To present Heidegger's views on race in a forum dedicated to a dialogue between the different ways of appropriating Heidegger might look at first sight like an attempt to short circuit the task at hand. To many people, Heidegger's appropriation of National Socialism is a reason for not appropriating him at all. Those people would most likely say the same about Heidegger's account of race. However, without defending Heidegger, I want to argue that his treatment of race provides an additional and important reason for studying his writings from the 1930s. In keeping with the theme of “Appropriating Heidegger,” I do not intend to use this occasion to elaborate all the facets of Heidegger's account of race, so much as indicate the kinds of inquiries that would need to be made if the discussion is to pass beyond the question of whether one is “for” or “against” Heidegger. The main task here is to see what can be learned from Heidegger's encounter with the racescience of his day. A subsidiary task will be to take advantage of the recent publication of hitherto unavailable sources for the study of Heidegger's account of race. I will argue that they call for a serious revision of previous discussions of the topic.

The basis of Heidegger's defense after the war, readily adopted by his advocates and even by many of his critics, is that he attacked racial biology and proposed in its place a spiritual conception of the German Volk.