history of Being, but if it is rather the case that Being belongs to Appropriation and is reabsorbed in it (in whatever manner), then the history of Being is at an end for thinking in Appropriation, that is, for the thinking which enters into Appropriation—in that Being, which lies in sending—is no longer what is to be thought explicitly. Thinking then stands in and before That which has sent the various forms of epochal Being. This, however, what sends as Appropriation, is itself unhistorical, or more precisely without destiny.
Metaphysics is the history of the formations of Being, that is, viewed from Appropriation, of the history of the self-withdrawal of what is sending in favor of the destinies, given in sending, of an actual letting-presence of what is present. Metaphysics is the oblivion of Being, and that means the history of the concealment and withdrawal of that which gives Being. The entry of thinking into Appropriation is thus equivalent to the end of this withdrawal's history. The oblivion of Being "supersedes"1 itself in the awakening into Appropriation.
But the concealment which belongs to metaphysics as its limit must belong to Appropriation itself. That means that the withdrawal which characterized metaphysics in the form of the oblivion of Being now shows itself as the dimension of concealment itself. But now this concealment does not conceal itself. Rather, the attention of thinking is concerned with it.
With the entry of thinking into Appropriation, its own way of concealment proper to it also arrives. Appropriation is in itself expropriation. This word contains in a manner commensurate with Appropriation the early Greek lethe in the sense of concealing.
Thus the lack of destiny of Appropriation does not mean that it has no "movement." Rather, it means that the manner of movement most proper to Appropriation turning toward us in withdrawal—first shows itself as what is to be thought.2
This means that the history of Being as what is to be thought is at an end for the thinking which enters the Appropriation—even if
1. hebt auf (Tr.)
2. Das zu Denkende. (Tr.)