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Heidegger in Ruins: Between Philosophy and Ideology
What does it mean when a radical understanding of National Socialism is inextricably embedded in the work of the twentieth century’s most important philosopher?
Martin Heidegger’s sympathies for the conservative revolution and National Socialism have long been well known. As the rector of the University of Freiburg in the early 1930s, he worked hard to reshape the university in accordance with National Socialist policies. He also engaged in an all-out struggle to become the movement’s philosophical preceptor, “to lead the leader.” Yet for years, Heidegger’s defenders have tried to separate his political beliefs from his philosophical doctrines. They argued, in effect, that he was good at philosophy but bad at politics. But with the 2014 publication of Heidegger’s Black Notebooks , it has become clear that he embraced a far more radical vision of the conservative revolution than previously suspected. His dissatisfaction with National Socialism, it turns out, was mainly that it did not go far enough. The notebooks show that far from being separated from Nazism, Heidegger’s philosophy was suffused with it. In this book Richard Wolin explores what the notebooks mean for our understanding of arguably the most important philosopher of the twentieth century, and of his ideas—and why his legacy remains radically compromised.
Martin Heidegger’s sympathies for the conservative revolution and National Socialism have long been well known. As the rector of the University of Freiburg in the early 1930s, he worked hard to reshape the university in accordance with National Socialist policies. He also engaged in an all-out struggle to become the movement’s philosophical preceptor, “to lead the leader.” Yet for years, Heidegger’s defenders have tried to separate his political beliefs from his philosophical doctrines. They argued, in effect, that he was good at philosophy but bad at politics. But with the 2014 publication of Heidegger’s Black Notebooks , it has become clear that he embraced a far more radical vision of the conservative revolution than previously suspected. His dissatisfaction with National Socialism, it turns out, was mainly that it did not go far enough. The notebooks show that far from being separated from Nazism, Heidegger’s philosophy was suffused with it. In this book Richard Wolin explores what the notebooks mean for our understanding of arguably the most important philosopher of the twentieth century, and of his ideas—and why his legacy remains radically compromised.
488 pages, Hardcover
Published January 10, 2023
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June 26, 2023
I thought this book excelled for multiple reasons. The thrust of the book is showing how completely entwined Heidegger and his philosophy are with the Nazis and Fascism and the author does that masterfully.
Here’s a warning for anyone. If someone reads Oswald Spengler and thinks he was a serious philosopher, that should be a red flag for not taking that person seriously. Spengler is a full-on fascist and he has at what best could be characterized as mumbo-jumbo incoherence ramblings involving morphology of “civilizations” as separate identities with a clash between cultures separated by cosmopolitans and ‘volk’ with the need for a superman to lead. Spengler is nuts and anyone who follows him is a nut too, and Heidegger definitely follows and was greatly influenced by Spengler. Thomas Mann was too, at least as far as his book ‘Reflections of a non-Political Man’ lays out, and Wolin does quote from Mann’s essays from this time period. Wolin, this author, gets the connections and lays them out splendidly in this book. [This book ‘Heidegger in Ruin’ mentions how the ‘Sengalese negroes coming into Germany were the ultimate insult’ against the Aryan race. That’s what was considered serious philosophy by Spengler, Hitler, Mann and the German people at this period of time].
To read Heidegger, it’s easy to see that he is a fascist. To fully understand ‘Being and Time’ one understands it at a more fundamental level when one understands Heidegger’s Nazi sympathies. The Myth of the 20th century is race, as Wolin points out as Alfred Rosenberg wrote in his truly vile book. Small point, Rosenberg is maybe the only person who ever was put to death for writing a mega bestseller book. Heidegger embraces that myth and it clearly permeates his thinking in most of his writings.
Hubert Dreyfus misled me. Dreyfus’ book on Being and Time excluded obvious Nazi motifs as this book directly notes, and Dreyfus also trivialized Heidegger’s post B&T work by saying Heidegger cared about the ‘volk’ and the people of the soil. I had to read Spengler, Hitler, and other early 20th century German writers to realize that that was just code for ‘not Jewish’, or for ‘Aryan race’, and Dreyfus never clued me in.
Nietzsche, Hitler, Spengler, Rosenberg and even Thomas Mann needs a myth to justify their feelings about the superiority of the German Volk and the betrayal by their imagined enemies, and an explanation for the ‘stabbing in the back’ for Germany’s defeat in WW I.
Heidegger generates truths from ecstatic awe-inspiring hidden places (the clearing through a revealing) within us but recognized outside of us that he calls ‘authentic’ and as Dreyfus would say ‘reading the room’. The primordial, pre-ontic, pre-philosophical world, for Heidegger is the authentic place he is looking for what he calls authentic being, and for Heidegger the pre-Socratic Greeks and his present-day Germans were the only ones who were capable of getting that. This book really does connect those dots, and shows Heidegger believed that as he was justifying eliminating Jews or any other ‘non-Aryan’ races. Heidegger did say that only the German language was capable of understanding ‘being’ and its authenticity.
Heidegger goes full on crazy as he writes his philosophy that does morph into ideology justifying his world and ultimately the collapse of his world. Being-in-the-world requires a worldview, and Heidegger makes that worldview his Nazi worldview until it totally collapses and he never is willing to walk away from his previous excesses he had developed in 1930s Germany.
The creation of the myth. The ‘stop thinking and follow me’ ethos that Heidegger advocates and his devotion to a ‘fuehrer’ that the will of all pin their hopes on is a necessary part of the truth Heidegger needs in his quest for authenticity. For Heidegger, authenticity means being a good Nazi, hating Jews, and believing in myths of Aryan superiority.
Two points, Spengler wasn’t a Nazi just a Fascist, and MAGA hat morons led by Trump today are a natural extension for what Heidegger was writing about. We reach Truth by mythos, logos, and pathos, and today’s MAGA hat morons who are the continuation of the Fascist garner truth through feelings (pathos) thus creating their make-believe stories (mythos) and place their will at the whim of Trump. This book actually does connect those dots and devotes the last sections to the ‘alt right’ of today and how it’s spreading. They hate Jews, gays, and transpeople for what ever reason, but their ‘authenticity’ needs that for their own self-actualization.
Trump is as dangerous as Hitler. Heidegger, Nietzsche, Carl Schmidt, and Ernst Junger (he believes that struggle creates authenticity) are aligned with today’s MAGA., and this book will connect them to today’s fascist. Just the name itself, ‘make America great again’ evokes the remembering of a myth of days of yore and pretends that the narrative of America’s past was magical and is no longer. As Nietzsche and Heidegger believed according to this book, only nihilism can destroy nihilism and when someone is on the edge a good push is best.
The author does mention Ernst Cassirer and how he was a bulwark against Heidegger in some ways. I enjoyed Cassirer’s three volume work on the ‘Philosophy of the Symbolic Work’, but for me I thought Cassirer was not adequately seeing the destruction of the world around him and the danger that was inherent in all myths and how they separate us from one another, and yes, we need an I and you to get at a we and therefore a society, but our pre-ontological stories we tell ourselves and the connecting tissue from the magical to the real is not always beneficial. Just read the third volume, ‘Mythical Thought’, and see for yourself and determine for yourself how dangerous myths can be.
I still like to read Nietzsche and Heidegger. It takes some squinting, but within them there is a fairly good philosophy beyond the fascist ideology. Regardless, in order to understand the chaos of Donald Trump’s MAGA craziness, they are a great starting place, as is Oswald Spengler, Carl Schmidt, or even the vile Rosenberg.
This book succeeds at making those fascists relative to today’s world and shows the reader how we Americans are only one election away from having history repeat itself.
Here’s a warning for anyone. If someone reads Oswald Spengler and thinks he was a serious philosopher, that should be a red flag for not taking that person seriously. Spengler is a full-on fascist and he has at what best could be characterized as mumbo-jumbo incoherence ramblings involving morphology of “civilizations” as separate identities with a clash between cultures separated by cosmopolitans and ‘volk’ with the need for a superman to lead. Spengler is nuts and anyone who follows him is a nut too, and Heidegger definitely follows and was greatly influenced by Spengler. Thomas Mann was too, at least as far as his book ‘Reflections of a non-Political Man’ lays out, and Wolin does quote from Mann’s essays from this time period. Wolin, this author, gets the connections and lays them out splendidly in this book. [This book ‘Heidegger in Ruin’ mentions how the ‘Sengalese negroes coming into Germany were the ultimate insult’ against the Aryan race. That’s what was considered serious philosophy by Spengler, Hitler, Mann and the German people at this period of time].
To read Heidegger, it’s easy to see that he is a fascist. To fully understand ‘Being and Time’ one understands it at a more fundamental level when one understands Heidegger’s Nazi sympathies. The Myth of the 20th century is race, as Wolin points out as Alfred Rosenberg wrote in his truly vile book. Small point, Rosenberg is maybe the only person who ever was put to death for writing a mega bestseller book. Heidegger embraces that myth and it clearly permeates his thinking in most of his writings.
Hubert Dreyfus misled me. Dreyfus’ book on Being and Time excluded obvious Nazi motifs as this book directly notes, and Dreyfus also trivialized Heidegger’s post B&T work by saying Heidegger cared about the ‘volk’ and the people of the soil. I had to read Spengler, Hitler, and other early 20th century German writers to realize that that was just code for ‘not Jewish’, or for ‘Aryan race’, and Dreyfus never clued me in.
Nietzsche, Hitler, Spengler, Rosenberg and even Thomas Mann needs a myth to justify their feelings about the superiority of the German Volk and the betrayal by their imagined enemies, and an explanation for the ‘stabbing in the back’ for Germany’s defeat in WW I.
Heidegger generates truths from ecstatic awe-inspiring hidden places (the clearing through a revealing) within us but recognized outside of us that he calls ‘authentic’ and as Dreyfus would say ‘reading the room’. The primordial, pre-ontic, pre-philosophical world, for Heidegger is the authentic place he is looking for what he calls authentic being, and for Heidegger the pre-Socratic Greeks and his present-day Germans were the only ones who were capable of getting that. This book really does connect those dots, and shows Heidegger believed that as he was justifying eliminating Jews or any other ‘non-Aryan’ races. Heidegger did say that only the German language was capable of understanding ‘being’ and its authenticity.
Heidegger goes full on crazy as he writes his philosophy that does morph into ideology justifying his world and ultimately the collapse of his world. Being-in-the-world requires a worldview, and Heidegger makes that worldview his Nazi worldview until it totally collapses and he never is willing to walk away from his previous excesses he had developed in 1930s Germany.
The creation of the myth. The ‘stop thinking and follow me’ ethos that Heidegger advocates and his devotion to a ‘fuehrer’ that the will of all pin their hopes on is a necessary part of the truth Heidegger needs in his quest for authenticity. For Heidegger, authenticity means being a good Nazi, hating Jews, and believing in myths of Aryan superiority.
Two points, Spengler wasn’t a Nazi just a Fascist, and MAGA hat morons led by Trump today are a natural extension for what Heidegger was writing about. We reach Truth by mythos, logos, and pathos, and today’s MAGA hat morons who are the continuation of the Fascist garner truth through feelings (pathos) thus creating their make-believe stories (mythos) and place their will at the whim of Trump. This book actually does connect those dots and devotes the last sections to the ‘alt right’ of today and how it’s spreading. They hate Jews, gays, and transpeople for what ever reason, but their ‘authenticity’ needs that for their own self-actualization.
Trump is as dangerous as Hitler. Heidegger, Nietzsche, Carl Schmidt, and Ernst Junger (he believes that struggle creates authenticity) are aligned with today’s MAGA., and this book will connect them to today’s fascist. Just the name itself, ‘make America great again’ evokes the remembering of a myth of days of yore and pretends that the narrative of America’s past was magical and is no longer. As Nietzsche and Heidegger believed according to this book, only nihilism can destroy nihilism and when someone is on the edge a good push is best.
The author does mention Ernst Cassirer and how he was a bulwark against Heidegger in some ways. I enjoyed Cassirer’s three volume work on the ‘Philosophy of the Symbolic Work’, but for me I thought Cassirer was not adequately seeing the destruction of the world around him and the danger that was inherent in all myths and how they separate us from one another, and yes, we need an I and you to get at a we and therefore a society, but our pre-ontological stories we tell ourselves and the connecting tissue from the magical to the real is not always beneficial. Just read the third volume, ‘Mythical Thought’, and see for yourself and determine for yourself how dangerous myths can be.
I still like to read Nietzsche and Heidegger. It takes some squinting, but within them there is a fairly good philosophy beyond the fascist ideology. Regardless, in order to understand the chaos of Donald Trump’s MAGA craziness, they are a great starting place, as is Oswald Spengler, Carl Schmidt, or even the vile Rosenberg.
This book succeeds at making those fascists relative to today’s world and shows the reader how we Americans are only one election away from having history repeat itself.
February 19, 2023
This is going to be a hard review…
First, I want to point out that my review of such an important book comes from a perspective of a gay man who has spent a ton of time reading Heidegger for his philosophical importance and impressions, and have been taught a lot of Heidegger by a Jewish female philosophy professor who is also the director of the university Hillel center. This is not to say I have “the best” or “the right” perspective but to color the fact that I have been taught that while reading Heidegger to ALWAYS keep the fact that he was a Nazi at the forefront and to hold careful reading of Heidegger, while also complicating it by the fact that he studied under Husserl, a Jew, and had a contentious relationship with his student Hannah Arendt, one of the prominent philosophers to analyze and critique the impact of WWII.
Given this Wolin’s recent work is a necessary read though perhaps I came to the work with the wrong mindset as the text is not to chronicle Heidegger’s Nazism, but to show the linkages between his philosophy and far-right ideologies, during and since Hitler. While necessary it’s conclusions are not compelling and do not, in my opinion, interrogate Heidegger to the degree that he needs and serves (in a justice sort of way).
Wolin does show a clear history and connection between Heidegger and Nazi ideology, making it clearer that there is no ambiguity between him, his philosophy, and his political affiliation. However, two points Wolin brings up that need further investigation - first, after Heidegger was banned from teaching, and was eventually allowed to do so again, he was under heavy scrutiny and worked with his students to edit many of his prior lectures and notes to hide and adjust the degree of his anti-semitism and affinity towards Hitler, and once it was found out his complete works were in a state where no one could tell what had and hadn’t been touched, and these texts are what are translated into English, which Wolin points is an error on English editors to not know and or point out. However - who are we reading when we read Heidegger? Even if it is not “original” it is a version of him scrubbed of the ideological mess that would be a red flag otherwise. Wolin does not comment on this, but it makes me wonder if when as an English reader of Heidegger if his “black” magic of his philosophy is not scrubbed clean, if it still holds the same power as it would have in the original German.
Wolin also points out that many of Heidegger’s terms are loaded ideas that are suffused with anti-Semitic racial ideologies, so when we read Heidegger the astute fascist could be able to see the “real” argument he is trying to make with “Volk” and “Grund”. While important, to the lay reader of Heidegger, if there even is one, these pejoratives would not register, but I will absolutely be on the lookout moving forward while reading him.
While not last, I want to finish with a rhetorical note. Wolin argues that Heidegger’s philosophy of Dasien and the like is oriented towards a pro-German sentiment. However it is interesting to note that Wolin states, either in quotation of Heidegger or not (and if not perhaps in poor critique), that the Germans have the best connection to Dasein, to Aletheia, to the primordial connections of Being that makes them better. With this construction is the base layer of the philosophy and then the additive commentary to qualify the philosophy towards a pro-German, Nazi ideology. What is so interesting and important to note about this is that the philosophy, from such a construction, can be separated from the political underpinnings Wolin argues is embedded; it is not embedded, but laid upon - which again, is this Heidegger’s editing, or is it original?
While Wolin is not here to say one should not read Heidegger, I felt that what I thought was his thesis was well researched but perhaps not interrogated enough, or perhaps it was just to show the connection, rather than be a judgement against Heidegger. This isn’t to say that Wolin is totally wrong and to read Heidegger as totally apolitical - absolutely not! We should take Wolin’s book to see the workings of fascist ideology and philosophy and be aware of them as we read Heidegger to be a more informed reader and critique of Heidegger’s philosophy. Take Wolin’s argument as a practice, not as praxis.
First, I want to point out that my review of such an important book comes from a perspective of a gay man who has spent a ton of time reading Heidegger for his philosophical importance and impressions, and have been taught a lot of Heidegger by a Jewish female philosophy professor who is also the director of the university Hillel center. This is not to say I have “the best” or “the right” perspective but to color the fact that I have been taught that while reading Heidegger to ALWAYS keep the fact that he was a Nazi at the forefront and to hold careful reading of Heidegger, while also complicating it by the fact that he studied under Husserl, a Jew, and had a contentious relationship with his student Hannah Arendt, one of the prominent philosophers to analyze and critique the impact of WWII.
Given this Wolin’s recent work is a necessary read though perhaps I came to the work with the wrong mindset as the text is not to chronicle Heidegger’s Nazism, but to show the linkages between his philosophy and far-right ideologies, during and since Hitler. While necessary it’s conclusions are not compelling and do not, in my opinion, interrogate Heidegger to the degree that he needs and serves (in a justice sort of way).
Wolin does show a clear history and connection between Heidegger and Nazi ideology, making it clearer that there is no ambiguity between him, his philosophy, and his political affiliation. However, two points Wolin brings up that need further investigation - first, after Heidegger was banned from teaching, and was eventually allowed to do so again, he was under heavy scrutiny and worked with his students to edit many of his prior lectures and notes to hide and adjust the degree of his anti-semitism and affinity towards Hitler, and once it was found out his complete works were in a state where no one could tell what had and hadn’t been touched, and these texts are what are translated into English, which Wolin points is an error on English editors to not know and or point out. However - who are we reading when we read Heidegger? Even if it is not “original” it is a version of him scrubbed of the ideological mess that would be a red flag otherwise. Wolin does not comment on this, but it makes me wonder if when as an English reader of Heidegger if his “black” magic of his philosophy is not scrubbed clean, if it still holds the same power as it would have in the original German.
Wolin also points out that many of Heidegger’s terms are loaded ideas that are suffused with anti-Semitic racial ideologies, so when we read Heidegger the astute fascist could be able to see the “real” argument he is trying to make with “Volk” and “Grund”. While important, to the lay reader of Heidegger, if there even is one, these pejoratives would not register, but I will absolutely be on the lookout moving forward while reading him.
While not last, I want to finish with a rhetorical note. Wolin argues that Heidegger’s philosophy of Dasien and the like is oriented towards a pro-German sentiment. However it is interesting to note that Wolin states, either in quotation of Heidegger or not (and if not perhaps in poor critique), that the Germans have the best connection to Dasein, to Aletheia, to the primordial connections of Being that makes them better. With this construction is the base layer of the philosophy and then the additive commentary to qualify the philosophy towards a pro-German, Nazi ideology. What is so interesting and important to note about this is that the philosophy, from such a construction, can be separated from the political underpinnings Wolin argues is embedded; it is not embedded, but laid upon - which again, is this Heidegger’s editing, or is it original?
While Wolin is not here to say one should not read Heidegger, I felt that what I thought was his thesis was well researched but perhaps not interrogated enough, or perhaps it was just to show the connection, rather than be a judgement against Heidegger. This isn’t to say that Wolin is totally wrong and to read Heidegger as totally apolitical - absolutely not! We should take Wolin’s book to see the workings of fascist ideology and philosophy and be aware of them as we read Heidegger to be a more informed reader and critique of Heidegger’s philosophy. Take Wolin’s argument as a practice, not as praxis.
March 14, 2024
Finished this book on Heidegger and it was pretty horrifying. Alongside Víctor Farías and Víctor Ernesto Farías, Richard Wolin shows that it is utter obfuscation to make a distinction between Heidegger's philosophy and politics. He supported the Third Reich based on his philosophy and was a member of the NSDAP for 12 years. Heidegger's philosophy is rooted in Völkisch, irrationalist, and antisemitic conceptions that were quite compatible with National Socialism. In fact, it is not much of a stretch to describe Heidegger as the philosopher of Zyklon-B.
The far right continues to take inspiration from Heidegger and (strangely) many leftists seek to draw upon his ideas. Yet Heidegger's ideas are poison to any serious commitment to emancipatory politics. You can't fight the far right if you accept their philosophical premises. We need to reject all of Heidegger without exception. Toss his ideas into the philosophical trash bin. Yet Wolin seems to think that it's enough to fight the right by relying on faith in liberal democracy. Stronger medicine is required. Instead, we need to embrace the ideas of the Radical Enlightenment and Marxism, making no compromise with the philosophical ideas of Heidegger. We need to reject all of Heidegger without exception. We need reason as our red sword and shield.
The far right continues to take inspiration from Heidegger and (strangely) many leftists seek to draw upon his ideas. Yet Heidegger's ideas are poison to any serious commitment to emancipatory politics. You can't fight the far right if you accept their philosophical premises. We need to reject all of Heidegger without exception. Toss his ideas into the philosophical trash bin. Yet Wolin seems to think that it's enough to fight the right by relying on faith in liberal democracy. Stronger medicine is required. Instead, we need to embrace the ideas of the Radical Enlightenment and Marxism, making no compromise with the philosophical ideas of Heidegger. We need to reject all of Heidegger without exception. We need reason as our red sword and shield.
November 10, 2025
Richard Wolin has written an outstanding book about the relationship of Martin Heidegger and the Nazi Regime that he worked for after the Nazi assumption of power in 1932. The point of the book is to assess whether Heidegger was serious in his affiliation with the Nazis - to assess whether Heidegger believed in the Nazi programme and whether his philosophy was consistent with Nazi ideology. Along with this, Wolin assesses whether the high esteem and fame that had come to Heidegger as one of the top 20th century philosophers can be maintained once his deliberate and non-accidental association with the party has been considered. Can there be more important work building on Heidegger once the contents of Heidegger’s Black Notebooks, which clarified Heidegger’s relationships with Nazi thought become public and were digested by scholars.
What are the answers to these questions? Look at the book’s title. I loved the book and think professor Wolin has made his case. This means that Heidegger’s stature cannot be maintained, once his efforts to cover up his past in his work have been made clear. I am sorry to have invested too much time in learning about the work of Heidegger, but after reading Wolin’s book, this is a matter of “sunk costs” for me. I will move on to something else. As to additional important work building off of Heidegger, I cannot speak for others but the case is much clearer to me now and the ideas that seemed worthy of further investments of my time no longer seem that way
Many people do not recognize the role of sharp criticisms and academic takedowns, but they are an essential part of academia, most commonly in the scholarly review process for journal articles and grant awards. Wolin’s book is a well written, thorough, and clear example of a strong and near total takedown of an author whose standing had been huge. The book is impressive and worth reading.
What are the answers to these questions? Look at the book’s title. I loved the book and think professor Wolin has made his case. This means that Heidegger’s stature cannot be maintained, once his efforts to cover up his past in his work have been made clear. I am sorry to have invested too much time in learning about the work of Heidegger, but after reading Wolin’s book, this is a matter of “sunk costs” for me. I will move on to something else. As to additional important work building off of Heidegger, I cannot speak for others but the case is much clearer to me now and the ideas that seemed worthy of further investments of my time no longer seem that way
Many people do not recognize the role of sharp criticisms and academic takedowns, but they are an essential part of academia, most commonly in the scholarly review process for journal articles and grant awards. Wolin’s book is a well written, thorough, and clear example of a strong and near total takedown of an author whose standing had been huge. The book is impressive and worth reading.
August 28, 2024
An essential book, but insanely repetitive. Could easily have been half the length. The chapter on Heidegger and the contemporary Far Right is worth reading by itself.
March 10, 2025
Wolin indicts Heidegger and his followers. But what are the philosophical stakes? Wolin says we can use the ruins but not what we can reuse and what we should jettison.
May 9, 2023
R. Wolin's book peels back the layers on Heidegger the person and the philosopher in "Heidegger in Ruins." Having read a lot on Heidegger as an existentialist, Heidegger's work was, even in its native German, overly complicated and opaque for a hobby philosophy reader to comprehend. Wolin puts Heidegger squarely into his time and explains the complex German language and terms used by Heidegger in their contemporary understanding and meanings. To a German speaker, Heidegger sounds simply old fashioned in his language. I did not know about Heidegger's thoughts on "German exceptionalism" and purity of language expressed in his later work and, recently published, black notebooks.
Wolin undertook the difficult task to explain a complex philosopher's thoughts with the backdrop of a complex and verbose language. Terms like "Heimat" (home, homeland), "Volksgenossenschaft" (ethnic people), "Raum" (space, location, expanse), "Boden" (soil, earth, ground) have many underlying meanings which have changed over the years. Wolin makes the case that Heidegger's philosophy is steeped in race thinking and German exceptionalism to a degree that his thoughts and teaching should be at best studied very carefully.
I especially enjoyed the later chapters of the book on the influence and resurgence of Heidegger in the present day and most noticeably in the new-right, both in the USA and in Europe. The comments on Aleksandr Dugin were very timely since much of the language used by the current Russian leadership has many parallels to the German political language of the 1920s and 30s. The discussion on Heidegger's fatalistic nihilism in Wolin's book, reminded me of the nonchalance Russian leadership is using when referring to the potential use of nuclear weapons in the ongoing war in Ukraine.
It is either my own ignorance or preference, however, I did not follow completely with the association and references to Nietzsche. Yes, Nietzsche was used by the Nazis and Heidegger alike. However, most of the references in Wolin's book are from "The Will to Power" which was published after Nietzsche was mentally incapacitated. The book was edited and published by Nietzsche's sister a known antisemite and German nationalist, two things Nietzsche despised. I had hoped that the references to Nietzsche would have been more elaborate and specific.
Disclaimer, the one missing star in my rating is solely because I listened to the Audible audiobook and could not stand the narration. It is a difficult topic with many quotes in German (as one'd expect in a book on a German philosopher). The narrator was monotonous (19 hrs!) and could not pronounce the simplest German words, not understandable to a native German speaker.
Heidegger, philosopher or charlatan? R. Wolin's book is highly recommended to find out.
Wolin undertook the difficult task to explain a complex philosopher's thoughts with the backdrop of a complex and verbose language. Terms like "Heimat" (home, homeland), "Volksgenossenschaft" (ethnic people), "Raum" (space, location, expanse), "Boden" (soil, earth, ground) have many underlying meanings which have changed over the years. Wolin makes the case that Heidegger's philosophy is steeped in race thinking and German exceptionalism to a degree that his thoughts and teaching should be at best studied very carefully.
I especially enjoyed the later chapters of the book on the influence and resurgence of Heidegger in the present day and most noticeably in the new-right, both in the USA and in Europe. The comments on Aleksandr Dugin were very timely since much of the language used by the current Russian leadership has many parallels to the German political language of the 1920s and 30s. The discussion on Heidegger's fatalistic nihilism in Wolin's book, reminded me of the nonchalance Russian leadership is using when referring to the potential use of nuclear weapons in the ongoing war in Ukraine.
It is either my own ignorance or preference, however, I did not follow completely with the association and references to Nietzsche. Yes, Nietzsche was used by the Nazis and Heidegger alike. However, most of the references in Wolin's book are from "The Will to Power" which was published after Nietzsche was mentally incapacitated. The book was edited and published by Nietzsche's sister a known antisemite and German nationalist, two things Nietzsche despised. I had hoped that the references to Nietzsche would have been more elaborate and specific.
Disclaimer, the one missing star in my rating is solely because I listened to the Audible audiobook and could not stand the narration. It is a difficult topic with many quotes in German (as one'd expect in a book on a German philosopher). The narrator was monotonous (19 hrs!) and could not pronounce the simplest German words, not understandable to a native German speaker.
Heidegger, philosopher or charlatan? R. Wolin's book is highly recommended to find out.
July 5, 2025
Weeeeell, that doesn't look good for Heidegger lol. Wolin does a deep dive into the elephant in the room that anyone with familiar with Heidegger kind of knows is there lingering in the background: Heidegger was pretty chummy with the Nazis.
It seems that from an examination of the history of 1933-1945 and Heideggar's own "black notebooks" and personal correspondence, he was in fact very chummy with the Nazis and very antisemitic. Evidently, Heidegger wanted to be the philosophical and idealogical backbone of Nazi thought. Richard Wolin wades through Heidegger's well-known writings, showing how a stack of his more well-known ideas could be fleshed out in a way that sounds, ah, pretty Hitlerly. Yikes.
It seems that from an examination of the history of 1933-1945 and Heideggar's own "black notebooks" and personal correspondence, he was in fact very chummy with the Nazis and very antisemitic. Evidently, Heidegger wanted to be the philosophical and idealogical backbone of Nazi thought. Richard Wolin wades through Heidegger's well-known writings, showing how a stack of his more well-known ideas could be fleshed out in a way that sounds, ah, pretty Hitlerly. Yikes.
November 2, 2025
Fascinating when taking you through the history (of the conspiracy?) of Heidegger scholarship, damning when informing you of Heidegger’s personal complicity with Nazism, before and after his official “break” with the party, and least compelling when trying to make the typical link between philosophy with space for subjectivism and decisionism with totalitarian politics and racial supremacism.
February 25, 2025
Richard Wolin’s Heidegger in Ruins: Between Philosophy and Ideology offers a comprehensive and incisive critique of Martin Heidegger’s philosophical oeuvre, particularly in light of the posthumous publication of the Black Notebooks. Wolin meticulously examines the intricate entanglement between Heidegger’s profound philosophical inquiries and his unwavering commitment to National Socialism, challenging the longstanding attempts to separate the philosopher’s intellectual contributions from his political ideologies.
The monograph is structured into six chapters, each delving into distinct facets of Heidegger’s thought and its ideological ramifications. In the opening chapter, “The Heidegger Hoax,” Wolin addresses the deliberate alterations and omissions in Heidegger’s published works, shedding light on the philosopher’s efforts to obscure his political affiliations. Drawing upon Sidonie Kellerer’s critical study of the 1938 conference on “The Age of the World Picture,” Wolin underscores how Heidegger manipulated his texts to align with his evolving self-portrayal. 
Subsequent chapters delve deeper into the philosophical underpinnings of Heidegger’s political commitments. “Heidegger in Ruins” explores the philosopher’s spiritual enthusiasm for Nazism, contextualizing it within the post-World War I German milieu characterized by a pervasive sense of disillusionment and a yearning for renewal. Wolin elucidates how Heidegger’s concept of Seingeschichte (the history of Being) was inherently tied to his belief in the redemptive mission of German identity. 
In “Heidegger and Race,” Wolin challenges the notion that Heidegger’s critiques of modern science precluded any alignment with National Socialist racial ideology. He presents compelling evidence that Heidegger’s views on “spiritual racism” were congruent with the regime’s racial doctrines, thereby refuting claims of the philosopher’s detachment from the biological racism prevalent during the era. 
The chapters “Arbeit Macht Frei: Heidegger and the German Ideology of Work” and “Earth and Soil: Heidegger and the National Socialist Politics of Space” further dissect Heidegger’s philosophical constructs. Wolin examines how Heidegger’s notions of authenticity and existential “rootedness” were co-opted to support National Socialist ideologies of labor and territorial expansion. These analyses reveal the extent to which Heidegger’s abstract concepts were interwoven with the concrete political realities of his time.
A particularly salient aspect of Wolin’s critique is his exploration of Heidegger’s enduring influence on contemporary far-right movements. The final chapter, “From Beyond the Grave: Heidegger and the New Right,” traces the appropriation of Heideggerian thought by modern extremist groups, illustrating the philosopher’s lasting impact on ideologies that espouse exclusion and ethnonationalism. 
While Wolin’s scholarship is both rigorous and enlightening, the absence of a formal conclusion leaves readers without a synthesized summation of the arguments presented. This structural choice may reflect the ongoing and unresolved discourse surrounding Heidegger’s legacy, yet it also places the onus on readers to independently navigate the complex interplay between Heidegger’s philosophy and his political entanglements.
Heidegger in Ruins stands as a pivotal contribution to Heideggerian scholarship, compelling academics to reevaluate the philosopher’s work through the lens of his ideological commitments. Wolin’s methodical deconstruction of the symbiosis between Heidegger’s thought and his political affiliations offers a nuanced perspective that is both critical and necessary for a holistic understanding of one of the twentieth century’s most enigmatic philosophers.
GPT
The monograph is structured into six chapters, each delving into distinct facets of Heidegger’s thought and its ideological ramifications. In the opening chapter, “The Heidegger Hoax,” Wolin addresses the deliberate alterations and omissions in Heidegger’s published works, shedding light on the philosopher’s efforts to obscure his political affiliations. Drawing upon Sidonie Kellerer’s critical study of the 1938 conference on “The Age of the World Picture,” Wolin underscores how Heidegger manipulated his texts to align with his evolving self-portrayal. 
Subsequent chapters delve deeper into the philosophical underpinnings of Heidegger’s political commitments. “Heidegger in Ruins” explores the philosopher’s spiritual enthusiasm for Nazism, contextualizing it within the post-World War I German milieu characterized by a pervasive sense of disillusionment and a yearning for renewal. Wolin elucidates how Heidegger’s concept of Seingeschichte (the history of Being) was inherently tied to his belief in the redemptive mission of German identity. 
In “Heidegger and Race,” Wolin challenges the notion that Heidegger’s critiques of modern science precluded any alignment with National Socialist racial ideology. He presents compelling evidence that Heidegger’s views on “spiritual racism” were congruent with the regime’s racial doctrines, thereby refuting claims of the philosopher’s detachment from the biological racism prevalent during the era. 
The chapters “Arbeit Macht Frei: Heidegger and the German Ideology of Work” and “Earth and Soil: Heidegger and the National Socialist Politics of Space” further dissect Heidegger’s philosophical constructs. Wolin examines how Heidegger’s notions of authenticity and existential “rootedness” were co-opted to support National Socialist ideologies of labor and territorial expansion. These analyses reveal the extent to which Heidegger’s abstract concepts were interwoven with the concrete political realities of his time.
A particularly salient aspect of Wolin’s critique is his exploration of Heidegger’s enduring influence on contemporary far-right movements. The final chapter, “From Beyond the Grave: Heidegger and the New Right,” traces the appropriation of Heideggerian thought by modern extremist groups, illustrating the philosopher’s lasting impact on ideologies that espouse exclusion and ethnonationalism. 
While Wolin’s scholarship is both rigorous and enlightening, the absence of a formal conclusion leaves readers without a synthesized summation of the arguments presented. This structural choice may reflect the ongoing and unresolved discourse surrounding Heidegger’s legacy, yet it also places the onus on readers to independently navigate the complex interplay between Heidegger’s philosophy and his political entanglements.
Heidegger in Ruins stands as a pivotal contribution to Heideggerian scholarship, compelling academics to reevaluate the philosopher’s work through the lens of his ideological commitments. Wolin’s methodical deconstruction of the symbiosis between Heidegger’s thought and his political affiliations offers a nuanced perspective that is both critical and necessary for a holistic understanding of one of the twentieth century’s most enigmatic philosophers.
GPT
Want to read
February 3, 2024Here's some sludge to remind me to come back to this as my Goodreads library has become too big.
Tl;dr "Heidegger in Ruins" is the culmination of Richard Wolin's series of books on Martin Heidegger and his Jewish students, reflecting on Heidegger's work after the publication of the Black Notebooks. The book begins with Wolin emphasizing the importance of Heidegger's correspondence but relies solely on published sources, not examining handwritten materials. Wolin discusses Heidegger's controversial statements, particularly those in the Black Notebooks, and addresses differing interpretations of Heidegger's philosophy, especially regarding his anti-Semitic views. Wolin aims to reassess Heidegger's thought systematically in light of newly published texts, seeking a long-term process of reevaluation. The book contains chapters exploring Heidegger's manipulation of his own texts, his political affiliations, including his relationship with National Socialism and the New Right, and his philosophical concepts like race and work. Despite discussing Heidegger's radical views and destructive intent, Wolin does not draw firm conclusions about Heidegger's philosophy's compatibility with his political stance. The book has no clear conclusion, leaving readers to handle Heidegger's philosophy and political affiliations without providing definitive answers or solutions.
"Heidegger in Ruins" is Richard Wolin's culmination of decades of work on Martin Heidegger and his Jewish students.
The book examines Heidegger's work in light of the posthumous publication of the Black Notebooks.
Wolin emphasizes the importance of Heidegger's correspondence but relies solely on published sources, not handwritten ones.
The introduction discusses the Black Notebooks, a 1934 seminar on Hegel and the State, and the Winter Course of 1933–1934, highlighting Heidegger's problematic statements.
Wolin addresses criticisms of Heidegger's philosophy being irredeemable due to anti-Semitism but aims to reassess Heidegger's thought patiently and systematically.
Wolin's project aims to salvage valuable philosophical material from Heidegger's writings despite revelations of racism and anti-Semitism.
The book is placed under the aegis of Nietzsche, despite Wolin's previous criticisms of him, as it fits with the aim of re-evaluating Heideggerian material.
The book lacks a conclusion but the final pages of the introduction summarize its intentions and serve as a summation of the entire undertaking.
The first chapter explores the post-1945 manipulation of Heidegger's texts, focusing on examples provided by Sidonie Kellerer's critical study of the 1938 conference on "The Age of the World Picture".
Kellerer's study revealed how Heidegger altered texts from original manuscripts when publishing them in Holzwege, a fact acknowledged by Wolin in his work.
Wolin critiques Heidegger's mode of expression, urging deeper philological study to understand how Heidegger manipulates language to convey implicit meanings.
Wolin's terminological approach is criticized for downplaying Heidegger's explicit anti-Semitic and Nazi sympathizing statements, referring to him as a "conservative revolutionary" instead.
In the second chapter, Wolin discusses "metapolitical" statements from the Black Notebooks and the 1933–34 seminar, highlighting issues with the so-called Complete Works which omit crucial texts.
Wolin connects Heidegger's thought to a "revolutionary-conservative worldview" and links him with Kulturkritiker such as Spengler and Alfred Weber.
He cites Heidegger's correspondence with his brother Fritz, revealing Heidegger's radical Hitlerism, but fails to draw significant conclusions from it.
The chapter also compiles judgments from various authors, including revisionist historian Christian Tilitsky, without sufficient critique, and presents Hannah Arendt's views inconsistently, contrasting with Wolin's previous assessments.
Wolin cites Arendt's claim about Heidegger leading us "out of philosophy" but fails to mention her disavowal of the article where she made this claim.
He critiques Heidegger's radical Hitlerism while classifying him as a conservative revolutionary, a term inconsistent with Hitler's opposition.
Wolin asserts Heidegger's abandonment of philosophy's rigor but tries to save him philosophically by highlighting his retention of the concept of "truth."
In Chapter 3, Wolin revisits Heidegger's critique of "biologism," using examples like Heidegger's retention of Arthur de Gobineau's papers and appropriation of Julius Evola's racist ideas.
He argues against labeling Heidegger's racial focus as a "turn" or Kehre, citing Heidegger's early references to the "German race."
Chapters 4 and 5 discuss National Socialist and Heideggerian concepts of work, land, and soil, summarizing existing research without significant new interpretations.
The final chapter explores Heidegger's influence on the New Right, including in France, the USA, Germany, and Russia, but overlooks Victor Farías's work and lacks a detailed evolution of Heidegger's reception by the New Right.
The New Right, including de Benoist, started drawing upon Heidegger's ideas in the 1980s as his Nazism became more widely known.
The classification of Heidegger and Carl Schmitt within the "Conservative Revolution" requires careful examination to avoid equating them with Hitlerian figures like Martin Heidegger.
Mohler's creation of the "Conservative Revolution" myth aimed to distinguish it from National Socialism for apologetic purposes, a fact acknowledged by his thesis supervisor Karl Jaspers.
The book's Postscript fails to offer a philosophical conclusion, focusing instead on the historical account of Heidegger's radical political positions after 1945.
Wolin struggles to designate Heidegger as a philosopher despite his widely recognized radical anti-Semitic, racist, and genocidal views, and repeated proclamations of the end of philosophy.
Wolin's reliance on Levinas's judgment of Heidegger's Existenzphilosophie overlooks the revelations from the Black Notebooks, undermining his argument.
Wolin's approach lacks engagement with critical research and discussions following the publication of the Black Notebooks, such as works by Fried and Heinz.
While claiming to follow Günther Anders, Wolin's critique of Heidegger lacks the incisiveness and criticality evident in Anders's work from 1946.
Wolin's focus on Heidegger's existential ontology and the idiolect of the conservative revolution reverts to issues discussed in the 1950s–1970s rather than addressing contemporary concerns about Heidegger's Nazism and Hitlerism.
Johannes Fritsche contends that Heidegger's thought in "Sein und Zeit" appears radically national-socialist, and he rebuts Wolin's interpretations of the book, considering them akin to postmodern misinterpretations.
"Heidegger in Ruins" can be viewed as a well-informed popular work on the history of political ideas, especially regarding the New Right, but it lacks engagement with recent critical research and primary sources.
Wolin presents the book not just as a historical analysis but also as a philosophical reflection, yet his conclusions largely reiterate longstanding positions without offering new philosophical insights.
The book lacks an index, bibliography, investigation of primary sources, and serious consideration of recent critical research, suggesting it's more of an attempt to popularize issues than a scholarly contribution.
The metaphor of ruin, borrowed from Benjamin, raises questions about what kind of edifice can be built from Heidegger's ideas, but Wolin's answer lacks clarity and leaves the reader grappling with the dilemma of reconciling Heidegger's political and philosophical dimensions.
Yes, this is an LLM assisted summary of Emmanuel Faye's NDPR review.
Tl;dr "Heidegger in Ruins" is the culmination of Richard Wolin's series of books on Martin Heidegger and his Jewish students, reflecting on Heidegger's work after the publication of the Black Notebooks. The book begins with Wolin emphasizing the importance of Heidegger's correspondence but relies solely on published sources, not examining handwritten materials. Wolin discusses Heidegger's controversial statements, particularly those in the Black Notebooks, and addresses differing interpretations of Heidegger's philosophy, especially regarding his anti-Semitic views. Wolin aims to reassess Heidegger's thought systematically in light of newly published texts, seeking a long-term process of reevaluation. The book contains chapters exploring Heidegger's manipulation of his own texts, his political affiliations, including his relationship with National Socialism and the New Right, and his philosophical concepts like race and work. Despite discussing Heidegger's radical views and destructive intent, Wolin does not draw firm conclusions about Heidegger's philosophy's compatibility with his political stance. The book has no clear conclusion, leaving readers to handle Heidegger's philosophy and political affiliations without providing definitive answers or solutions.
"Heidegger in Ruins" is Richard Wolin's culmination of decades of work on Martin Heidegger and his Jewish students.
The book examines Heidegger's work in light of the posthumous publication of the Black Notebooks.
Wolin emphasizes the importance of Heidegger's correspondence but relies solely on published sources, not handwritten ones.
The introduction discusses the Black Notebooks, a 1934 seminar on Hegel and the State, and the Winter Course of 1933–1934, highlighting Heidegger's problematic statements.
Wolin addresses criticisms of Heidegger's philosophy being irredeemable due to anti-Semitism but aims to reassess Heidegger's thought patiently and systematically.
Wolin's project aims to salvage valuable philosophical material from Heidegger's writings despite revelations of racism and anti-Semitism.
The book is placed under the aegis of Nietzsche, despite Wolin's previous criticisms of him, as it fits with the aim of re-evaluating Heideggerian material.
The book lacks a conclusion but the final pages of the introduction summarize its intentions and serve as a summation of the entire undertaking.
The first chapter explores the post-1945 manipulation of Heidegger's texts, focusing on examples provided by Sidonie Kellerer's critical study of the 1938 conference on "The Age of the World Picture".
Kellerer's study revealed how Heidegger altered texts from original manuscripts when publishing them in Holzwege, a fact acknowledged by Wolin in his work.
Wolin critiques Heidegger's mode of expression, urging deeper philological study to understand how Heidegger manipulates language to convey implicit meanings.
Wolin's terminological approach is criticized for downplaying Heidegger's explicit anti-Semitic and Nazi sympathizing statements, referring to him as a "conservative revolutionary" instead.
In the second chapter, Wolin discusses "metapolitical" statements from the Black Notebooks and the 1933–34 seminar, highlighting issues with the so-called Complete Works which omit crucial texts.
Wolin connects Heidegger's thought to a "revolutionary-conservative worldview" and links him with Kulturkritiker such as Spengler and Alfred Weber.
He cites Heidegger's correspondence with his brother Fritz, revealing Heidegger's radical Hitlerism, but fails to draw significant conclusions from it.
The chapter also compiles judgments from various authors, including revisionist historian Christian Tilitsky, without sufficient critique, and presents Hannah Arendt's views inconsistently, contrasting with Wolin's previous assessments.
Wolin cites Arendt's claim about Heidegger leading us "out of philosophy" but fails to mention her disavowal of the article where she made this claim.
He critiques Heidegger's radical Hitlerism while classifying him as a conservative revolutionary, a term inconsistent with Hitler's opposition.
Wolin asserts Heidegger's abandonment of philosophy's rigor but tries to save him philosophically by highlighting his retention of the concept of "truth."
In Chapter 3, Wolin revisits Heidegger's critique of "biologism," using examples like Heidegger's retention of Arthur de Gobineau's papers and appropriation of Julius Evola's racist ideas.
He argues against labeling Heidegger's racial focus as a "turn" or Kehre, citing Heidegger's early references to the "German race."
Chapters 4 and 5 discuss National Socialist and Heideggerian concepts of work, land, and soil, summarizing existing research without significant new interpretations.
The final chapter explores Heidegger's influence on the New Right, including in France, the USA, Germany, and Russia, but overlooks Victor Farías's work and lacks a detailed evolution of Heidegger's reception by the New Right.
The New Right, including de Benoist, started drawing upon Heidegger's ideas in the 1980s as his Nazism became more widely known.
The classification of Heidegger and Carl Schmitt within the "Conservative Revolution" requires careful examination to avoid equating them with Hitlerian figures like Martin Heidegger.
Mohler's creation of the "Conservative Revolution" myth aimed to distinguish it from National Socialism for apologetic purposes, a fact acknowledged by his thesis supervisor Karl Jaspers.
The book's Postscript fails to offer a philosophical conclusion, focusing instead on the historical account of Heidegger's radical political positions after 1945.
Wolin struggles to designate Heidegger as a philosopher despite his widely recognized radical anti-Semitic, racist, and genocidal views, and repeated proclamations of the end of philosophy.
Wolin's reliance on Levinas's judgment of Heidegger's Existenzphilosophie overlooks the revelations from the Black Notebooks, undermining his argument.
Wolin's approach lacks engagement with critical research and discussions following the publication of the Black Notebooks, such as works by Fried and Heinz.
While claiming to follow Günther Anders, Wolin's critique of Heidegger lacks the incisiveness and criticality evident in Anders's work from 1946.
Wolin's focus on Heidegger's existential ontology and the idiolect of the conservative revolution reverts to issues discussed in the 1950s–1970s rather than addressing contemporary concerns about Heidegger's Nazism and Hitlerism.
Johannes Fritsche contends that Heidegger's thought in "Sein und Zeit" appears radically national-socialist, and he rebuts Wolin's interpretations of the book, considering them akin to postmodern misinterpretations.
"Heidegger in Ruins" can be viewed as a well-informed popular work on the history of political ideas, especially regarding the New Right, but it lacks engagement with recent critical research and primary sources.
Wolin presents the book not just as a historical analysis but also as a philosophical reflection, yet his conclusions largely reiterate longstanding positions without offering new philosophical insights.
The book lacks an index, bibliography, investigation of primary sources, and serious consideration of recent critical research, suggesting it's more of an attempt to popularize issues than a scholarly contribution.
The metaphor of ruin, borrowed from Benjamin, raises questions about what kind of edifice can be built from Heidegger's ideas, but Wolin's answer lacks clarity and leaves the reader grappling with the dilemma of reconciling Heidegger's political and philosophical dimensions.
Yes, this is an LLM assisted summary of Emmanuel Faye's NDPR review.
April 15, 2023
Martin Heidegger was an influential existentialist philosopher who lived from 1889 to 1976. He was also a member of the German Nazi party from 1933 to 1945. Some of those who consider him to be a great philosopher have tried to find ways of explaining away or isolating his Nazism, either as a regrettable necessity in German academia of the day, as a lapse of judgement, or as political naivety. The present book by Richard Wolin demolishes these attempts. Heidegger's Nazism was wholly congruent with, even strongly influenced by, his philosophical outlook. As the so-called Black Notebooks amply illustrate, his antisemitism and German imperialism were genuine expressions of his philosophical analysis of the world situation. Wolin presents many quotes and arguments from Heidegger's writings and makes his case forcefully.
Even though I therefore think this is an important book, I am not entirely happy with its presentation. The terminology inescapably must refer to and use Heidegger's own words, which is bad enough, but Wolin's own arguments are too often couched in phrases that are too much Heidegger for their own good. Words such as "idiolect" and "caesura" litter the text, which is also at times repetitive, sometimes using the same quote to make similar points in different chapters. I understand that the choice of a thematic structure, rather than, say, a chronological one, leads to this kind of problem, but it hasn't been minimized sufficiently.
Apart from the main discussion of Heidegger's thinking in relation to world events, the book contains a very useful and enlightening chapter on the influence of Heidegger on the New Right in recent times. Wolin traces the relationships between Heidegger and New Right thinkers, politicians and terrorists: among those discussed are the Italian hyperfascist Julius Evola, the Russian reactionary ideologue Alexander Dugin, Brenton Tarrant (the 2019 Christchurch mosque murderer), the American Neo-Nazi Richard Spencer, and Anders Behring Breivik (the 2011 Norwegian terrorist and mass murderer). The themes and preoccupations of Heidegger recur again and again, sometimes by direct influence, sometimes in other ways. Wolin's book is worth a read.
Even though I therefore think this is an important book, I am not entirely happy with its presentation. The terminology inescapably must refer to and use Heidegger's own words, which is bad enough, but Wolin's own arguments are too often couched in phrases that are too much Heidegger for their own good. Words such as "idiolect" and "caesura" litter the text, which is also at times repetitive, sometimes using the same quote to make similar points in different chapters. I understand that the choice of a thematic structure, rather than, say, a chronological one, leads to this kind of problem, but it hasn't been minimized sufficiently.
Apart from the main discussion of Heidegger's thinking in relation to world events, the book contains a very useful and enlightening chapter on the influence of Heidegger on the New Right in recent times. Wolin traces the relationships between Heidegger and New Right thinkers, politicians and terrorists: among those discussed are the Italian hyperfascist Julius Evola, the Russian reactionary ideologue Alexander Dugin, Brenton Tarrant (the 2019 Christchurch mosque murderer), the American Neo-Nazi Richard Spencer, and Anders Behring Breivik (the 2011 Norwegian terrorist and mass murderer). The themes and preoccupations of Heidegger recur again and again, sometimes by direct influence, sometimes in other ways. Wolin's book is worth a read.
July 20, 2023
Heidegger in Ruins may be the most important philosophy book written during this century. Not only was Heidegger an enthusiastic Nazi and anti-Semite, he's currently the leading philosopher for the far-right ideologues of Europe, and this book explains why in great detail. It was really easy for Heidegger to declare Jews and Roma and "Slavs" inferior non-people because, as he beleved, only the German philosohers could lay claim to be the heirs to ancient Greek philosophy, and yes, he espoused neo-paganism to explain THAT. I'm a historian, not a philospher, but I've spent enough time in the history of ideas to know a reactionary when I see one.
May 10, 2025
The book clearly shows how Heidegger was a Nazi and how it is intertwined with his thinking and how he never truly left this line of thought. However there are many instances where the reading of Heidegger is in bad faith (the term Volk for instance) and where Heidegger is blamed for later instances where his work is used by new right people without any critical evaluation whether it is a correct use of his thought or not.
January 23, 2026
Richard Rorty wrote both in 1990 and 1998 about the importance of keeping the questions of the validity of Heidegger's ideas and the question of Heidegger's life apart. But does the unfolding of Heidegger's life not warn us about what dangerous terrain his ideas cross? Richard Wolin's book show us not only how Heidegger's thought spiralled into virulent nazism and antisemitism, but also how the New Right all over the world feeds on his ideas. Why not put this disclaimer to everyone who's engaging with Heidegger's work?
So, here's the reality - my professors failed to mention how one of the key figures of our philosophical education turns out to be a virulent nazi antisemite. Even not so long ago our Hermeneutics professor made us read 'On the Origin of Art' that depicts the epochal confrontation between planetary technology and the modern man, which in Heidegger's unaltered original is the showdown between the rootless calculating reason of the Jew vs the German Volk. Of course, no mention of this in class. So, not to be mean, or let's do be mean, either my professor is an idiot or a nazi sympathizer.
Our country's main resource on Phenomenology and Heidegger, Tine Hribar's 1993 'Fenomenologija 1/2' promises in Heidegger an almost zen-like philosophy of tolerance:
Meanwhile, the real Heidegger is more like:
Even technology is fine when appropriated by the Nazi slaughterhouses:
I don't think any of that invalidates his philosophy, which is still utterly brilliant. His existential analysis should be merely taken out of these specifics into which Heidegger decided to drag them. And it should be taken with more modesty and an openness to the relativity of things; not as the analysis of The dasein, but A dasein, one of many lifeforms that doesn't need to dominate over others'.
So, here's the reality - my professors failed to mention how one of the key figures of our philosophical education turns out to be a virulent nazi antisemite. Even not so long ago our Hermeneutics professor made us read 'On the Origin of Art' that depicts the epochal confrontation between planetary technology and the modern man, which in Heidegger's unaltered original is the showdown between the rootless calculating reason of the Jew vs the German Volk. Of course, no mention of this in class. So, not to be mean, or let's do be mean, either my professor is an idiot or a nazi sympathizer.
Our country's main resource on Phenomenology and Heidegger, Tine Hribar's 1993 'Fenomenologija 1/2' promises in Heidegger an almost zen-like philosophy of tolerance:
Curiosity, in the original meaning of the word, does not signify appropriation (neither theoretical nor practical); rather, it means letting things be. It means a return or a turning toward the things themselves. It involves an approach to things, but only up to the point where—because of excessive closeness—we do not yet endanger them in their being. For excessive closeness amounts to violence against things, against anything that is other and different from ourselves. (p. 7)
Meanwhile, the real Heidegger is more like:
Contemporary Jewry’s temporary increase in power has its basis in the fact that Western metaphysics—above all, in its modern incarnation—offers fertile ground for the dissemination of an empty rationality and calculability, which in this way gains a foothold in ‘spirit,’ without ever being able to grasp from within the hidden realms of decision [...] The more primordial and original [ursprünglicher und anfänglicher] that future decisions and questions become, the more inaccessible will they remain for this ‘race’ ”—that is, for the Jews. (Wolin, p. 282)
Even technology is fine when appropriated by the Nazi slaughterhouses:
... a new humanity is needed that is thoroughly equal to the fundamental essence of modern technology and its metaphysical truth; that is, [a humanity] that lets itself be totally dominated by the essence of technology, in order to guide and utilize the individual technical procedures and possibilities. (Wolin, p. 193)
I don't think any of that invalidates his philosophy, which is still utterly brilliant. His existential analysis should be merely taken out of these specifics into which Heidegger decided to drag them. And it should be taken with more modesty and an openness to the relativity of things; not as the analysis of The dasein, but A dasein, one of many lifeforms that doesn't need to dominate over others'.
April 26, 2023
"Heidegger lies notoriously always and everywhere, and whenever he can." Hannah Arendt
So glad I read this exhaustively researched book regarding the marriage of Heidegger's philosophy and his political, racist ideology. I had read Heidegger previously, or should I say that I had read sanitised versions of his work, so not really Heidegger. This book gave me a fuller picture.
"Truth is not for every man but only for the strong." Heidegger in An Introduction to Metaphysics
"It would be worthwhile inquiring into world Jewry's predisposition toward planetary criminality."- Heidegger
Through scrutiny of the Black Notebooks, letters, speeches and treatises, Mr. Wolin presents his case with ample evidence that Mr. Heidegger not only tried to position himself in the intellectual leadership of Nazi Germany, but thoroughly embraced the destruction and violence that was occurring as something "necessary" to "have a new beginning". He was a keen admirer of the Führer and was frothing at the mouth about the "inner truth and greatness of National Socialism." Egads. Loony tunes.
Mr Wolin also presents a persuasive argument that Heidegger's philosophy pre-disposed his attraction to Fascism. Heidegger's critique and antipathy for "average, everyday Being-in-the-world and his equating democracy with nihilism is the familiar refrain of a reactionary.
But then, Germany lost the war and Heidegger set about manipulating the textual record and covering his tracks. Mr. Wolin's book exposes in detail Mr. Heidegger's post-war attempts to "fabricate and re-write" certain passages of his work during National Socialist rule in Germany to minimise his role in legitimising and embracing Nazi ideology. As a result, the public has been presented with a sanitised image of Heidegger's thought; he and his literary executors have made sure that his pro-fascist tendencies and allegiances were "airbrushed" from his works.
Wolin has quoted Heidegger from numerous speeches, letters, essays, books etc. and it is astonishing that such a racist Germanophile has been lauded as a great philosopher. He was so entrenched in dogma, mythos, and fallacious reasoning. And after the war, I found all his cowardly obfuscation so predictably common, exhibiting such a lack of original thought as to be laughable. Fake News has a devotee and avid practitioner in Heidegger. It is no wonder the alt-right see him as a philosopher of choice.
Glad I read this. Wolin was a bit too repetitive for my liking, he needed a good editor. But overall, I appreciated the work.
"Hence Hannah Arendt's description of Heidegger, in a letter to Jaspers, as "charakterios"(lacking any character), 'in the sense that he literally has none...This living in Todtnauberg, grumbling about Zivilisation, and writing Sein, with a "Y" is really a kind of mouse hole he has crawled back into...He rightly assumes that nobody is likely to climb 1200 meters to make a scene; and if somebody did, he would lie a blue streak...fast talking himself out of everything unpleasant.' "
I always thought Heidegger had his head up his arse, this book has provided the undeniable evidence to that fact. What a creep.
So glad I read this exhaustively researched book regarding the marriage of Heidegger's philosophy and his political, racist ideology. I had read Heidegger previously, or should I say that I had read sanitised versions of his work, so not really Heidegger. This book gave me a fuller picture.
"Truth is not for every man but only for the strong." Heidegger in An Introduction to Metaphysics
"It would be worthwhile inquiring into world Jewry's predisposition toward planetary criminality."- Heidegger
Through scrutiny of the Black Notebooks, letters, speeches and treatises, Mr. Wolin presents his case with ample evidence that Mr. Heidegger not only tried to position himself in the intellectual leadership of Nazi Germany, but thoroughly embraced the destruction and violence that was occurring as something "necessary" to "have a new beginning". He was a keen admirer of the Führer and was frothing at the mouth about the "inner truth and greatness of National Socialism." Egads. Loony tunes.
Mr Wolin also presents a persuasive argument that Heidegger's philosophy pre-disposed his attraction to Fascism. Heidegger's critique and antipathy for "average, everyday Being-in-the-world and his equating democracy with nihilism is the familiar refrain of a reactionary.
But then, Germany lost the war and Heidegger set about manipulating the textual record and covering his tracks. Mr. Wolin's book exposes in detail Mr. Heidegger's post-war attempts to "fabricate and re-write" certain passages of his work during National Socialist rule in Germany to minimise his role in legitimising and embracing Nazi ideology. As a result, the public has been presented with a sanitised image of Heidegger's thought; he and his literary executors have made sure that his pro-fascist tendencies and allegiances were "airbrushed" from his works.
Wolin has quoted Heidegger from numerous speeches, letters, essays, books etc. and it is astonishing that such a racist Germanophile has been lauded as a great philosopher. He was so entrenched in dogma, mythos, and fallacious reasoning. And after the war, I found all his cowardly obfuscation so predictably common, exhibiting such a lack of original thought as to be laughable. Fake News has a devotee and avid practitioner in Heidegger. It is no wonder the alt-right see him as a philosopher of choice.
Glad I read this. Wolin was a bit too repetitive for my liking, he needed a good editor. But overall, I appreciated the work.
"Hence Hannah Arendt's description of Heidegger, in a letter to Jaspers, as "charakterios"(lacking any character), 'in the sense that he literally has none...This living in Todtnauberg, grumbling about Zivilisation, and writing Sein, with a "Y" is really a kind of mouse hole he has crawled back into...He rightly assumes that nobody is likely to climb 1200 meters to make a scene; and if somebody did, he would lie a blue streak...fast talking himself out of everything unpleasant.' "
I always thought Heidegger had his head up his arse, this book has provided the undeniable evidence to that fact. What a creep.
October 21, 2025
This was an impressive insight into a potential philosophical basis of racist and imperialist thought. Heidegger's willingness to incorporate the nazi politics of space into his judgments of the historicity of people, and his willingness to cast away the internal experience of some people ("nomads", and particularly Jews, as though being unbound to soil meant having no conscious experience whatsoever), are things clearly laid out here. To say they call Heidegger's philosophy into question is hardly to say enough. I don't think "primitive" is too harsh a word for what this reveals Heidegger's philosophy to be comprised of.
One dark thing about this book is that it made me think I could write to appeal to bigoted if I chose to. So clearly does it lay out a bigoted philosophy that it gains, if not a semblance of truth, at least a mimicability. The author, of course, has no intention of promoting bigotry, and quite the opposite intent. I'm pairsing Mr. Wolin for making comprehensible things that were incomprehensible. It's just that the previously-incomprehensible things are horrors.
One dark thing about this book is that it made me think I could write to appeal to bigoted if I chose to. So clearly does it lay out a bigoted philosophy that it gains, if not a semblance of truth, at least a mimicability. The author, of course, has no intention of promoting bigotry, and quite the opposite intent. I'm pairsing Mr. Wolin for making comprehensible things that were incomprehensible. It's just that the previously-incomprehensible things are horrors.
October 15, 2025
We are far past the point where it's feasible to argue that Heidegger's work and his nazism were distinct. But in case you are still running into these people, Wolin has produced the perfect book for you, which apart from being very readable and well-paced presents a reasoned, blow-by-blow argument for refusing the distinction.
This is not a book attempting to undermine the influence of a book like Being and Time on western philosophy. There's no going back, so to speak, as the mark has been made and we think in its wake. Rather, the thrust is that of the historian, to mark with objective records and reasonable correspondences the ways that the thinking and politics braid together. With the Black Notebooks at his disposal, Wolin can thicken the description further.
It would be cool to read Being and Time, Heidegger in Ruins, and Calvin Warren's Ontological Terror together.
This is not a book attempting to undermine the influence of a book like Being and Time on western philosophy. There's no going back, so to speak, as the mark has been made and we think in its wake. Rather, the thrust is that of the historian, to mark with objective records and reasonable correspondences the ways that the thinking and politics braid together. With the Black Notebooks at his disposal, Wolin can thicken the description further.
It would be cool to read Being and Time, Heidegger in Ruins, and Calvin Warren's Ontological Terror together.
February 18, 2023
The author's conclusion, that Heidegger was, in fact, a confirmed Nazi is aptly demonstrated here. Also, an excellent insight into Hitler et al's world view/mind set and why WWII happened. Toward the end, a good discussion of Heidegger's legacy and the "New Right" that has infested European and American politics. A very interesting, but tough read - the author is a little too proud of his German language abilities: Almost every paragraph contains undecipherable (unless the reader reads the language well) and unnecessary German terms.
November 3, 2024
Wolin provides a strong case for the presence of Heidegger’s “conservative revolutionary”/Nazi ideology in the entirety of his oeuvre. Heidegger’s appeal to a mythic and heroic past, the ontological uniqueness of the German Dasein, the historical destiny of German authenticity rooted in blood and soil over and against the “world Jewry,” etc. are all clear indicators of his commitment.
The thing I still wrestle is Heidegger’s massive influence on philosophy in general, and key thinkers in particular.
The thing I still wrestle is Heidegger’s massive influence on philosophy in general, and key thinkers in particular.
September 8, 2025
Though I’m not qualified to assess how accurately Wolin has interpreted Heidegger in light of the so-called ‘Black Notebooks,’ his account of Heidegger is a thoroughgoing Nazi ideologue is compelling. This is a must read for any desiring to get a grasp of the philosophical-ideological underpinnings of facism and Nazism, more specifically. This work cannot be ignored by any serious student of Heidegger.
February 12, 2024
I've been avoiding this confrontation for a while, but the author does a fantastic job not only giving the English audience a look into the Black Notebooks, and I feel he did a fair job justifying the criticism. It was depressing to come to terms with someone who impacted so many people, including myself, so profoundly.
October 20, 2024
Not a bad book, but why would someone devote so much time to understanding someone like Heidegger and Nietzsche really, when they hate them? I mean thousands of people each year read Heidegger and don't turn into Neo Nazi's. Wolin should spend more time on the philosophers he likes and not the one's he hates.
December 30, 2024
Le reprocho al libro el exceso de repeticiones y disgresiones que no vienen al caso. Pero deja completamente establecido que hay que releer a Heidegger a partir de todo lo que ha salido a la luz, y que todo lo que escribió desde la década de los 30 debe ser leído con con la más cuidadosa de las pinzas.
April 26, 2023
It is difficult to say something brief and concrete against this book for a multitude of converging and intertwined reasons: it plays on the politically-correct discourse and it assumes a high-moral ground, it is a Neo-Marxist and ideological attack on the political right and Heidegger, it mainly approaches Heidegger indirectly and by inference/comparison with second-hand individuals and popular pro- or anti-fascist concepts, its approach to Heidegger is highly antipathetic and combative, it is a metaphysical approach to an anti-metaphysical thinker, expects short-term solutions from a long-term and fundamental thinker, it neglects that Heidegger inspired a lot of thinkers on the left and far more politically-neutral thinkers in diverse fields, it refuses to believe that Heidegger's thinking was far more deeper when compared with any conservative/right ideology or any ideology in general, it uses selective facts to sustain the arguments and most of the conclusions are wild and unfounded, it extrapolates from the years when Heidegger sympathized and joined the Nazis to the rest of his life, it neglects that Heidegger thinking changed continuously during his life, does not grasp and not once presents central concepts like Being and Event as developed by Heidegger, it is a post-modern approach to an anti-modern thinker, it is an academic and scholar approach to Heidegger who tried to dismantle the university and ridiculed such scholars, it degrades or dismisses the poetic and religious aspects of Heidegger's thought, blames Heidegger “beyond the grave” for the current alt-right insurgence all over the world (even if Heidegger's thoughts were supposed to be “in ruins”; that is outdated and forgotten), and some similar other. In defense of this book I only say this – it is not much worse when compared with the few other pro-Heidegger books that I read; as all more or less misinterpret Heidegger and go astray in their superficiality.
September 15, 2024
Pretty fascinating, especially now. Heidegger was so influential for so long, and now to see how Nazi and Nazi-adjacent so many of his ideas were and are.
And how alive they still are. We have work to do in destroying these racist inclinations. A better world is possible.
And how alive they still are. We have work to do in destroying these racist inclinations. A better world is possible.
May 21, 2025
this has to be read together with lu-adler huapimg’s book on kant. spiritual racism and spiritual antisemitism in heidergger are indefensible….
January 15, 2026
couple times felt like a paragraph was being reworded rather than the critique being further developed through a critical appraisal of heidegger’s writing and sources
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