Friedrich Nietzsche

Summer has officially started for me. Now I have time to start reading some of the books I've bought throughout the past couple of months. Recently, I bought Nietzsche: Philosopher, Psychologist, Antichrist by Walter Kaufmann. The book is 400+ pages and was written in in the 1950's when the world was just being introduced to Nietzsche. What I like about this book so far is how well Kaufmann explains Nietzsche's arguments and thoughts. I've only read about a hundred pages of this book, but I already have a better understandng of Nietzsche. Just in case any one is interested in Nietzsche, I'm going to write a few blog posts about what I'm learning. I just finished the chapter on Nietzsche's background, so I'll give a brief summary on his background.

Nietzsche: Philosopher, Psychologist, Antichrist

Walter A. Kaufmann

Nietzsche was born in Rocken on October 15, 1844. His father was a Lutheran minister and the son of a minister. His father later became insane and eventually passed away when Nietzsche was only four. His mother was also the daughter of a minister. Nietzsche's only sibling was his sister, Elisabeth.

After studying classical philology in college, and at the early age of 24, Nietzsche became a professor at Basel University. He retired after ten years of teaching due to his poor health. It seems that Nietzsche was constantly plagued by pain and massive headaches.

In 1885, his sister, Elisabeth, married a prominent leader of the German anti-Semitic movement which Nietzsche loathed. Elisabeth and her husband eventually moved to Paraguay to found a Teutonic colony.

In January of 1889, Nietzsche collapsed  on the street in Turin. His best friend, Overbeck, after receiving an odd letter from Nietzsche, came to Nietzsche's aid and took him to the hospital. From there, he was then taken to an asylum. A doctor named Julius Langbehn claimed that he could cure Nietzsche, but his mother refused to leave Nietzsche at the asylum and took him home. It wasn't long until Nietzsche's whole right side was paralyzed and he became insane.

After his mother's death, his sister, after her husband's death, came back to Nietzsche's aid. By this time Nietzsche was very famous. In order to cash in on her brother's famous status, she acquired the rights to all of Nietzsche's writing and letters, and sued those who published material to which she could claim a right. His sister vilified his writings in attempt to further the Nazi cause in Germany. It wasn't long before some of Nietzsche's famous concepts were associated with Nazi Germany.

On August 25, 1900, Nietzsche died. Most experts believe that Nietzsche had probably contracted syphilis some years before, which led to his atypical general paralysis, his insanity, and ultimately his death.