«La grande svolta della nostra storia europea». Missione ontologico-spirituale tedesca e salvezza dell’Occidente nello Heidegger della seconda metà degli anni Trenta

The article critically reconstructs Martin Heidegger’s position in the second half of the 1930s, focusing on the connection between his reflection on the crisis of European nihilism and the attribution of an “ontological-spiritual mission” to the German people. Through the analysis of key texts such as Introduction to Metaphysics (1935) and the lectures on Europe and German Philosophy (1936), the study shows how Heidegger identifies in planetary technical mobilization (Jünger) the epiphenomenon of a Western subject-centered metaphysics that has now reached its completion. Russia and America represent the outposts of this process, while Germany, the “metaphysical people par excellence”, is the country most exposed to danger but also the last bulwark for a possible turning point. The article highlights the peculiarity of Heidegger’s relationship with National Socialism in this phase: far from a simple adherence or an early detachment, Heidegger assumes a position of “conservative ultra-revolutionarism”, criticizing the regime for not being radical enough with respect to the historical task of overcoming nihilism. National Socialism is reproached for having compromised itself with technical mobilization, with a “liberal” thinking of values, and with an organizational mass dirigisme. Finally, the article proposes the image of a Heidegger as a “Trotskyist of National Socialism”: faithful to the revolutionary essence of the movement, but increasingly critical of its actual political practice, deemed inadequate for the great epochal turning point required to save the West from the Bolshevik threat and from the fragmentation of liberal nation-states.