‘Better a Lebemeister than a Thousand Lesemeister’: On the History of a Phrase in Heidegger, Landauer, and Eckhart

This essay begins by examining Martin Heidegger’s and Gustav Landauer’s influential interpretations of Eckhart as a Lebemeister, a ‘master or teacher of living’. The essay then turns to the source on which they both rely, a source that may be the earliest attestation of the use of the word Lebemeister. This source, which is little known in its complete form, is all more noteworthy as it contrasts the figure of the Lebemeister with that of the Lesemeister, the ‘master or teacher of reading’. (Lese refers literally to ‘reading’; we might also say ‘letters’, in the sense of a ‘person of letters’ who possesses extensive book learning.) Commenting on this source, the essay interrogates to what extent Heidegger and Landauer do justice to it. It concludes with a reflection on how best to label Eckhart, above all in view of the ultimate master: Jesus Christ.