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Martin Heidegger published Being and Time in 1927 and never finished it: the second half he announced in the book was not written. It still made him the most discussed German philosopher of his century. A year later he succeeded his teacher Edmund Husserl in the chair of philosophy at Freiburg, where he stayed for the rest of his life. In 1933 he became the university’s rector and joined the Nazi Party, a record that has shaped how he is read ever since, and again after his private Black Notebooks began to appear in 2014. Most of his later work came out as lectures and essays rather than books. This guide covers his 12 key books, in order, and where to begin.
By Lisanne Swart · 12 key books · 1927–2014 · Updated October 2026
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Quick answer
Martin Heidegger’s best-known book is Being and Time (Sein und Zeit, 1927). Others widely read are Introduction to Metaphysics (1953), the Letter on Humanism (1947) and The Question Concerning Technology (1954). Start with The Question Concerning Technology, a single essay; the page below gives all 12 key books with their German titles, and the facts on his Nazi Party membership and the Black Notebooks.
Where to Start with Martin Heidegger
If you want a short way in
→ The Question Concerning Technology (1954) — one essay on what modern technology does to how we see the world.
If you want his main work
→ Being and Time (1927) — long and demanding, best read with a companion or guide.
If you want his later thinking in his own summary
→ Letter on Humanism (1947) — his reply to the question of existentialism.
If you want art and poetry
→ Off the Beaten Track (1950) — it contains “The Origin of the Work of Art”.
12 Martin Heidegger Books, in Order
Being and Time
Heidegger asks what it means for anything to “be”, and starts with the one being that asks the question: the human being, which he calls Dasein. He describes it as being-in-the-world, shaped by care, anxiety, mortality and time. Only Division One and Division Two of the planned work appeared; the rest was abandoned. The first edition was dedicated to Edmund Husserl. English translations are by John Macquarrie and Edward Robinson (1962) and Joan Stambaugh (1996).
Kant and the Problem of Metaphysics
A reading of Kant’s Critique of Pure Reason as an inquiry into the finitude of human knowing rather than a theory of knowledge. It works out material Heidegger had planned for the unwritten part of Being and Time and appeared in 1929, two years after it.
What Is Metaphysics?
His inaugural lecture as professor at Freiburg in 1929. It asks about “the nothing” and the mood of anxiety in which it is encountered. The lecture was later collected in Pathmarks.
Letter on Humanism
A long letter written in December 1946 in answer to questions from the French philosopher Jean Beaufret, and reworked for publication in 1947. Heidegger distances himself from Jean-Paul Sartre’s existentialism, arguing that reversing a metaphysical claim (“existence precedes essence”) remains metaphysics. It is the clearest statement of how his thinking had changed since Being and Time.
Off the Beaten Track
Six essays from 1935 to 1946, published by Klostermann in 1950. The best known is “The Origin of the Work of Art”, which uses a painting of a pair of shoes by Vincent van Gogh and a Greek temple to argue that an artwork opens up a “world” against the “earth”. The English edition appeared with Cambridge University Press in 2002.
Introduction to Metaphysics
A lecture course given at Freiburg in the summer of 1935, published in 1953. It opens with the question “Why are there beings at all instead of nothing?” and reads early Greek thinkers and Sophocles. Its reference to the “inner truth and greatness” of the Nazi movement prompted a critical review by the young Jürgen Habermas in 1953. Translated by Ralph Manheim (1959) and by Gregory Fried and Richard Polt (2000).
What Is Called Thinking?
Lectures from 1951–52, given after he was allowed to teach again at Freiburg. Heidegger argues that real thinking is rare and must be learned, working through Nietzsche, Parmenides and the German phrase was heißt Denken, which can mean both “what is called thinking” and “what calls for thinking”.
The Question Concerning Technology
Developed from a lecture given in Bremen in 1949 and published in 1954 in Vorträge und Aufsätze. Heidegger argues that the essence of modern technology is not machines but a way of revealing the world, which he calls Gestell (enframing): nature, and people, appear as “standing-reserve”, resources on call. William Lovitt’s English translation appeared in 1977.
Discourse on Thinking
A short book published by Neske in 1959: a memorial address given in his home town of Meßkirch and a dialogue on a country path, drawn from conversations written in 1944–45. Its subject is Gelassenheit, a calm “releasement” towards things, including technology, as opposed to calculating thought.
On the Way to Language
Essays and lectures from the 1950s on what language is, many of them through poetry, including readings of Georg Trakl and Stefan George. It includes “A Dialogue on Language” between a Japanese visitor and an “Inquirer”.
Contributions to Philosophy
Written in 1936–38 and kept back during his lifetime, it appeared in 1989, his centenary year, as volume 65 of his collected works. Many readers treat it as the main work of his later thinking: a set of numbered sections on Ereignis, “the event”. It is harder to read than Being and Time.
The Black Notebooks
Philosophical notebooks Heidegger kept from October 1931 to 1970, published in nine volumes of his collected works (94 to 102), edited by Peter Trawny for Klostermann; the first volumes appeared in 2014. Passages criticised as antisemitic reopened the debate about his relation to National Socialism. The first English volumes are titled Ponderings.
In What Order to Read Martin Heidegger
Publication order is misleading with Heidegger, because much of his work appeared decades after he wrote it: Introduction to Metaphysics is a 1935 lecture course published in 1953, and Contributions to Philosophy was written in the 1930s and published in 1989. Scholars usually divide him into the early work around Being and Time and the later thinking after his “turn” (Kehre), which is about art, language, technology and dwelling.
For most readers, the short later essays are the easiest way in, then Being and Time with a guide. Read the Black Notebooks last, with the background on his political record.
A reading path
1. The Question Concerning Technology (1954)
2. Letter on Humanism (1947)
3. What Is Metaphysics? (1929)
4. Being and Time (1927)
5. Off the Beaten Track (1950)
Everything Else Martin Heidegger Published
Beyond the 12 key books: 3 more, grouped by kind.
Open a group with the + to see every book in it.
Other books in his lifetime
3
3 books · 1957–1967
- 1957Identity and DifferenceIdentität und Differenz, two lectures from 1957
- 1961NietzscheNietzsche, his lecture courses on Nietzsche, in two volumes
- 1967PathmarksWegmarken, essays from five decades, including What Is Metaphysics? and the Letter on Humanism
The years · 1889–2014
Quick facts about Martin Heidegger
- Known for
- Writing Being and Time (1927), one of the most influential works of twentieth-century philosophy, and for his membership of the Nazi Party from 1933 to 1945
- 1889
- Born in Meßkirch, Baden
- 1927
- Being and Time
- 1976
- Dies in Freiburg, aged 86
- 2014
- First Black Notebooks published
- Born
- 26 September 1889, Meßkirch, Grand Duchy of Baden
- Died
- 26 May 1976, Freiburg im Breisgau; buried in Meßkirch
- Education
- University of Freiburg: doctorate 1914, habilitation 1916
- Posts
- Marburg from 1923; Husserl’s successor at Freiburg from 1928; rector 1933–34
- Married
- Elfride Petri, in 1917; two sons
- Collected works
- The Gesamtausgabe, published by Klostermann since 1975, more than 100 volumes
The red mark is 1927: Being and Time, the book his reputation rests on.
How Martin Heidegger Writes: Old Words, New Uses
Heidegger builds his own vocabulary out of ordinary German. Dasein, everyday German for “existence”, literally “being-there”, becomes his word for the human being; compounds such as In-der-Welt-sein (being-in-the-world) are hyphenated to keep together what philosophy usually splits. This is why translations differ so much, and why English editions often leave key terms in German.
He works through close readings and etymology rather than argument in the usual sense: a word in Heraclitus or Parmenides, a line by Hölderlin, a Van Gogh painting. His later work is mostly lectures, essays and dialogues rather than systematic books, and it often proceeds by questions. His critics objected to exactly this style: Theodor Adorno attacked it in The Jargon of Authenticity (1964), and A. J. Ayer called him a charlatan.
His influence runs through Jean-Paul Sartre’s existentialism, Hannah Arendt, Hans-Georg Gadamer and Jacques Derrida, and through hermeneutics, environmental thought and the philosophy of technology. Since 2014 the Black Notebooks have added a second question to every reading: how far his thought and his politics can be separated.
Frequently asked questions about Martin Heidegger’s books
How many books has Martin Heidegger written?
He published relatively few books in his lifetime; most of his work was lectures and essays. His collected works, the Gesamtausgabe, begun in 1975, run to more than 100 volumes. This page covers 12 key books, from Being and Time (1927) to the Black Notebooks (2014), plus three more listed separately.
What are Martin Heidegger’s books in order?
Being and Time (1927), Kant and the Problem of Metaphysics (1929), What Is Metaphysics? (1929), Letter on Humanism (1947), Off the Beaten Track (1950), Introduction to Metaphysics (1953), What Is Called Thinking? (1954), The Question Concerning Technology (1954), Discourse on Thinking (1959), On the Way to Language (1959), Contributions to Philosophy (1989) and the Black Notebooks (from 2014).
Where should I start with Martin Heidegger?
With The Question Concerning Technology (1954), a single essay on how modern technology makes everything appear as a resource. Then try the Letter on Humanism or What Is Metaphysics? before Being and Time, which is long and best read with a guide.
What is Martin Heidegger’s most famous book?
Being and Time (Sein und Zeit, 1927). It analyses human existence, which Heidegger calls Dasein, as being-in-the-world, shaped by care, anxiety, death and time. It influenced existentialism, hermeneutics and much of later continental philosophy.
Was Martin Heidegger a Nazi?
He joined the Nazi Party on 1 May 1933, shortly after being elected rector of the University of Freiburg in April 1933, and remained a member until 1945. He resigned as rector in April 1934. After the war a denazification process classed him in 1949 as a “follower” (Mitläufer); he was barred from teaching until 1950–51. In a 1966 interview with Der Spiegel, published after his death in 1976, he defended his conduct. The Black Notebooks, published from 2014, contain passages criticised as antisemitic; in January 2015 Günter Figal resigned as chair of the Martin Heidegger Society, citing them.
Is Being and Time finished?
No. The book as published contains an introduction and two divisions of its first part. The second half Heidegger announced, including a “destruction” of the history of philosophy, was never written; parts of it appear in later lectures such as Kant and the Problem of Metaphysics (1929).
Was Heidegger an existentialist?
He is often grouped with the existentialists because Sartre drew heavily on Being and Time, but he rejected the label. In the Letter on Humanism (1947) he argued that Sartre’s “existence precedes essence” only reverses a metaphysical claim and so stays within metaphysics.
What was the relationship between Heidegger and Hannah Arendt?
Arendt was his student at Marburg. In 1925, when she was 19 and he was 35 and married, they began a secret affair that lasted about four years.
What is Dasein in Heidegger?
Dasein is ordinary German for “existence”, literally “being-there”. In Being and Time Heidegger uses it for the kind of being humans have: a being for whom its own being is an issue, always already in a world, and aware that it will die.
When did Martin Heidegger die?
On 26 May 1976 at his home in Freiburg, aged 86. He was buried in his home town of Meßkirch.
Footnotes
- Martin Heidegger — Wikipedia
- Being and Time — Wikipedia
- Black Notebooks — Wikipedia
- Introduction to Metaphysics (Heidegger book) — Wikipedia
- Heidegger Gesamtausgabe — Wikipedia
- Germany’s Heidegger Society Chair Resigns — Daily Nous, 2015
Bibliography last verified 9 October 2026. Where sources give different first-publication years, this page uses the year in library catalogues or the publisher’s own record.
This list was not put together by a machine.
The notes are all mine,
and the books are all his.
Lisanne x
Written by Lisanne Swart, who has curated reading lists and author guides at lisanneswart.com since 2021.
See more on her personal bookshelf.
“Language is the house of being.”
— Martin Heidegger, Letter on Humanism (1947)
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