Martin Heidegger was born in Germany in 1889. He studied Catholic theology and philosophy at the University of Freiburg, where he was a student of Husserl, the founder of phenomenology. He began his teaching career in Freiburg in 1915. From the outset, his teaching attracted attention, and his fame spread throughout Germany. In 1927, he published his most famous work, Being and Time, in which he posits that the task of philosophy is to fully and completely determine the meaning of being.
His vast influence has sometimes been overshadowed by the controversy surrounding his brief affiliation with the Nazi party in 1933, which he announced in his inaugural lecture at the University of Freiburg. His subsequent resignation from the chair did not prevent his dismissal from teaching after the Allied occupation of Germany at the end of World War II. However, he later regained some of his prestige as a distinction began to be drawn between his political stance and his work as a philosopher.