About the Project
Project Plan
Hello! I'm Claire MacLeod and I currently run The Elisabeth Blochmann Project. This research began in November 2022 when I stumbled across Elisabeth Blochmann while reading about Martin Heidegger. I was struck by one particular line on his Wikipedia page:
It is probably fair to say that, following his relationship with Hannah Arendt, Blochmann had one of the most important extramarital affairs with Heidegger...
I knew about Heidegger’s affair with Hannah Arendt but his relationship with Elisabeth Blochmann was new. The account of her as being the 'other-other woman' seemed to be a particularly unfortunate legacy for any human soul.
Though an mundane epithet, this extra-marital affair was apparently ‘of some importance for, and great interest in, the history of philosophy.’ I followed up on Blochmann’s Wikipedia page where I was surprised to learn that she had begun her career as a historian (earning a PhD in 1923) before becoming an education scholar. I was even more intrigued to learn that she had also been a tutor at Lady Margaret Hall from 1933 to 1952. This was particularly striking to me as I was, at the time, working as a resesarcher in the Department of Education where Blochmann would have lectured. My office was also directly adjacent to her college.
Given her proximity to world-historical characters and events, I expected there to be a semi-respectable record of Blochmann's life and work. However, a quick and then thorough search returned very little on this remarkable woman. Instead, I found a wonderful webpage created by Dr. Matthew Kruger-Ross which explicitly confirmed my sense that Blochmann is a forgotten entity in the history of education.
Though I had no formal archival experience, I chanced a search with the Bodleian Library Special Collections and the archives of Lady Margaret Hall. To my surprise, both returned material of significant value. These archival findings launched the Elisabeth Blochmann Project.
Blochmann in Oxford
Blochmann is often remembered today for her life-long correspondence with Martin Heidegger but little is known about her own life and accomplishments (at least amongst English-speaking academics). Of course, there is more substantial writing about Blochmann in German academia yet this does not account for her twenty years teaching at the University of Oxford. I intend on first publishing an article on Blochmann’s life in Oxford based on my archival work here. This will involve my work in the following archives:
Intellectual Biography
However, I would like to develop this story further by carrying out additional research in Germany in order to place Blochmann in historical context. Eventually, I hope to define Blochmann’s unique contributions to scholarship, her importance to the history of education, and how her philosophy may or may not have been influenced by Martin Heidegger. I will carry out archival work in Germany at the following archives:
Deutsches Literaturarchiv Marbach (Martin Heidegger Estate)
Bibliothek für Bildungsgeschichtliche Forschung
The Ida Seele Archive (Dilingen)
Further archive material:
Partial estate of Elisabeth Blochmann, Lower Saxony State and University Library in Göttingen
Hermann Nohl estate, Lower Saxony state and university library in Göttingen (PDF)
Georg Misch estate, Lower Saxony state and university library in Göttingen
Gustav Radbruch estate, Heidelberg University library
Reception of Heidegger’s Philosophy
Although the central aim of this project is to understand Blochmann in her own right, her relationship with Heidegger cannot be ignored. Not least because Blochmann herself considered Heidegger to be a strong influence on her own scholarship (see her final letter in 1969). The study of 'Heidegger's Children' and their reception of his philosophy is of considerable value to intellectual history and I intend to situate amidst contemporary disciples such as Hannah Arendt, Karl Lowith, Hans Jonas, and Emmanuel Levinas.
The Legacy of Elisabeth Blochmann
As I explore those questions, I hope to bring broader attention to her life and work. I take inspiration from Dr. Kruger-Ross who compiled a preliminary bibliography of Blochann’s publications and edited her Wikipedia page to remove a line that described her relationship with Heidegger as a ‘steamy love affair.’ I have also begun expanding her Wikipedia page to include more relevant and accurate information (see Project Blog). I have also begun developing a bibliography on Blochmann which will highlight the contribution of her colleagues who chronicled her academic achievements (see Bibliography). I hope to continue this work in the coming months.
I would love to hear from anyone who might be interested in collaboration or in supporting the project!