FRIEDRICH NIETZSCHE

FRIEDRICH NIETZSCHE

Friedrich Nietzsche, his thinking in confusion, collapsed on the streets of Turin, Italy, in 1889. The event marked the end of a decade during which the philosopher wrote and expanded his theories while migrating seasonally among favorite locales in Switzerland, Germany, France, and Italy, often in search of relief from chronic ailments and pain. Nietzsche’s mental breakdown signaled the end of a period of creative brilliance that produced some of the most remarkable and influential contributions to modern philosophy.

Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche was born on October 15, 1844, in the Prussian town of Röcken. His father, the town’s Lutheran pastor, died at an early age, and Friedrich, the household’s sole male, was brought up by his mother, paternal grandmother, and two aunts. Early signs of his genius did not go unrecognized; he was awarded a full scholarship to Prussia’s leading Protestant boarding school, where he wrote sophisticated essays and plays and composed music. An excellent student of German, Latin, and Greek, he attracted the attention of his teachers, who admired his obvious intelligence and deemed him an extraordinary talent.

In 1864 Nietzsche was admitted to the University of Bonn, where he studied theology and classical philology. Under the mentorship of his philology professor, he moved to the University of Leipzig, where he wrote essays on the ancient Greeks. On the basis of his published articles and the enthusiastic recommendations of his professors, he was offered a chair in philology at the University of Basel, Switzerland, in 1869. Nietzsche’s philosophical inclinations emerged as his writings moved beyond the interpretation of ancient texts to observations on and dissections of Western culture. In 1872 Nietzsche published his first book, The Birth of Tragedy, which provoked the critical ire of his fellow academics. In the early 1870s his budding friendship with the composer Richard Wagner began to deepen.

Nietzsche’s next major work, written over four years, was Untimely Meditations, a set of critiques of contemporary culture. In 1878 Nietzsche’s friendship with Wagner dissolved over profound intellectual and philosophical differences. That same year Nietzsche published Human, All Too Human, which was roundly criticized by Wagner and his wife. His health failing, Nietzsche resigned his position at Basel in 1879 and began a lonely period characterized by frequent travel. During an extraordinary decade he published a book a year, including The Gay Science (1882), in which he proclaimed that “God is dead,” Thus Spoke Zarathustra (1883-1885), Beyond Good and Evil (1886), and On the Genealogy of Morals (1887).

In the year before his breakdown Nietzsche completed Twilight of the Idols (1889), The Antichrist (1895), EcceHomo (1908), The Case of Wagner (1888), and Nietzsche Contra Wagner (1895). He finished the last book on Christmas day 1888. Then, on January 3, 1889, Nietzsche intervened in the beating of a horse, throwing his arms around the animal’s neck before collapsing in mental disarray on a street in Turin. He was returned to his mother’s house in Naumburg, Germany, in a state of near-total dementia. After the death of his mother in 1897, he came under the care of his sister, Elisabeth, who promptly positioned herself as the sole editor and executor of his works. Friedrich Nietzsche died on August 25, 1900.

Married to a radical anti-Semite, Elisabeth edited her brother’s writings through a prism of anti-Semitism. She ushered in a long and dark association of her brother’s philosophy with Aryanism, which culminated in the Nazis’ adoption of Nietzsche as a governing spirit. In the 1950s scholar and translator Walter Kaufmann revealed Elisabeth’s motivations and began the process of uncovering Nietzsche’s true philosophy