BEING AND BUILDINGThe Relationship of Martin Heidegger’s Thought to Hitler’s Architecture

FRAMING THE QUESTION

The Puzzle• Martin Heidegger

• Among the most important philosophers of 20th century.

• Also, ardent supporter of National Socialism

• What gives?

Research Question• Were Heidegger’s politics in fact a betrayal of his genius,

or was Nazism a logical extension of his philosophy?

• Some possibilities:• Heidegger was reluctant, confused, or separated politics and

philosophy.• Heidegger’s Nazism was logical; his philosophy supports

autocracy, submission of the individual to the political community, exclusionary and reactionary politics, etc.

• Heidegger’s Nazism was mistaken; he got the best of his philosophy wrong.

Procedure

Heidegger

• Being and Time• Poetry, Language,

Thought• “Building Dwelling

Thinking”

Hitler and National Socialism

• Collected speeches• Albert Speer• Nazi architectural projects

COMPETING INTERPRETATIONS

Themes in Heidegger’s “Dwelling”• Dwelling is being at home in the world, “for one’s place to

show up as a dwelling-place” (Julian Young)

• Deep Ecology• Dwelling in Nature• Building Community• The Fourfold, Heroism, and the Divine

Deep Ecology• Heidegger as non-dualist, non-anthropocentric

• “letting things be”• East Asian philosophy (Mahayana Buddhism, Vedanta, Taoism)

• Not similar to Nazism, but also a misreading

Dwelling in Nature• Allow nature to be a place where humans dwell

• Anti-urban, but to what extent?

• Romantic, pastoral elements to Nazi ideology

• However, Hitler obsessed with urban planning, inhuman scale

Building Community• “worlding of the world” through art, through architecture

• Late-Heideggerian dwelling occurs in such a community

• Interpret building as the work of a culture

The Fourfold• Dwelling brings the Fourfold together

• The Fourfold: earth, sky, gods, and mortals

• What does Heidegger mean by “gods,” or “divinities”?

• If an extension of “heroes,” exemplars of a particular heritage, from his early work, deeply problematic.

• “Only a god can save us now.” (Der Spiegel)

CONCLUSION

Can Heidegger be saved?• All the interpretations of Heidegger offered are

problematic• Perhaps a fifth explanation can be given: that Heidegger’s

thought is rich, complex, and open to interpretation. Yes, Heidegger’s emphases on rootedness, community, and the spiritual rebirth of society lend support to totalitarian, revolutionary movements.

• However, Heidegger also provides profound insights and new thoughts.

• The tension need not be resolved.