Heidegger’s Nazi past made acknowledging existentialism’s German origins awkward for both France and America

Evidence

But this was a difficult moment to tell people that the prettiest existentialist you ever saw and the swoon-inducing Sartre owed their ideas to Germans. Few wanted to acknowledge this fact in France, either. And Heidegger was no ordinary German. If the magician of Messkirch could have magicked his own past away, everyone would have been happier. — Sarah Bakewell, At the Existentialist Café, 555

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Modern existentialism fused German phenomenology with Danish philosophy and French literary sensibility — Sarah Bakewell, At the Existentialist Café: Freedom,…, 23; Arendt worked to reattach existentialism to its German roots against American myth-making — Sarah Bakewell, At the Existentialist Café: Freedom,…, 554; Heidegger’s Nazi involvement remained a recurring French intellectual scandal — David Harvey, The Condition of Postmodernity: An…, 1311

Broader Connections

• Heidegger’s Nazi involvement remained a recurring French intellectual scandal #corroborates (0.85) — David Harvey, The Condition of Postmodernity, 1311