How come Heidegger was a Nazi?

Question

I read Heidegger's children which explained it but I thought maybe other people had thoughts on this. I think its interesting that his "philosophical children" fought against Heidgger using Heidegger's thoughts.

Answer 1

I don't mean to say anything good about Nazis, but they did have some intellectual appeal in the early days. Before the Night of Long Knives the "socialism" part of National Socialism was taken seriously, and lots of people thought National Socialism was a good compromise between liberal democracy and communism. There were many bright and talented people who took up Nazism, there's no reason a philosopher should be exempt.