brought us phenomenologists such worthwhile gifts, we would be utterly delighted if new ones were to follow.
With cordial regards and unfailing high esteem,
E. Husserl
[Heidegger/Blochmann, Briefwechsel, 16; translated and introduced by Theodore Kisiel]
Weatherman Heidegger returns from the front at war’s end to become Husserl’s teaching assistant, and on more than one occasion he testifies to what a learning experience this direct access to the founder of phenomenology proves to be. On January 14, 1919, he writes to Elisabeth Blochmann that he has little time to spare because of “my intensive work with Husserl and preparation for my lecture course for the interim semester [KNS 1919] beginning on February 4: “The Idea of Philosophy and the Problem of Worldviews” (p. 12). At semester’s end, he summarizes his research and teaching regimen for “Fräulein Lisi” in the following list of three pairs:
. . . My own work is very concentrated, fundamental, and concrete: basic problems of phenomenological methodology, liberation from the leftover dross of acquired standpoints—repeated new forays into the true origins, preliminary works for the phenomenology of religious consciousness—disciplined orientation toward intensive and high-quality academic effectiveness, continually learning in my association with Husserl.
[Briefwechsel 5, 139–41]
With the transfer of Max Wundt from Marburg to Jena, an assistant professorship is again open at the University of Marburg. Troubled that he has misrepresented Heidegger to Natorp some two-and-a-half years earlier, Husserl here takes the initiative to correct what he had said in that letter of October 8, 1917.
Freiburg i/B Lorettostr. 40
11.II.1920
Esteemed colleague,
Long after the fact I have had second thoughts and am deeply bothered by them. The assistant professorship in philosophy at Marburg is again to