The Voice of Celebration in Stormy Times: Heidegger’s War Lectures on Hölderlin

Abstract

This article discusses the theme of war through the prism of selected passages from Heidegger’s interpretations of poetry. The central part of the discussion is devoted to explanations of Hölderlin’s poetry and insights from the lectures on the hymn “Remembrance” (“Andenken”). The hermeneutic examination of Hölderlin in the midst of the World War II did not mean an aesthetic escape from the cruel reality. In The History of Beyng (Die Geschichte des Seyns), Heidegger emphasized the notion of “total war” as universal, external destruction. The opposite of this tendency can be seen in Hölderlin’s motif of “winged war.” In the interpretation I propose, the “winged war” is the name for the inner overcoming of man’s vile tendencies and a long upward movement—from hostile anger to openness and cordiality. In the light of such a reading, war turns out to be a “stormy” time in which the oblivion of this most important achievement of the soul reaches its climax. Heidegger’s “poetic thinking” and Hölderlin’s rich poetry pave the way from the emptiness of total war to the feast as a symbol of the complete reconciliation of time and meaning.