ABSTRACT

The German thinker Martin Heidegger (1889–1976) remains a key figure in the philosophical history of ‘place’. 1 His writing was influenced by a mountain hut built for his use in 1923 at Todtnauberg in the Black Forest. It was also related to another building made for the philosopher: a house 18 kilometres from the hut at Freiburg-im-Breisgau, the capital city of the Black Forest region. This paper describes and illustrates Heidegger’s relationship with his city house, details of which have not been published before. It interprets Heidegger’s relationship with the house in connection with his writings about ‘dwelling’ and ‘place’ and his engagement with the mountain hut. Heidegger sustained simultaneously quite different relationships with his house and hut – a disparity that contributes to an understanding of his philosophy and biography.