The fact that Eros played a decisive role in Heidegger's life and work is gradually becoming apparent, even to those who previously only wanted to see him as a staid Alemannic provincial.

This became public at the latest with the publication of the letters to his wife Elfriede in 2005 (“My dear little soul”).

Here, through the letters and the editor, one learned of many of Heidegger's love affairs;

of love affairs, which eventually drove his wife into a severe depression.

On the other hand, during the marriage his wife had fathered a child with another man, which Heidegger adopted.

He entrusted the administration of his estate to him, not to his biological child.

This prompted some interpreters to characterize Heidegger's marriage as an "open" one.

Heidegger would probably not have agreed with this adjective,

So far, Heidegger's relationship with Eleonore Otte, which has spanned decades, has gone almost unnoticed.

The author of these lines became aware of this when a leaf with a love poem that was in Mrs. Otte's estate fell into his hands.

It is in German cursive and clearly written by Heidegger's hand.

The verses were written on a soft pink sheet of paper folded in half, 21 centimeters wide and 14.8 centimeters high.

This includes a leaflet, 10.5 centimeters wide and 14.8 centimeters high, with the inscription: "In memory of R." "R." most likely stands for Rottweil, where people often met in the hotel.

The sheets were inserted in the book: Martin Heidegger, Lectures and Essays, published in 1954. The book bears the dedication: "E / to commemorate / to R / M".

Heidegger destroyed her letters

Further research revealed that the Marbach Literature Archive contained a bundle of letters: from Heidegger to Otte from the years 1930 to 1976, handwritten in the original, from Otte to Heidegger from the years 1945 to 1969 as drafts.

As was not unusual in the past, Frau Otte first drafted the letters, corrected them, supplemented them and then wrote them clean.

The fair copies of the letters can be considered lost, destroyed by Heidegger's hand.

135 letters from Heidegger on 253 sheets have been preserved, including poems and enclosures (such as picture postcards or dried grass and flowers), as well as three certificates for the student Otte from the years 1930/31.

The places where these letters originated and were dispatched are primarily Freiburg and Messkirch.

There are 139 letters from Otte's drafts on 229 sheets. The places of dispatch are, among others, Cologne and Neuhaus, a part of the municipality of Schliersee.

At his request, the letters to Heidegger were usually sent poste restante.

The exchange of letters will certainly become important for the Heidegger biography.

On the other hand, he contributes little to the understanding of the work in the narrower sense.