Heidegger Housed: Building, Dwelling and Human Sociability in the Early Federal Republic

After the Second World War, Germany required a new mode of human coexistence under democratic auspices. The development of appropriate notions of social cohesion within civil society was largely driven by contemporary reflections on the basic needs of reconstruction. This observation is the starting point for this article, which examines the Darmstädter Gespräch (Darmstadt Conversation) of 1951 in order to consider how human sociability was envisaged in the early Federal Republic of Germany following the experience of two world wars and how ideals of space and modes of living were redefined as a result. Martin Heidegger’s polarizing contribution to the symposium dealt with the meaning of dwelling and building for human beings. Heidegger presented a vision of being that went beyond human sociability and emphasized the particularity of humans through their mode of living. This article’s re-reading and contextualization of the dynamic of the Darmstadt debate recognizes that his talk in 1951 offered a model for addressing contemporary challenges to human sociability and was thus widely influential. As such, it must be included in any attempt to chart the intellectual landscape of the Federal Republic.