Days later - incredibly given he'd given himself over to frantic activity, to a vertigo that would not allow him any breaks - he granted me an audience. Me! Was it possible? For certain the Rektor of Freiburg wanted to talk to me? Yes, and with Eric Biemel too. The meeting was in his rektor's office. He confirmed for us, coldly and briefly, our charges as titular and adjunct professors of philosophy of history. "I thought, for a moment", he said, "of eliminating the subject. But we'll keep it". Biemel, arrogantly, almost tripping over the Master's words, allowed himself an unnecessary disdain and, worse even, insolent. "If you ask me my opinion, professor Heidegger," he said, "that discipline is a Marxist fraud and we should suppress it." Heidegger looked at him with his mischievous and devastating eyes. He often looked and smiled, slightly, in a possibly gracious mode, or ungraspable, that had the extraordinary power to drop over an interlocutor tons of disparagement, insulting them. "But, Professor Biemel", he said slowly, hurting, "if there is something I have not asked for it is your opinion. Biemel said nothing. He took out a handkerchief and wiped his brow. It wasn't a warm day; no one - rationally - should have been sweating, but only those who had won themselves a phrase like the one Heidegger had just said. The Rektor continued: "Philosophy of history isn't a Marxist fraud, but Hegelian. All the Marxist frauds, in their own way, are. You must concentrate on Hegel. I want the material to be both massive and easy. Like the Berlin Lessons. Then I heard myself ask: "What should we do with Marx, Professor Heidegger?" "He is the greatest of the Hegelians," the Master said. "What do you propose, Müller?" "There is a chapter in the first volume of Capital I am interested in giving." Biemel guffawed. "Don't be ridiculous, Müller! There are no editions of Capital left in Germany. I don't think Goebbels would have left one out of the flames". Heidegger looked at him again. Biemel composed himself. "That's a pity", Heidegger said, "but Biemel is right. We cannot include Marx in the bibliography. Not even the chapter that you mention, which, have no doubt, I know well. See, Müller", once again his acquired a mischievous shine, but not offensive, "let us be cautious and let's not speak of this and especially aloud: Marx's work is not inferior to Hegel's. He thinks, however, of Being as a nature one has to conquer, subdue. He's one of the great readers of the master slave dialectic. He's on the side of the slave, of course. Not like our Nietzsche, who chooses the masters and, with them, the spirit of aristocracy". He got up and lit his pipe, so producing a long pause. Biemel and I, now, watched him pace the place. He said: "About that chapter". He paused and turned towards me: "We're talking of the same, I assume". "Commodity fetishism and its secret", I said. He assented. "There Marx reveals his greatness as a philosopher. We should teach that". Biemel, red with anger and even with incredulity, said: "By God, for the Führer and for Germany, Professor Heidegger. How can we be so disloyal as to teach that evil loser, the Jew Marx?" "Professor Heidegger", I said, "Was Being and Time influenced by that chapter from Marx?" "I'll let you know that I read it more than once." "You read Marx?" exclaimed Biemel. "You haven't?", replied Heidegger. "Don't avoid doing so. Perhaps there's a book left that Goebbels hasn't burned."

He dismissed us amiably and smiled once again. "To work", he said. "May you happen to unveil some truth in that subject. If you do, despite my doubts, let me know." We were leaving when, from behind, his voice reached me. "Müller!" I turned. He signaled with his finger. "As soon as I'm freed from some commitments...I want to talk to you." I only managed to nod.

Once out in the street, Biemel grabbed my arm and said: "You are a Marxist, Müller! How can you teach Capital? How do you dare ask the Master if he was inspired in that monument to the Mistake?" "On the other hand, he practically confessed to it." Once again he took out his handkerchief and wiped the sweat from the bonfire of hatred that burned his guts. "Yes, he too expressed himself as a Marxist. And he might be. He must be watched." he left. I didn't get to ask him if he was also proposing to watch me, the humble, serene professor Müller.

Labels: The Shadow of Heidegger

¶ 6:48 AM