Martin Heidegger, Hannah Arendt and the Politics of Remembrance
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Jeffrey Andrew Barash
Abstract
I The intellectual relations between Heidegger and Arendt
The publication of the correspondence between Martin Heidegger and Hannah Arendt in Germany in 1998 contributed new insight into the relations between these two 20th century thinkers. Arendt was Heidegger's student in Marburg in the mid-1920s and the correspondence has confirmed the intimate character of their relationship during this period. Subsequently, Arendt moved to Heidelberg to work with Karl Jaspers. Following Heidegger's support of the Hitler regime as rector of Freiburg University in 1933–1934, communication ceased between Arendt and Heidegger and, during these years, Arendt emigrated, first to France and then to the United States. After the Second World War, the silence between them continued for a period of five years. During this period Arendt published an article highly critical of Heidegger's writings, entitled “What is Existenz-philosophy?” (1946), in which she argued that Heidegger's thought belonged to the contemplative metaphysical tradition inaugurated by Plato that she saw it as her task to overcome. The Hannah Arendt – Martin Heidegger Briefwechsel has also documented the fact that in February 1950 Arendt and Heidegger once again resumed their friendship, which lasted for the remainder of their lives.
© Walter de Gruyter 2007
Articles in the same Issue
- In Memoriam Stéphane Mosès
- Editorial
- Weiße Stellen und schwarze Löcher: Vergangenheit und Gegenwart in Ostgalizien
- Epistemics of the Holocaust Considering the Question of “Why?” and of “How?”
- La mémoire, l'histore, l'oubli: A Symposium with Paul Ricœur. Part I: Prefatory Remarks
- Martin Heidegger, Hannah Arendt and the Politics of Remembrance
- Concepts of Time and Space in Phenomenology
- “Aber wie soll ich denn aus dem Jiddischen übersetzen?”: Gershom Scholem and the Problem of Translating Yiddish
- Hannah Arendt on Action and Exile
- Zum Briefwechsel von Leo Löwenthal und Siegfried Kracauer
Articles in the same Issue
- In Memoriam Stéphane Mosès
- Editorial
- Weiße Stellen und schwarze Löcher: Vergangenheit und Gegenwart in Ostgalizien
- Epistemics of the Holocaust Considering the Question of “Why?” and of “How?”
- La mémoire, l'histore, l'oubli: A Symposium with Paul Ricœur. Part I: Prefatory Remarks
- Martin Heidegger, Hannah Arendt and the Politics of Remembrance
- Concepts of Time and Space in Phenomenology
- “Aber wie soll ich denn aus dem Jiddischen übersetzen?”: Gershom Scholem and the Problem of Translating Yiddish
- Hannah Arendt on Action and Exile
- Zum Briefwechsel von Leo Löwenthal und Siegfried Kracauer
