Heidegger enforced Nazi laws that stripped his mentor Husserl’s family of their posts

Evidence

Among the new regulations of April 1933, which Heidegger had to enforce and maintain, was one removing from public and university posts all those whom the Nazis identified as Jews. This affected Husserl: although he was retired, he lost his emeritus status and the associated privileged access to university facilities. Husserl’s son Gerhart, who was a law professor at the University of Kiel, lost his job by the same regulation — Gerhart, who had been wounded in the First World War and whose brother had given his life for Germany. The new laws were a stupendous insult to a family who had given so much. The only help the Heideggers offered was to send a bouquet of flowers to Malvine Husserl, with a letter from Elfride emphasising the Husserls’ record of patriotism. — Sarah Bakewell, At the Existentialist Café, 272

Categorization

• XREF: The politeness-as-betrayal gesture parallels the theme of words and professions of allegiance as cover — echoes of Howards End’s ‘only connect’ failures and later accounts of German intellectual collaboration. — connects to: Heidegger privately dismissed Husserl even while benefiting from his patronage — Sarah Bakewell, At the Existentialist Café: Freedom,…, 224; Husserl backed Heidegger’s career hoping to restore ideological loyalty but lost the succession — Sarah Bakewell, At the Existentialist Café: Freedom,…, 225