Heidegger retained Nazi sympathies well after his rectorate resignation

Evidence

Heidegger clearly retained Nazi sympathies long after his resignation. In August 1934, he submitted plans to the Ministry for Science and Education for their proposed philosophical academy in Berlin, a kind of urban version of the Todtnauberg camps in which teachers and students would live together and pursue ‘scientific work, recreation, concentration, martial games, physical work, walks, sport, and celebrations’, under the guidance of a director and professors who were ‘politically safe’ National Socialists. — Sarah Bakewell, At the Existentialist Café, 298

The truth is rather different. For one thing, Heidegger clearly retained Nazi sympathies long after his resignation. In August 1934, he submitted plans to the Ministry for Science and Education for their proposed philosophical academy in Berlin, a kind of urban version of the Todtnauberg camps in which teachers and students would live together and pursue ‘scientific work, recreation, concentration, martial games, physical work, walks, sport, and celebrations’, under the guidance of a director and professors who were ‘politically safe’ National Socialists. Heidegger’s submission was rejected, but not for any lack of enthusiasm in his way of presenting it. Two years later, when he travelled to Rome in 1936 to give a lecture on the poet Friedrich Hölderlin, he still wore a Nazi pin on his lapel, and he kept it there even when he and his part-Jewish former student Karl Löwith took a day off to go sightseeing with their families. Löwith was disgusted: regardless of Heidegger’s views, it would have been easy for him to remove the badge if only to make his friends feel comfortable. — Sarah Bakewell, At the Existentialist Café, 298

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to ongoing reading on how intellectual figures negotiate complicity with oppressive regimes; echoes earlier chapters on Sartre’s political engagement versus Heidegger’s evasions. — connects to: Heidegger’s Nazi past and obscure late prose drove away former admirers — Sarah Bakewell, At the Existentialist Café: Freedom,…, 603; Heidegger refused to disavow Nazism because he saw easy repudiations as loathsome — Sarah Bakewell, At the Existentialist Café: Freedom,…, 604; Heidegger’s Nazi involvement remained a recurring French intellectual scandal — David Harvey, The Condition of Postmodernity: An…, 1311 (+3 more)
• corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim — Sarah Bakewell, At the Existentialist Café: Freedom,…, 298

Broader Connections

• Heidegger refused to disavow Nazism because he saw easy repudiations as loathsome #expands (0.85) — Sarah Bakewell, At the Existentialist Café, 604
• Heidegger denied Nazi sympathies to Arendt in early 1933 #contradicts (0.85) — Sarah Bakewell, At the Existentialist Café, 267
• Heidegger’s Nazi past and obscure late prose drove away former admirers #expands (0.80) — Sarah Bakewell, At the Existentialist Café, 603
• Heidegger signaled compliance with Nazism to his shocked friend Jaspers in 1933 #exemplifies (0.80) — Sarah Bakewell, At the Existentialist Café, 281
• Heidegger’s Nazi involvement remained a recurring French intellectual scandal #qualifies (0.75) — David Harvey, The Condition of Postmodernity, 1311