Some call
Friedrich Nietzsche the father of the Nazi party. Was Nietzsche's ideas twisted
and warped by a needy country? Nietzsche
himself despised the middle and lower class people. Was it Nietzsche's Will to Power theory that
spawned one of the greatest patriotic movements of the twentieth century? These are some of the questions I had when
first researching Friedrich Nietzsche for the following paper.
Friedrich Nietzsche, at one time called
"the arch enemy of Christianity"(Bentley, p.82), was born into a line
of Protestant Clergyman on October 15, 1844.
During Nietzsche's early years, he gave no indication that he would not
follow in his families' clergy tradition.
As a boy, Nietzsche considered himself a devout Lutheran. At age six(two years after his father passed
away)Nietzsche, his mother and sister moved to the small town of Naumburg. When Nietzsche was twelve he wrote "I
saw God in all his glory"(Bentley, p.82).
Later his description of his own
mental state was one of Gottergebenheit; "surrender to God"(Bentley,
p.82). At a very early age Nietzsche
had already displayed an aptitude for highly intellectual prowess. At fourteen, Nietzsche left his home of
Naumburg and went to an exclusive boarding school at the nearby Schulpforta
Academy. The school was famous for its
grandeur of alumni that included "Klopstock and Fichte"(Brett-Evans,
p.76). "It was here that Nietzsche
received the thorough education in Greek and Latin that set him upon the road
to classical philology."(Brett-Evans, p. 76) On many occasions Nietzsche's zeal to prove
himself at the Pforta school spurned legendary tales. One certain tale is when Nietzsche
"could not bear to hear of the courage of Mucius Scaevol, who did not
flinch when his hand was burnt off, without seizing a box of matches and firing
them against his own hand."(Bentley, p.84)
At the age of twenty, Nietzsche left to attend Bonn University. By this time Nietzsche had come to think of
himself as an "aristocrat whose great virtues are fearlessness and
willingness to assume leadership."(Bentley, p.85) Ironically, Nietzsche planned to study
theology(to please his mother). At this
time Nietzsche no longer believed in Christianity, because "with maturity
he lost his heavenly father"(Bentley, p.86). In 1868 Nietzsche was a student in
Leipzig. This is when he met Cosima and
Richard Wagner. The latter was a
world-renowned musical artist. Both of
these individuals were crucial to Nietzsche's development as a
philosopher.
Theognis was a poet of the sixth century
B.C. This man supplied Nietzsche with
the idea that an aristocracy "should be scientifically bred like
horses"(Bentley, p.85) When
Nietzsche was twenty, he had acquired a diverse set of opinions and
attitudes. He had been taught to
"admire strong politicians and to think of himself as an aristocrat whose
great virtues are fearlessness and willingness to assume
leadership."(Bentley, p. 85)
Despite his own personal efforts to be bad and mean, Nietzsche remained innocent and caring. The first major school of thought that
Nietzche adhered to was because of the writings of Schopenhauer. After purchasing Artur Schopenhauer's The
World as Will and Idea, a book on metaphysics,
Nietzsche wrote, "I saw a mirror in which I espied the whole world,
life and my own mind depicted in frightful grandeur. In this volume the full celestial eye of art
gazed at me; here I saw illness and recovery, banishment and
refuge, Hell and Heaven."(Bentley, p.87)
Nietzsche went back and forth with these opposites for the rest of his
life. Deviant from Schopenhauer's class
theory, Nietzsche's "endeavor was
not so much to elevate the practical man to the first rank as to merge
Schopenhauer's first three ranks into one superhuman being."(Bentley,
p.89) As Nietzsche did with all of his
youthful inspirations, he turned against Schopenhauer. "The name of Schopenhauer was the flag
under which he was proud, for a time, to advance."(Bentley, p.89) The second major influence in Nietzsche's
development was the Wagners, Richard and
Cosima. Nietzsche was captivated by
Richard Wagner. Nietzsche personally
thought the reason behind this was Wagner's musical art and talent. Nietzsche's sister Elizabeth was "closer
to the truth in her belief that what held Nietzsche was Wagner's tremendous
will power and instinct of command.
Wagner, Nietzsche thought for a time, was the highest of higher men and
he held the key to a new epoch of art and and new epoch of life."(Bentley,
p. 91) Wagner was the only man Nietzsche
knew that personified his will-to-power theory. In essence, Wager was Nietzsche's superman.
Nietzsche is given credit for the National
Socialism movement in Germany that began in the 1930's. Far more damaging to his reputation has been
the course of German history from his death(1900) to 1945. "To claim him, as National Socialism
did, as a prophet of the superiority of
the Germanic race and an advocate of German world domination is only possible
by ignoring the greater part of what he wrote."(Brett-Evans, p.81) Matter-of-factly, Nietzsche sternly despised
anti-Semites. At certain times, there
was not a harsher critic of racist German nationlism. But some questions arise out of these
statements. What of the comments
Nietzsche made concerning the "will-to-power" theory, the constant
reference to the "superman",
and his sometimes vigorous patriotism?
One of the most significant contributions Nietzsche made was in the area
of psychology not philosophy. One of
the "most significant conclusions he came to in this field was that
traditional morality consists of different expressions for the same thing, that
"good" actions and "bad" actions can ultimately derive from
the same motive."(Brett-Evans, p.80)
In truth I believe that Friedrich Nietzsche was a visionary who was
never able to replace his earthly Father or his heavenly Father. This led to his strange emotional
relationship with women. His only friends
were those women who he had failed relationships with and men who he quarreled
with. In the end, Nietzsche died of
syphilis that was allegedly contracted while in college.
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