Chronology of Heidegger’s life

 

 

 

 

18891	Born on 26 September in Messkirch, a small, predominantly Catholic town in south-west Germany, as the son of Friedrich Heidegger (1852–1924), master cooper and sexton of St Martin’s Church, and Johanna Kempf Heidegger (1858–1927).
1895–1903	Attends public schools in Messkirch. Grows up in the sexton’s house on the church square; Heidegger later recalls running errands for the priest and ringing the bells in the church tower.
1903–6	Studies on a scholarship at the public Gymnasium in Constance, while residing at a Catholic seminary in preparation for the priesthood.
1906–9	Continues his studies at the public Berthold Gymnasium in Freiburg, residing at the Gsymnasium Seminary. In 1907 receives a copy of Franz Brentano’s On the Manifold Meaning of Being According to Aristotle. In 1908 reads On Being: Outline of Ontology by the speculative theologian Carl Braig. On 13 July 1909 passes his Gymnasium exit examination (Abitur) with the highest possible overall grade.
1909–11	In autumn 1909 Heidegger begins a trial period at the Jesuit novitiate in Tisis, Austria, but is dismissed after two weeks on account of health problems. Studies theology and philosophy at the University of Freiburg, residing at the Theological Seminary. Publishes poems, book reviews and articles in anti-modernist Catholic periodicals. Begins study of Husserl and Dilthey.
1911–13	In February 1911 Heidegger breaks off his training for the priesthood and his studies in theology, again on account of health problems (a psychosomatic “nerve and heart condition”). After returning to the university from a period of convalescence in Messkirch, Heidegger redirects his studies, eventually concentrating on philosophy, while also taking courses in mathematics, the natural sciences and the humanities. In 1912 he publishes his first academic philosophical article, “The Problem of Reality in Modern Philosophy” (in SUP = BH = GA 1). In 1913 he obtains his doctorate in philosophy, summa cum laude, under the direction of Arthur Schneider, with a dissertation entitled The Doctrine of Judgment in Psychologism (in GA 1).
1913–18	Initially volunteers for, and is later conscripted into, military service several times, but owing to his health problems is discharged or is enlisted in a limited capacity for postal censorship and meteorological service.
1915	Achieves Habilitation (postdoctoral degree) and venia legendi (licence to teach in German universities), under the direction of Heinrich Rickert, with a dissertation entitled The Doctrine of Categories and Meaning in Duns Scotus (in GA 1). Begins teaching career as a lecturer (Privatdozent) at the University of Freiburg.
1917–18	Marries Elfride Petri on 21 March 1917 with a Catholic ceremony in Freiburg; a week later the couple marry again with a Protestant ceremony in Mannheim in the company of Elfride’s family. Around this time Heidegger effectively converts to a non-dogmatic Protestantism (“free Christianity”). In 1919 he announces his “break with the system of Catholicism”, yet as late as 1921 he still refers to himself as a “Christian theologian”. By 1922, however, he begins to sharply separate philosophy – and himself as a philosopher – from faith and theology. Heidegger’s complex relation to Christianity and his thoughts on divinity continue to evolve throughout his career (see Chapters 16 and 17).
1919–23	Lectures on phenomenology, Neo-Kantianism, Aristotle and the philosophy of religion as Husserl’s assistant. Students during this time include Oskar Becker, Karl Löwith and Leo Strauss. Friendship with Elisabeth Blochmann develops.
1919	Birth of his first son, Jörg. Gives his “breakthrough” lecture course, “The Idea of Philosophy and the Problem of Worldview” (in TDP = GA 56/57).
1920	Friendship with Karl Jaspers begins. Birth of his second son, Hermann. In 2005 Hermann Heidegger acknowledged that in 1934 he was informed that Martin Heidegger – whom he characterized in 1999 as a “loving and understanding father and grandfather” (GA 16: 835) – was not his biological father. The latter was in fact his godfather, Dr Friedel Caesar, a friend of his mother’s from her youth (LW 317).
1922–3	Elfride presents her husband with a cabin in the Black Forest mountain village of Todtnauberg, which for the rest of his life Heidegger uses as a retreat from city life and as an undisturbed place to think and write. Heidegger’s fame as a lecturer spreads across Germany among university students. Although he had not published anything since his Habilitation thesis, on the basis of a strong recommendation from Husserl and a high regard for his phenomenological interpretations of Aristotle on the part of Paul Natorp and others, Heidegger is appointed associate professor of philosophy at the University of Marburg, where he befriends the Protestant theologian Rudolf Bultmann.
1924	Begins a love affair with a student (and later famous philosopher in her own right), Hannah Arendt. Other students during his Marburg period include Hans-Georg Gadamer, Hans Jonas and Miki Kiyoshi. Father dies. The first article to be written on Heidegger’s thought, “A New Turn in Phenomenology: Heidegger’s Phenomenology of Life”, is published in Japan by Tanabe Hajime after his return from Freiburg.
1927	Heidegger’s first magnum opus, Being and Time (BT = BTS = SZ = GA 2), is published, and his fame rapidly escalates. Promoted to professor in Marburg. Gives lecture course, “The Basic Problems of Phenomenology” (later published as BPP =GA 24). Mother dies.
1928	Appointed professor of philosophy at the University of Freiburg as Husserl’s successor. Students attending Heidegger’s lectures at this time include Eugen Fink, Emmanuel Levinas, Herbert Marcuse, Max Müller, Jan Patocka and Karl Rahner.
1929	Presents inaugural lecture, “What is Metaphysics?” (in BW and PM = GA 9). Debates with Ernst Cassirer over Kant and Neo-Kantianism, and publishes Kant and the Problem of Metaphysics (KPM = GA 3).
1930	Declines first offer of professorship at the University of Berlin. Gives first version of lecture, “On the Essence of Truth” (final 1943 version in BW and PM = GA 9).
1933	Elected rector of the University of Freiburg on 21 April. On 1 May becomes a member of the Nazi Party, and on 27 May gives his Rectorial Address, “The Self-Assertion of the German University” (SU = R; GA 16: 107–17). In the summer Heidegger delivers lectures in Leipzig, Heidelberg and Tübingen in support of the National Socialist revolution and makes a number of pronouncements in support of Hitler and his policies. Writes letters in support of some Jewish academics and in denunciation of others. Declines a second offer from Berlin as well as one from Munich. The first book to be written on Heidegger’s thought, The Philosophy of Heidegger, is published in Japan by Kuki Shūzō, who had studied with Heidegger in Freiburg and Marburg, and who had introduced his thought to Jean-Paul Sartre in Paris.
1934	Owing to disagreements with the faculty and with government and party authorities, resigns as rector on 23 April. Works on plans for a Dozentenakademie (academy for university lecturers) in Berlin. Gives first lecture course on Hölderlin’s poetry (GA 39).
1935	Gives lecture course later published as Introduction to Metaphysics (IM = EM = GA 40), as well as the first version of his famous lecture on art later published as “The Origin of the Work of Art” (in BW; PLT; OBT = GA 5).
1936	Travels to Rome in April to give the lectures “Hölderlin and the Essence of Poetry” and “Europe and German Philosophy”. Meets there with Karl Löwith, who reports that Heidegger was still wearing the swastika, that he still believed in persevering for the sake of the true potential of the National Socialist movement, and that he acknowledged a connection between his philosophical idea of “historicity” and his political “service”.
1936–40	In 1936 lectures on Schelling (ST = SA). In 1936–8 writes what many consider to be his second magnum opus, Contributions to Philosophy (CP = GA 65), the first of a series of manuscripts kept private but intended for later publication. Between 1936 and 1940 gives extensive lecture courses on Nietzsche, later edited and published together with several essays in two volumes as Nietzsche (N1, N2, N3, N4; NI, NII). In his private manuscripts and public lecture courses during this time, Heidegger criticizes the will to power and technological machination, as well as the biological racism exemplified by National Socialism. He is put under surveillance by the Gestapo. The Kyoto School philosopher Nishitani Keiji studies with Heidegger between 1937 and 1939.
1941–3	Lectures on “fundamental concepts” (BC = GA 51), on Hölderlin (GA 52; HHI = GA 53), on Parmenides (PRM =GA 54), and on Heraclitus (GA 55).
1944–5	Drafted for a time in 1944 into the People’s Militia (Volkssturm). In January of 1945 goes to Messkirch in order to securely store his manuscripts. In April evacuates with the Philosophy Faculty of the University of Freiburg to Wildenstein Castle, near Beuron, Danube Valley. First edition of Elucidations of Hölderlin’s Poetry is published in 1944; expanded editions appear in 1951, 1971 and 1996(EHP = EHD = GA 4). Writes Country Path Conversations (CPC = GA 77).
1945–6	Brought before the denazification committee in July 1945. Jaspers writes a critical letter of expert opinion, which contributes to the decision to ban Heidegger from teaching. (The ban is lifted in 1949.) Suffers a nervous breakdown and recovers for three weeks in a sanatorium. A correspondence with Sartre is initiated by philosophically interested French occupation officers. Friendship with Jean Beaufret begins, which engenders the first publication of a comprehensive statement of Heidegger’s later thought, “Letter on Humanism” (in BW and PM = GA 9). Works on a German translation of the Daodejing with Paul Shih-yi Hsiao.
1949	Delivers four seminal lectures in Bremen (“The Thing”, “The Enframing”, “The Danger”, “The Turning”) under the collective title “Insight Into That Which Is” (in GA 79; see relevant essays in PLT and QCT). Correspondence with Jaspers resumes. Heidegger’s older son, Jörg, returns home after being released from a prisoner-of-war camp in Russia; his younger son, Hermann, who had also been taken captive on the Russian front during the war, had been released in 1947.
1950	Publishes a collection of essays under the title Holzwege (Wood paths) (OBT = GA 5). Arendt visits and friendship is renewed.
1951–2	Emeritus status granted. Resumes his university lectures with a course published as What Calls for Thinking? (WCT= WhD). Students at this time include Harmut Buchner, Rainer Marten and Ernst Tugendhat. In Darmstadt gives lecture “Building Dwelling Thinking” (in BW; VA).
1953	In Munich gives lecture “The Question Concerning Technology” (in QCT; BW; VA). Meets D. T. Suzuki. Beginning of friendship with Erhart Kästner.
1954	Publishes Vorträge und Aufsätze (Lectures and essays) (VA). Tezuka Tomio visits, occasioning the composition of “A Dialogue on Language between a Japanese and an Inquirer” (in OWL = GA 12).
1955	In Messkirch gives his memorial address for the composer Conradin Kreutzer (entitled “Gelassenheit” in German, in DT = G and GA 13). In Cérisy-la-Salle, France, gives lecture “What is Philosophy?” (WP). Writes “On the Question of Being” (in PM = GA 9), addressed to Ernst Jünger on his sixtieth birthday. Gives final lecture course at the University of Freiburg, published as The Principle of Reason (PR = SG).
1957	Lectures in Provence, France, where he makes the acquaintance of poet René Char. Inducted into the Berlin Academy of Arts as well as into the Heidelberg Academy of Sciences. Publishes Identity and Difference (IDS = ID).
1958	Participates in a colloquium on “Art and Thinking” with the Zen thinker Hisamatsu Shinichi (GA 16: 552–7; see also 776–80).
1959	Named honorary citizen of Messkirch on 27 September. Publishes On the Way to Language (OWL = GA 12) and Gelassenheit (translated as Discourse on Thinking) (DT = G). Gives first of a series of Zollikon Seminars with the psychiatrist Medard Boss, which continue to be held regularly until 1966 (the records of which were later published in ZS = Z). Visits exhibit of Paul Klee’s paintings and drawings in Basel with art historian friend Heinrich Wiegand Petzet, and in response considers writing a second part to “The Origin of the Work of Art”.
1962	Travels for the first time to Greece (travel reflections published as SJG). Subsequent trips are made in 1964, 1966 and 1967.
1963	The first comprehensive studies of Heidegger’s thought appear in German and in English: Otto Pöggeler’s Der Denkweg Martin Heideggers and William Richardson’s Heidegger: Through Phenomenology to Thought. The latter includes a preface by Heidegger in which he discusses the alleged turn in his thinking (PMH). Meets with Bikkhu Maha Mani, a Buddhist monk from Thailand (see GA 16: 589–93).
1964	In Paris gives lecture, “The End of Philosophy and the Task of Thinking” (in BW and TB = ZSD). The first conference on Heidegger’s thought in North America is held at Drew University; subsequent symposia, also encouraged by letters from Heidegger, are organized at DePaul University and Duquesne University in 1966; in 1967 the Heidegger Circle is formed, with its first annual meeting convened at Penn State University.
1966	Gives the first of a series of seminars with a group of French philosophers in Le Thor, France (in FS; GA 15). Gives an interview to the magazine Der Spiegel, under agreement that it will not be published until after his death (OG = GA 16: 652–83). Begins making plans for his Collected Edition (Gesamtausgabe).
1967	Publishes a selection of key essays from 1919 to 1958 under the title of Wegmarken (Pathmarks) (PM = GA 9). Meets for the first time with poet Paul Celan.
1969	Agreement made for the transfer of Heidegger’s literary remains to the German Literature Archive in Marbach. Gives television interview to Richard Wisser (MHC =GA 16: 702–10). Celebration of Heidegger’s eightieth birthday in Messkirch; keynote address given by Tsujimura Kōichi. Inducted into the Bavarian Academy of the Fine Arts.
1970	Suffers a minor stroke, but almost fully recovers. Begins to focus his attention on the arrangement of his manuscripts.
1975	The first volume (GA 24, translated as BPP) of his Collected Edition is published.
1976	Dies at home in Freiburg on 26 May and is buried on 28 May in his hometown of Messkirch.

Note

 1. Sources consulted for the composition of this chronology include: GA 16; LW; G. Heidegger, “Life of Martin Heidegger”, in LW; T. Kisiel & T. Sheehan, “Chronological Overview”, in BH; J. Van Buren, “Chronological Overview”, in SUP; Ott (1993); Petzet (1993); Safranski (1998); A. Denker, “Martin Heidegger (1889–1976): Chronology”, w­w­w­.f­r­e­e­w­e­b­s­.c­o­m­/­m­3­s­m­g­2­/­H­e­i­d­e­g­g­e­r­C­h­r­o­n­o­l­-­o­g­y­.h­t­m­l­ (accessed September 2009); M. Geier, Martin Heidegger (Reinbek bei Hamburg: Rowohlt, 2005); and R. Mehring & D. Thomä, “Eine Chronik”, in Heidegger Handbuch: Leben–Werk–Wirkung, 515–39 (Stuttgart: Metzler, 2003).