Invited by HI, in September 1928 philosopher Martin Heidegger (1889-1976) arrives in Riga. In the House of the Blackheads, he gives a lecture cycle about Kant’s Critique of Pure Reason and contemporary philosophy (11.-14.IX). These lectures are not preserved as separate manuscripts, but the content of these lectures is well readable in Heidegger’s 1929 book “Kant and the Problem of Metaphysics”. Heidegger describes his trip to Riga in private correspondence (letters to student Hannah Arendt, wife’s friend Elisabeth Blochmann and philosophical friend Karl Jaspers). His visit is a testimony to HI ambition to attract the most eminent philosophers and scientists of that time to HI and Riga. Heidegger’s arrival and lectures cause great interest among young Baltic German students, some representatives of Latvian intelligence and the University’s teaching staff come to his lectures in the Great Hall of the House of Blackheads. In October 2018 Heidegger’s visit to Riga was celebrated with an international conference which was held at The University of Latvia and in which spoke leading scholars of Heidegger’s thought from Germany, Spain, Italy, Latvia. Within HeInRi project, Heidegger’s arrival to Riga is important in several contexts. One of those is the tradition of reading his texts in Riga and Latvia. After his departure, the organizer of his visit in Riga, Baltic German philosopher Kurt Stavenhagen (1884-1951), who was born in Tukums, sends a letter to Heidegger, which is an interesting testimony to HI study processes, as well as it amply describes Baltic German and Latvian relations in the context of Saeima elections at that time. This letter, which is kept in Heidegger’s Archive (German Literature Archive in Marbach am Neckar (DLA)), gives testimony about the first Heidegger’s reading circle in Riga – the first group of Heidegger’s readers, organized by HI. Among others, the group included Kurt Stavenhagen himself, Baltic German students, and Stavenhagen’s assistant Erica Sehl, who was one of the most philosophically educated women in Latvia and the Baltics at that moment and in following years.
HeInRi research group express their gratitude to Martin Heidegger’s grandson Arnulf Heidegger for the permission to use Stavenhagen’s letter which is kept in Heidegger’s Archive in research, as well as express gratitude to Heidegger’s private assistant in his late years in life, Prof. Dr. Friedrich-Wilhelm von Herrmann and editor of Heidegger’s Gesamtausgabe volumes, Prof. Dr. Gonter Noiman for the information about the fate of the manuscript of Heidegger’s lecture in Riga.