano, who is known for his Descriptive Psychology views. Through this book, he discovers Edmund Husserl, who, through Brentano, will be his assistant in the following years, and takes the first steps towards understanding the importance of the question of existence. He also shows great interest in German Literature during his high school years; He reads the basic works of Ancient Greek Literature and gets acquainted with the poems of Friedrich Hölderlin.

Heidegger began his theology studies at the University of Freiburg in 1909. However, he left this department in 1911 and decided to study mathematics and philosophy at the same university. In 1913, he completed his doctoral study titled Judicial Doctrine in Psychology and received the title of doctor. This thesis was published in 1914. Heidegger completes his associate professorship thesis titled Categories and the Doctrine of Submission in 1915 and is authorized to teach at the university. He was drafted into the army in 1915; but unsuitable for the front, it is assigned to postal service and meteorological duties. His military service came to an end in 1918, when he was demoted. Afterward, he becomes the assistant of Edmund Husserl, with whom he will form a very close friendship.

In the same year, he met Elfriede Petri, who was studying National Economy at the University of Freiburg, and they married in 1917. Two years later, their first son, Jörg, was born, and in 1920, their second child, Hermann. Heidegger will not learn while he is alive that his second son is not the biological father. The real father is Friedel Cesar, Elfriede's youth friend, and Hermann's godfather. Elfriede tells Hermann this secret when he is 14 and makes him swear not to tell anyone as long as she is alive. Hermann keeps this promise for 71 years and only reveals this secret in 2005.

In 1923, Heidegger was appointed as a lecturer at the University of Marburg. Here he will meet Hannah Arendt, who will have an important place in his life. At 36, Heidegger maintains a relationship with his 18-year-old student, Hannah Arendt, despite many accusations from his colleagues; But his feelings are mixed. Although he is in love, he does not want any harm to his family and academic life.

It would not be wrong to say that the lectures he gave at the University of Marburg were the source of his masterpiece Being and Time (Sein und Zeit). For Heidegger to become a professor, he had to do a publication; therefore, he accelerates his work on the book Being and Time. Being and Time was first published in the Yearbook of Philosophy and Phenomenological Research edited by Edmund Husserl in 1927. The reason Heidegger's work was published in this yearbook is that he saw himself in the Phenomenological philosophy movement initiated by Husserl.

In Being and Time, Heidegger draws attention to a question that the history of philosophy has forgotten, the question of the meaning of being, and that this question needs to be asked again. In this work, Heidegger says that the question of being can only be asked through Dasein, because Dasein, that is, human existence, has a sense of being. Therefore, it tries to answer the question of the meaning of being through Dasein, the only being that can ask this question. With the Phenomenological method he inherited from Husserl, he wants to return to the meaning of the question of existence, to the beginning of the history of existence, through Dasein's existential analysis. The path Heidegger follows here, in his own words, is fundamental ontology.

In 1928, Heidegger was appointed to the Department of Philosophy at the University of Freiburg, after Husserl's retirement. In 1929, “What is Metaphysics?” makes the opening speech entitled; This speech is published in the same year. In this speech, Heidegger wanted to emphasize the basic misconception that Western metaphysics fell into, asking questions about the meaning of existence and ultimately turning to exist ones, and that the history of philosophy is the history of forgetting existence. Questioning traditional logic, computational thinking, and the stigma of nothingness, he asked, “What is nothing?” he asked the question.

Martin Heidegger has been shown as one of the important names of existential philosophy, but he never saw himself in this philosophical tradition.

The year 1933 was an important year in Heidegger's life as well as in the history of Germany. Hitler's party comes to power in Germany. Heidegger, who became the rector of Freiburg University, became a member of the National Socialist Party in the same year and drew reactions with this move. While giving his famous rector's speech, he questions the essence of science and the university. He states that the essence of the university is science, but what is meant here is not modern science, but the understanding of science in the Greeks.

Heidegger resigns from his position as rector after 1 year on the grounds that he and his party could not meet his expectations, but not a single word comes out of his mouth against the Nazi regime.

After the Second World War, Heidegger, who was deprived of his teaching position and banned from teaching by the Denaming Committee in 1945, regained his title and teaching authority, which was taken from him in 1950 with the efforts of Karl Jaspers.

Heidegger's relationship with Nazism damaged his philosophical career and the policy he followed in this period is still a topic of discussion today.

Heidegger does not deny his past. He forcibly participates in denazification programs but is banned from academia when he says he still believes Nazism is an ideology that glorifies knowledge. His ex-girlfriend Hannah comes to her rescue. He asks her for help to regain his former reputation. Hannah still loves him even though she is married. She tries to resurrect him by taking advantage of his reputation.

Heidegger died on May 26, 1976, at the age of 87. Immanuel Kant, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, and Edmund Husserl are important names who have been influential in shaping Heidegger's thoughts. He criticized Rene Descartes and the epistemology-based understanding of the being of the modern age, which was under the influence of his philosophy.