A Forbidden Alliance: Heidegger, Arendt, and the Burden of History

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He stood out as a towering philosopher of his generation, known for a magnetic presence and provocative ideas about existentialism, notably the notion of being in the world, or Dasein. His seminars drew intense reactions, and some students reportedly found his rhetoric overwhelming. His commitment to renewing higher education and, more broadly, shaping the future of Germany led him to support national socialist ideas and accept the position of rector at Freiburg during the era of Hitler’s regime.

From a young age, he engaged deeply with philosophy, reportedly reading Kant at fourteen. His most famous student, a Jewish woman who narrowly escaped danger, helped him survive the Nazi years by seeking refuge first in Gurs and then in New York. He became a defining voice of the twentieth century, authoring The Origins of Totalitarianism and coining the phrase the banality of evil while reporting for The New Yorker. His involvement with the Eichmann trial in Jerusalem sparked significant controversy, and Zionist figures debated his actions, viewing him as a traitor for publicizing the collaboration of some Jews during Nazism.

A forbidden and contradictory passion

He was 18 when they met; she was 34 with two children. The romance between Hannah Arendt and Martin Heidegger remains one of Europe’s most controversial chapters, bringing together two formidable intellects, the shadow of Nazism, a tumultuous era, and a passion that challenged social norms. The relationship prompts questions about personal loyalties, intellectual influence, and the moral weight of historical choices. Its significance continues to spark debate about how intellectual life intersects with political history.

“No one could tell it well,” notes Miquel Esteve, born in Tarragona in 1969, who undertook the task of narrating their encounter from 1924 onward and through Heidegger’s death in 1976. The work Worldless Love, published by Navona in Spanish and Catalan, brings their story to a modern audience.

Esteve explains that much of what is known about their correspondence relies on letters Herder published several years ago, while many of Heidegger’s letters are missing. His wife Elfride was deeply suspicious of public amid private exchanges, Esteve adds, highlighting the tension between public philosophy and private life.

Love Without Earth reimagines a paradise defined by a complex amalgam of affection, ideas, and historical forces that shaped both thinkers. The narrative traces the evolution of Heidegger and Arendt’s bond from their early days in Marburg to their later, more mature years after the defeat of Nazism. Their final encounter occurred in 1975, just before Arendt’s heart attack, and Esteve recounts a public letter congratulating Heidegger on turning eighty, published years later.

Author Miquel Esteve. EPC

“How could it be?”

Arendt’s achievement shines through, with The Origins of Totalitarianism remaining strikingly relevant. She is portrayed as a modern, fearless thinker who could admire Heidegger’s intellectual appeal despite the moral failings associated with Nazism. The narrative acknowledges Arendt’s strength as a critic of her own people and her perseverance as a woman in a male-dominated intellectual world. The author’s aim is to provoke blunt, honest reflection on history and responsibility, inviting readers to ask, how can it be otherwise? (Esteve, 2023).

Some biographers have suggested that Arendt’s status as an orphan influenced her attraction to a powerful father figure. The novel shows that their relationship was not equal in practice: Heidegger often used Arendt as a reader and discussed ideas with her, while Arendt rarely trusted him as a reader and wrote The Origins of Totalitarianism largely in private, almost in secret.

Heidegger emerges as a deeply self-centered thinker, preoccupied with ideas to the point of missing the direction of the Nazi regime. His public defense, the Letters on Humanism, is described as philosophical—occasionally misunderstood—and Esteve sees the two figures as sharing a profound, if uneasy, intellectual bond. The story also notes Heidegger’s other intimate connection, with Elisabeth Blochmann, who was Jewish, complicating the moral landscape of their era.

Journey to the origins of Messkirch

Esteve often speaks of his own engagement with Heidegger as a life-altering experience, noting that finishing the work can leave a reader feeling changed and emotionally emptied. Reading Arendt, he adds, offers a different experience—an uplifting, almost hymn-like effect that renews hope in readers.

Esteve, a European philosophy enthusiast and economist by training, spent years in Barcelona before returning to his hometown to take charge of the family business. Years ago he left his old life behind, pursuing agriculture—peaches, oranges, and oil—while also teaching math and writing. In researching Love Without World, he visited the university where Heidegger taught and the hermitage near the Black Forest known as the Wizard of Messkirch, the very site of Heidegger’s thought and his tomb. Freiburg is described as one of Germany’s greenest and most progressive cities, keeping the Heidegger-Arendt story alive in intellectual circles. As Arnulf Heidegger, Heidegger’s grandson and executor, has remarked, unpublished works from the thinker are expected to surface in the coming years, shedding new light on this enduring dialogue.

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