“Being-towards-death” and Authenticity. The appropriation of Heidegger’s work in the philosophical legitimation of the Movimiento Nacional during the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939)

Abstract

Martin Heidegger was the most influential foreign philosopher on the Spanish philosophy in the 30s, and Ortega y Gasset himself dealt with the ideas exposed by the German in his major work, Being and Time (1927). In this context, Heidegger’s work was gradually imported by intellectuals and philosophers linked to the anti-Republican conspiracy. When the Civil War started, its jargon was adopted by Falange’s young intellectuals for their media outlets, Pedro Lain Entralgo, among them. However, it will be also used by a faction of extreme right-wing monarchists. One instance of it was the philosopher Jose Pemartín, who will make use of Heidegger’s concept of time to turn the Christian way of life, now in arms, into the only authentic form of existence. The present paper will restore the context of the symbolical and intellectual struggle for the leadership of the Movimiento that received and made use of Heidegger’s work, specially the Falangist and the reactionary nationalism interpretations, as well as the discursive strategies to which the German master’s ideas were exposed.