Look, I thought I was getting something else. I came to this after reading Safranski's very biographical biography of Goethe, which was flawed, but easy to read and genuinely about the man's life. This is not that. The focus here is very much on ideas, which is fine, because Heidegger was a philosophy. But had I not known a bit about Heidegger's ideas going in, I doubt I would have any knowledge about them coming out. The writing/translation is tortured beyond all belief; I suspect that Ewald Osers was not the right man for the job.

Now, there are good things about this book: in particular, the stuff on Heidegger's early years as a student was a bit enlightening, and the unexpected chapter about Heidegger and Adorno was interesting to me, just because I'm interested in Adorno--and Safranski is quite fair minded about that conflict. I'm being too harsh with my two stars. But someone has to warn potential readers that this is not a good biography, and it is not a good introduction to the philosophy. I'm not sure what it is. But you probably shouldn't read it, if you can find other introduction to the philosophy (Polt, say), or biographies. ( )

Read this when it came out -- wonderful read in that the author is neither an academic nor philosopher, but a journalist. Clear and fascinating and still difficult! ( )

100 SAF 1

excellent book but before I finished it I found Heidegger nonsense.