GA16:378 – polemos

The word πόλεμος, with which the fragment begins, does not mean “war,” but what is meant by the word ἔρις, which Heraclitus uses in the same sense. But that means “strife” – strife, however, understood not as dispute and squabbling and mere disagreement, and certainly not as use of force and beating down the opponent – but as confrontation that sets those who confront one another apart,¹ so that in such setting-apart the essential being of those who thus confront one another exposes itself, one to the other, and thus shows itself and comes to appearance, and that is to say, thinking appearance in a Greek manner: enters into what is unconcealed and true. Because battle is reciprocal recognition that exposes itself to what is essential, the address, which orients this questioning and meditating towards “battle,” keeps speaking of “being-exposed” (“Ausgesetztheit”). That what is said here lies in the direction of the Heraclitean saying is shown with the greatest clarity by that saying itself. One only has to heed a second point.

[Heidegger, Martin, The Self-Assertion of the German University and The Rectorate 1933/34: Facts and Thoughts, Review of Metaphysics, 38:3 (1985:Mar.)]