Jeffrey van Davis - Film Director

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See interview with Professor Stephen Hicks, Head of Philosophy at Rockford College, about van Davis' documentary, Only A God Can Save Us: http://www.stephenhicks.org/2011/03/18/interview-with-director-jeffrey-van-davis-on-heidegger-and-nazism/

Screening at Penn State University

"Jeffrey van Davis' brilliantly provocative Heidegger film and discussion at Penn State in March 2010 was the most lively public event many of us in History, Philosophy and German and other Departments can remember here. It attracted a large audience of faculty, students and the general public which sat rapt for two hours and remained on for another 1 and 3/4 hours of at times sharp, always fascinating, discussion which had to be terminated by the need to vacate the theatre. Despite the sharpness of the debate that followed the film, all agreed that the film - and the director's additional comments - had generated an extraordinarily stimulating conversation and one that would resonate long after the event. The atmosphere of realistic intellectual engagement relevant to life and history produced by the film was something that rarely occurs nowadays in university life which is more accustomed to sterile arguments over abstract and jargonized issues".

-- Paul Lawrence Rose, Professor of European History and Mitrani Professor of Jewish Studies, Penn State University
(Heisenberg and the Nazi Atomic Bomb Project, Wagner: Race and Revolution)

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At University of Maryland

Dear Jeffrey,

A number of colleagues have told me that they thought the film and discussion were excellent. I am also very pleased at the way the evening went. I hope "Only a God Can Save Us" receives broad attention it deserves.
...your film and discussion educated us about important matters. As I indicated, the topic not only of Heidegger but many others of "the best and the brightest" who threw in their lot with dictators of various sorts will be a continuing theme of research for historians all over the world, not only in Germany. I would imagine that your film will have a continuing interest inside and outside the academy. It was a pleasure meeting and talking. I wish you much success and will certainly stay in touch.

With best wishes,

Jeffrey Herf, Professor of History, University of Maryland (Reactionary Modernism: Technology, Culture, and Politics in Weimar and the Third Reich; Divided Memory: The Nazi Past in the Two Germanys; Nazi Propaganda for the Arab World)
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At the Annenberg School for Communication, University of Pennsylvania

Jeff,

I finally got a chance to watch your documentary... It's an extremely powerful piece of work and doesn't let Heidegger off the hook at all. I can see why Hermann H. had a shit fit. Congratulations. For me, it was a tremendous pleasure to see Farias, Ott and Faye live for the first time. (I have only read them, not met them.) Rockmore, by contrast, I know for 30 years back to my graduate days at Yale. We talked about the film in November when we both participated in UNESCO's World Philosophy Day in Moscow. I found some parts of the film -- particularly moments from the interview with Rainer Marten -- enormously moving.

Carlin

-- Carlin Romano teaches Media and Philosophy in the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, and is the Cultural Critic for the Chronicle of Higher Education.

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American Premiere at the Proshansky Auditorium, Graduate Center, CUNY, New York City

"Outstanding! Is a real benchmark. A Tour de Force. I expect it to have a major influence on contemporary Heidegger interpretation. Students will flock to it, and thereafter will not be able to view Heidegger 'naively'".

-- Richard Wolin, Distinguished Professor of History, Graduate Center, CUNY (Heidegger's Children)

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At Freiburg University

"This film stands out for its deeply informed, scholarly, critical, and responsible grasp of the thinker and his thought in turbulent historical context. In bringing together what was already known and much that was not known, and in interviewing leading Heidegger scholars and historians, this full-length documenary study casts considerable light on Heidegger and his work."

Tom Rockmore, Professor of Philosophy, Duquense University (On Heidegger's Nazism and Philosophy)

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At Suffolk University, T.C. Welsh Theatre, Boston

Thank you again for a wonderful event. The film drew a very large crowd and the discussion we had afterwards was one of the very best in my experience here at Suffolk. I hope you enjoyed it and saw it as a testimony to the force of your film. What a splendid occasion it was. Students are still talking about it.

-- Gregory Fried, Professor and Chair, Philosophy Department, Suffolk University, Boston

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Posted on March 29, 2010 4:45 AM (This article written by Penn State student reporter)

Controversial film 'Only a God Can Save Us' starts debate

By Chris Zook

Collegian Staff Writer

Though the weather outside was wet and dreary, a philosophic debate raged inside the Carnegie Building.

Jeffrey Van Davis' controversial film "Only a God Can Save Us," a documentary on the life and work of German philosopher Martin Heidegger, ran Sunday in Carnegie Cinema.

The film featured such times as Heidegger's childhood, personal life and his contributions to philosophy before, during and after Nazi Germany. The event featured a panel of various experts, including professors of philosophy and Jewish studies, and Davis himself taking questions from one another and the audience.

Though he identifies himself first as a journalist, his inspiration to make the film came from a background in Catholicism and philosophy, he said. A large part of his motivation came from the Heideggerian issue of "is-ness."

"I still find so much in Heidegger that is profound," he said. "What is... is-ness? That just blew me away - I was flabbergasted."

Another contributor to Davis' idea was the fact that other films on Heidegger tend to be somewhat the same, he said. He added that this observation also led to criticism and his admittance that the film is one-sided.

"A lot of this stuff is not in any other Heidegger film," he said, adding that he wanted his film to be different. "I've got an axe to grind."

Though the film may seem quite harmless to the untrained eye, it attracted a wide variety of criticisms from its viewers.

The audience rose questions about everything from un-translated poems in the film to Davis' credibility. One especially, raised by Martha Evans, a State College resident, confronted Davis' incorporation of Heidegger's many extra-marital affairs.

"Where would you find that in a paper?" she asked. She added that such material does not fit in with the rest of the documentary.

Penn State Professor of Philosophy Dennis Schmidt also raised contention with the film's material.

Schmidt specifically took issue with Davis' resources and interviews used in the two-hour film and Davis' journalistic responsibility. The question of Heidegger burning the second part of his greatest philosophic work called "Sein und Zeit," or "Being and Time," drew strong contention from Schmidt.

"I don't know where you found half these people," Schmidt criticized. "Get the facts straight. There are so many falsehoods like that."

Schmidt also found fault with the film's potential undermining of the professional philosophic community, he said.

"Some of us have our lives invested in pursuing a set of questions which we think are serious," he said.

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Badische Zeitung, Freiburg July 23, 2009

New Heidegger documentary for the first time in Freiburg

He was Rector of Freiburg University, a philosopher with great influence and at the same time he was involved in the ideology of National Socialism. A new documentary film now attempts to show the whole intellectual and political biography of Heidegger.

Perhaps it takes the point of view of an outsider to explore such a contaminated topic as well as a long pause for air. 13 years ago the American philosopher, Jeffrey van Davis, began a documentary film about Martin Heidegger, a man who was arrested in 1945 and forbidden to teach at Freiburg University. In New York he interviewed Richard Wolin, one of the most renowned experts of the Messkirch thinker, who enthusiastically supported the National Socialist revolution in 1933 and became the first Nazi rector of a German university -- the Albert-Ludwigs University of Freiburg.

The 16mm material ended up at first in the celler. Now one sees Wolin in black and white -- the colors deteriorated so much in storage during the 13 year period. van Davis needed six years in his second round of filming to be able to complete the documentary, Only A God Can Save Us, named after the famous quote of Heidegger in his 1966 interview in Der Spiegel news magazine, but published upon his death in 1976.

The camera passes over rich green meadows, over the church tower of an idyllic village and then pans to a cemetary where a group of people stands around a grave stone. Cardinal Karl Lehmann stands a while before the grave of simple natural stone. The community has gathered there for the 30th anniversary of the great Messkircher's death and the mayor gives a eulogy accompanied by the somber strains of the local community band. Here, says the film, lie the roots of the thinker of Being. Here he grew up in a simple, staunchly Catholic home. Here he was an altar boy. And from here his biography leads him first to the Jesuits and then to a dioceses seminary. That Heidegger was never able to free himself from his small town roots is obvious according to Hugo Ott, Freiburg historian, who wrote the first critical book about Heidegger in 1988 -- Martin Heidegger, A Political Life. It came out the same year as Victor Farias' book, Heidegger and Nazism. Naturally Farias is to be seen in the documentary as well. What he has to say about Heidegger's encounter with the German/Jewish poet Paul Celan, is remarkable.

Even calm people loose their composure

Van Davis, who at one time studied for the priesthood, did 25 interviews with Heidegger scholars throughout the world. Not all of them made it into his two hour documentary which has the high purpose of covering Heidegger's whole intellectual and political biography from his greatest work Being and Time up to his controversial "Bremer Speeches" in 1949, in which Heidegger spoke the scandalous sentence which even caused the quiet scholar, Hugo Ott, to loose his composure: "The motorized agricultural industry is in essence the same as the production of corpses in gas chambers and extermination camps."

Which means that if you paint your philosophical brush broadly enough that the fate of an individual -- or of six million individuals -- carries little weight in regards the fate of Being. The issue, however, of how much Heidegger's philosophy affected his politics (commitment to the Nazi cause) still remains unsolved at the end of the film. Nevertheless, van Davis is not afraid to show the truth allowing critics like Professor Rainer Marten, a former student who speaks in crystal clear terms calling Heidegger a "spiritual or intellectual racist." "Heidegger didn't have anything against Jews personally," according to Marten. But Heidegger claimed that the Jews were "flawed people." Martin finds such comments "disgusting."

Not just critics are allowed to speak

Shockingly incomprehensible is Heidegger's behavior in regards Edith Stein, a Jewish scholar who converted to Catholicism and whom Heidegger knew very well. He never spoke a word of regret about her terrible fate. This moral indifference, this silence about and refusal to speak one word of apology for any fatal mistake he made, hits the Catholic Hugo Ott, a man one trusts implicitly, very hard. From the Freiburg historian, Bernd Martin, to the American philosophers, Tom Rockmore, Iain Thomson and Ted Kisiel along with the French philosopher, Emmanuel Faye, University of Paris, van Davis doesn't allow just Heidegger critics to speak their piece. The authorized biographer, Alfred Denker, is also featured in the documentary.

Van Davis even had a long interview with Hermann Heidegger, the son, although it was not allowed on camera. Not so the young Freiburg historian, Silke Seemann, who researched the denazification program at Freiburg University and surprisingly at this late date ran into opposition from university colleagues. Her book, The Political Cleansing of the Faculty of Freiburg University after the Second World War, has recently been published and gave cause for alarm in some circles. Her sober conclusion: the denazification process was only half-heartedly carried out.

Only A God Can Save Us will certainly rekindle the discussion and debate about the philosopher from the Schwabian province. The film is thoroughly researched by van Davis, who teaches presently at Salem International College. The film will be shown at universities in the United States and Europe and shown at many film festivals. Television networks have also shown interest.

To be shown on Thursday, July 23 at 6:00 p.m in the auditorium of the University of Freiburg. Following the film will be a panel discussion with Hugo Ott, Bernd Martin, Rainer Marten, Silke Seemann, Tom Rockmore and the filmmaker, Jeffrey van Davis.

author: Bettina Schulte, Badische Zeitung 23 July 2009

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Thursday, 23.07.2009

Der fünfte Film

Neue Heidegger-Dokumentation erstmals in Freiburg

Er war Rektor der Freiburger Universität, als Philosoph von großem Einfluss – und gleichzeitig tief in die Ideologie des Nationalsozialismus verstrickt. Ein neuer Dokumentarfilm will jetzt Martin Heideggers gesamte geistig-politische Biographie nachvollziehen.

Philosoph mit Nähe zur Ideologie des Nationalsozialismus: Martin Heidegger, ehemaliger Rektor der Freiburger Universität | Foto: privat
Vielleicht braucht es den unbefangenen Blick von außen, um sich auf solch kontaminiertes Gelände zu begeben. Und es braucht offensichtlich auch einen langen Atem. Vor 13 Jahren hat der amerikanische Philosoph und Filmemacher Jeffrey van Davis begonnen, einen Dokumentarfilm über den nach 1945 mit einem lebenslänglichen Lehrverbot belegten Freiburger Philosophen Martin Heidegger zu drehen. In New York interviewte er mit Richard Wolin einen der renommiertesten Kenner des Meßkircher Denkers, der sich 1933 aus Begeisterung für das Führerprinzip von den Nationalsozialisten kurzzeitig zum Rektor der Albert-Ludwigs-Universität machen ließ.

Das 16-Millimeter-Material landete fürs Erste im Keller. Jetzt sieht man Wolin in würdigem Schwarzweiß – die Farben hatten sich in der Zwischenzeit zu stark verändert. Sechs Jahre brauchte van Davis, der seit einigen Jahren in Überlingen am Bodensee lebt, im zweiten Anlauf bis zur Fertigstellung des Films. "Only A God Can Save Us" – "Nur noch ein Gott kann uns retten", benannt nach dem Titel des nach Heideggers Tod 1976 im Nachrichtenmagazin Der Spiegel veröffentlichten Interviews, wird heute erstmals in Freiburg gezeigt.

Die Kamera fährt über saftig grüne Wiesen auf die Kirchtürme einer idyllischen Kleinstadt zu. Und schwenkt auf den Friedhof, wo sich ein Zug von Menschen auf einen Grabstein zubewegt. Kardinal Karl Lehmann verweilt lange vor dem Grab mit dem schlichten Naturstein. Die Gemeinde hat sich versammelt, um den 30. Todestag des größten Meßkirchers zu begehen – und der Bürgermeister hält mit dem Geleit des örtlichen Blasorchesters die Gedenkrede. Hier, sagt der Film, liegen die Wurzeln des Seinsdenkers. Hier wuchs er in einem einfachen, streng katholischen Elternhaus auf. Hier war er Ministrant. Von hier führte die biographische Spur zunächst zu den Jesuiten und zum Priesteramt.

Dass Heidegger seine Herkunft nie hinter sich lassen konnte, glaubt der Freiburger Historiker Hugo Ott, der 1988 das erste kritische Buch über den Philosophen ("Martin Heidegger: Unterwegs zu seiner Biographie") geschrieben hat; es erschien im selben Jahr wie Victor Farias’ Abrechnung mit Heideggers brauner Vergangenheit. Natürlich kommt auch Farias, der an der FU Berlin lehrt, bei Jeffrey van Davis ausführlich zu Wort. Was er über die berühmte Begegnung von Heidegger mit dem jüdischen Dichter Paul Celan in Todtnauberg erzählt ist Bemerkenswert.

AUCH RUHIGE MENSCHEN VERLIEREN DIE FASSUNG

25 Interviews hat van Davis, der in den USA einst selbst katholischer Priester werden wollte, mit Heidegger-Experten und -Exegeten in der ganzen Welt geführt. Nicht alle Gespräche fanden Eingang in den zweistündigen Film, der den hohen Anspruch verfolgt, Heideggers gesamte geistig-politische Biographie nachzuvollziehen – von seinem allseits bewunderten Hauptwerk "Sein und Zeit" bis zu den berüchtigten "Bremer Vorträgen" aus dem Jahr 1949, in denen Heidegger jenen skandalösen Satz formulierte, über den selbst ein so ausgleichend ruhiger Mensch wie Ott die Fassung verlieren kann: "Die motorisierte Ernährungsindustrie ist im Wesen das Selbe wie die Fabrikation von Leichen in Gaskammern und Vernichtungslagern."

Was heißt: Man muss nur die philosophische Brennweite weit genug stellen, damit das Schicksal des Einzelnen – oder sechs Millionen Einzelner – nicht weiter ins Gewicht (des Seinsgeschicks) fällt. Die Frage allerdings, inwiefern Heideggers Denken mit seiner Verstrickung in die NS-Ideologie verknüpft ist, bleibt auch nach diesem Film ungelöst. Doch zumindest vor der biographischen Wahrheit weicht Jeffrey van Davis nicht zurück. Und darf sich dabei auf Heidegger-Kritiker wie dessen einstigen Schüler Rainer Marten stützen, der mit glasklarer Deutlichkeit seinen – im Umgang sehr geschätzten – Lehrer als "geistigen Rassisten" bezeichnet. "Heidegger hatte nichts gegen die Juden persönlich", so Marten. Aber von philosophischer Warte aus hielt er sie für "missglückte Menschen". Das findet der Freiburger Philosoph – wörtlich – "disgusting".

NICHT NUR KRITIKER KOMMEN ZU WORT

Erschütternd unverständlich bleibt Heideggers Haltung der ihm gut bekannten, zum Christentum konvertierten Jüdin Edith Stein gegenüber. Niemals verlor er, so die Erkenntnis des in Unterkapitel gegliederten Films, auch nur ein Wort des Bedauerns über ihr Schicksal. Auch diese moralische Indifferenz, diese Verweigerung jeden Eingeständnisses eines fatalen Irrtums, geht dem Katholiken Hugo Ott, dem man in seiner Glaubwürdigkeit gern zuhört, sehr nahe. Von dem Freiburger Historiker Bernd Martin über die amerikanischen Philosophen Tom Rockmore, Iain Thompson und Ted Kiesel bis zum im Frühjahr erst mit einer umfangreichen kritischen Abhandlung zu Heidegger in Erscheinung getretenen Pariser Philosophen Emmanuel Faye lässt van Davis keineswegs nur Kritiker des Denkers zu Wort kommen. Zu den Interviewpartnern gehört auch der von den Nachkommen Heideggers zum offiziellen Biographen bestellte Niederländer Alfred Denker.

Auch mit Heideggers Stiefsohn Hermann Heidegger hat van Davis sehr lange gesprochen. Doch dieser habe sich geweigert, vor der Kamera zu reden. Nicht so die junge Historikerin Silke Seemann, die bei ihren Recherchen zur Entnazifizierung der Freiburger Universitätslehrer ("Die politischen Säuberungen des Lehrkörpers der Freiburger Universität nach dem Zweiten Weltkrieg") auf überraschende Widerstände stieß. Ihr ernüchterndes Fazit: Die Entnazifizierung wurde nur halbherzig betrieben. "Only A God Can Save Us" wird die Diskussion um den Philosophen aus der oberschwäbischen Provinz womöglich wieder anfachen. Es ist, auch hier hat van Davis, der heute an der Internatsschule Salem unterrichtet, gründlich recherchiert, bereits der fünfte Film über Heidegger. Er soll an Universitäten – besonders in den USA – und auf Festivals gezeigt werden. Ob sich das Fernsehen für ihn erwärmen kann, wird sich zeigen.
• Aufführung am Donnerstag, 23. Juli, 18 Uhr, Historisches Seminar der Universität Freiburg, Raum 4429. Danach Diskussion mit Hugo Ott, Rainer Marten, Bernd Martin, Silke Seemann und Tom Rockmore.

Bettina Schulte, Badische Zeitung

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Controversial film 'Only a God Can Save Us' starts debate