Arendt worked to reattach existentialism to its German roots against American myth-making

Evidence

If it was hard to get accurate information about French existentialism, it was even harder to learn anything about the German thinkers who had started it all. One of the few who tried to correct this imbalance was Heidegger’s former pupil and lover, Hannah Arendt, now based in the United States and working for Jewish refugee organisations. She wrote two 1946 essays, for the Nation and the Partisan Review respectively. One, ‘French Existentialism’, unpicked some of the myths about Sartre and the others. The other, ‘What is Existenz Philosophy?’, tried to plant existentialism back into its German roots, summarising the thought of Jaspers and Heidegger. — Sarah Bakewell, At the Existentialist Café, 554

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Heidegger’s Nazi past made acknowledging existentialism’s German origins awkward for both France and America — Sarah Bakewell, At the Existentialist Café: Freedom,…, 555; American critics condemned existentialists for valorizing lowbrow American culture — Sarah Bakewell, At the Existentialist Café: Freedom,…, 551; Postwar American tourism helped spread existentialism across the Atlantic. — Sarah Bakewell, At the Existentialist Café: Freedom,…, 539

Broader Connections

• Heidegger’s Nazi past made acknowledging existentialism’s German origins awkward for both France and America #expands (0.85) — Sarah Bakewell, At the Existentialist Café, 555