Country Trail and Bell Tower

Martin Heidegger's Thought from the Perspective of Homeland Experience

Abstract

The paper reproduces the speech that cardinal Lehmann made in Meßkirch in 2006 on the occasion of the celebrations for the 30° anniversary of Martin Heidegger’s death. It treats the subjects of homeland (Heimat) and homelessness (Heimatlosigkeit) in Heidegger’s thought through the description of his relation with his native town and its natural and symbolic landscapes. For this aim, the author of the paper makes use of two short texts that Heidegger dedicated to his birthplace: The Country Path (Der Feldweg) and About the Mystery of the Bell Tower (Vom Geheimniss des Glockenturms). Heidegger’s homeland is not to be read — in Lehmann’s analysis — in a political and nationalistic sense; rather, it indicates the spring of spiritual and religious forces that may lead the human being to overcome the modern loss of homesteadness and to recover his essence as mortal and finite being permanently listening to transcendence.