This is a side view looking up the valley. The very
small creek and water is on the other side of the cottage.
Developed with photos by Daniel Fidel Ferrer.
This is a side view looking up the valley. The very
small creek and water is on the other side of the cottage.
In 1922, Martin Heidegger's wife Elfride Heidegger (née Petri) gave
Martin Heidegger (1889-1976) a present of a small cottage over looking the small
mountain town of Todtnauberg in the Black Forrest. This is about 16 miles from
Freiburg, where Heidegger was living. Elfride used an advance of her inheritance
to buy a plot of land and pay a local carpenter to build the cottage. Because
the depression money was rapidly becoming worthless
and she thought it wiser to invest her share in real-estate. The land is small
(2-3 acres) and for the farmers it was 'wet' and 'rocky', thus they were interested
in selling it. Elfride designed the cottage herself. In August 1922 the family
moved in. They had rented their small apartment in Freiburg to Americans. Heidegger
worked on most of his writings at this mountain cottage. A large part of his
most famous work,
Being
and Time
(1927), was written and finished at a nearby farm house
(Johann Brender) where he had rented a room. The two children were too noisy.
By some calculations he spent about 10 years out of 50 years at his cottage
working on his philosophical writings. The German word "Hütte"
means "hut", but in the general context I think it makes sense to
call a "cottage" or a "cabin" in the woods. On the one side
are the trees and woods, and then on the other side you can see the valleys
and ski slopes. There is a very small creek that run along side it and the
water
contiuously runs into a hollowed out log.
There is no running water inside. There are four small rooms.
Elfride did some skiing in the area 1914 when she was a student. She stayed
at a similar cottage with her student friends. After her marriage (1917) to
Martin Heidegger she decided to have the cottage built as a place where her
husband could work in all quietness.
There is not a driveway to Die Hütte. Heidegger would often walk all the way there or sometime take a bicycle, there was also a train up to Todtnau. When Heidegger rejected his appointment to the University of Berlin for the second time in 1933, the University of Freiburg offered to pay for putting in electricity, which was buried in the ground and came up from below. But there is no outside lights.
At the beginning of
Being
and Time
, it says:
Dedicated to
EDMUND HUSSERL
in friendship and admiration
Todtnauberg in Baden, Black Forest
8 April 1926.
EDMUND HUSSERL
in Verehrung und Freundschaft zugeeignet
Todtnauberg i. Bad. Schwarzwald zum
8. April 1926.
The book listed below has photos taken with Martin Heidegger
at Die Hütte in 1968.
Martin Heidegger :
Photos, 23. September 1966, 16. und 17. Juni 1968
By Digne Meller Marcovicz.
Frankfurt am Main : Klostermann, 1985.
ISBN: 3465016718. 126 pages.
Some of the photos on this web page are large at 750 Kbytes and make awhile
to download
depending on your connection to the Internet. Try clicking on the box [small
photo] if you
want smaller versions of the same photos.
Photos from May 2002, Daniel Ferrer.
Looking down the valley.
Looking directly down to Todtnauberg.
Looking directly down to Todtnauberg (with water fountain).
Side view of Die Hütte.
Front view of Die Hütte.
Trees in the front of Die Hütte.
Please note:
This is private property, it belongs to Martin Heidegger's family,
so visitors must respect their privacy.
Text reviewed and updated by Dr. Alfred Denker , June 23, 2002.
February 6, 2003. .
Developed by Daniel Ferrer.
