ABSTRACT
This chapter presents an interview between Der Spiegel and Professor Heidegger. Although Heidegger was one of the seminal thinkers of the twentieth century, few such men of his time were criticized more severely or resented more bitterly than he. Much of this criticism arose because of an association with the Nazis while Rector of the University of Freiburg, 1933-34, one that publicly he neither repudiated, justified, nor explained. In 1966 the editors of the German news weekly, Der Spiegel, requested of Heidegger an interview to discuss these issues. In granting the interview, which took place on September 23, 1966, Heidegger insisted that it remain unpublished during his lifetime. Professor Heidegger, have noted repeatedly that spiegel philosophical work has been overshadowed somewhat by events of short duration in his life that they ever have clarified. The authors would like to set this in a larger context and thus arrive at certain questions that seem to them important.
