His intellectual search for authenticity, often conducted in a secluded mountain hut, appeared to be mirrored in the Nazis’ demand for a return to a genuine peoplehood, a Volk of blood and soil, not manipulated by the soulless mechanisms of modernity. Unquestionably the philosopher’s infatuation with the black-shirted men of action was intensified by the fact that his partisanship—he joined the Nazi Party in 1933—did no harm to his career.
