Friedrich Nietzsche

Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche was born in the village of Röcken near Leipzig, to Carl Ludwig Nietzsche, a Lutheran pastor, and Franziska Oehler. He was named after King Friedrich Wilhelm IV of Prussia, whose birthday he shared. The family lived in the parsonage, and Friedrich grew up surrounded by religious traditions and pastoral life. Tragically, his father died of a brain ailment when Friedrich was only four years old, and his younger brother died six months later. These early losses profoundly affected him. The family moved to Naumburg, where he was raised by his mother, sister, grandmother, and two maiden aunts in an entirely female household, which shaped his later complex views on women and Christianity.

Nietzsche gained admission to Schulpforta, one of Germany's leading preparatory schools with a rigorous classical curriculum. The school emphasized ancient Greek and Latin, which became Nietzsche's passion. He excelled academically and developed his love for philology, music (especially Wagner), and poetry. He also began experiencing severe migraines and eye problems that would plague him throughout his life. At Schulpforta, he wrote his first philosophical essays and began questioning religious doctrines, showing early signs of the iconoclastic thinker he would become. The intensive classical education gave him direct access to Greek philosophy and tragedy, which would fundamentally shape his mature thought.

Nietzsche enrolled at the University of Bonn to study theology and philology, initially to fulfill his mother's wish that he become a pastor like his father. However, he soon abandoned theology, declaring he could not believe in Christian doctrines. He focused entirely on philology under Friedrich Wilhelm Ritschl. He also joined a student fraternity and briefly indulged in drinking and dueling, though he soon found student life superficial. His loss of Christian faith was a pivotal moment, marking his embrace of intellectual independence. This period saw the beginning of his lifelong health problems, including severe migraines and digestive issues, which he attributed partly to his intense study habits and emotional stress.

Nietzsche followed his mentor Ritschl to the University of Leipzig, where he continued his philological studies with great distinction. In Leipzig, he discovered Schopenhauer's 'The World as Will and Representation' in a used bookstore, a transformative encounter that shaped his early philosophical outlook with its pessimism and emphasis on will over reason. He also began his friendship with Erwin Rohde, a fellow philology student who became a lifelong correspondent. During this period, Nietzsche published several impressive papers on classical texts, establishing his reputation as a brilliant young scholar. His work was so outstanding that Ritschl began promoting him for academic positions even before he completed his degree.

On Ritschl's strong recommendation, Nietzsche was appointed full professor of classical philology at the University of Basel at the extraordinary age of 24, before even completing his doctorate. Leipzig awarded him a doctorate without examination based on his published papers. This early appointment was unprecedented and reflected his exceptional talent. Moving to Basel, he became a Swiss citizen (renouncing his Prussian citizenship) and began teaching. He developed friendships with historian Jacob Burckhardt and, most importantly, with composer Richard Wagner, who lived nearby in Tribschen. His intense friendship with Wagner, whom he idolized as a genius of German culture, would profoundly influence his early work but later end in bitter disillusionment.

Nietzsche published his first book, 'The Birth of Tragedy from the Spirit of Music,' which challenged traditional classical scholarship. He argued that Greek tragedy arose from the fusion of two artistic impulses: the Apollonian (reason, order, individuation) and the Dionysian (passion, chaos, collective ecstasy). He claimed that tragedy declined when Socratic rationalism destroyed the Dionysian element, and that Wagner's music dramas represented a rebirth of tragic art. The book was revolutionary but controversial, condemned by established philologists for its speculative approach and lack of rigorous scholarship. The negative reception damaged his academic reputation and isolated him from the philological community. However, the work introduced themes—the critique of Socratic rationalism, the value of art over truth, the importance of affirmation despite suffering—that would define his philosophy.

Nietzsche published 'Human, All Too Human,' marking a dramatic shift in his philosophical approach and his break with Wagner. The book adopted an aphoristic style and a more scientific, psychological approach to philosophy, analyzing human beliefs and morality as products of very human needs and errors. He sent a copy to Wagner, who was reportedly offended by its critique of metaphysics and romanticism. Their friendship ended, with Wagner mocking Nietzsche's book in his own writings. This period also marked Nietzsche's worsening health. His chronic migraines, eye problems, and digestive issues became so severe that he took a leave from teaching. The book represented his 'Free Spirit' phase, emphasizing skepticism and the questioning of all received values.

Nietzsche's health deteriorated to the point where he could no longer fulfill his teaching duties. He resigned from the University of Basel at age 34, receiving a modest pension. His ailments—severe migraines, near-blindness, vomiting, insomnia—became so debilitating that he could barely work a few hours a day. For the next decade, he lived a nomadic existence, moving between Swiss mountain resorts, the French Riviera, and Italian cities, constantly seeking climates that might relieve his suffering. This wandering, isolated existence—with minimal human contact and long hours alone with his thoughts—shaped his most creative and productive period. Despite his physical torment, or perhaps because of it, he developed his philosophy of affirming life and overcoming suffering.

Nietzsche began publishing 'Thus Spoke Zarathustra,' his most famous and innovative work, written in a prophetic, poetic style modeled on the Bible and ancient wisdom literature. The book introduced his central concepts through the character of Zarathustra, a prophet descending from mountain solitude to teach humanity: the Übermensch (Overman), the death of God, the eternal recurrence, and the will to power. Part One was written in just ten days in a burst of creative inspiration. He would complete the work in four parts over the next two years. The book represented his vision of humanity's potential for self-overcoming and self-creation. Initially, the book sold very poorly and was largely ignored, causing Nietzsche great frustration and sadness, as he considered it his masterpiece and a gift to humanity.

Nietzsche published 'Beyond Good and Evil: Prelude to a Philosophy of the Future,' a systematic but aphoristic work that attacked conventional morality and philosophy. He argued that traditional concepts of good and evil were products of a 'slave morality' created by the weak to constrain the strong, contrasting it with an aristocratic 'master morality' that affirms life, power, and excellence. The book criticized virtually all previous philosophers for their dogmatism and their denial of life. He promoted his concept of perspectivism—the idea that there are no absolute truths, only interpretations from various perspectives. The work was self-published at his own expense and sold few copies initially, adding to his sense of being an unrecognized genius laboring in obscurity.

Nietzsche published 'On the Genealogy of Morals,' perhaps his most systematic and influential work, which provided a historical and psychological account of the origin of moral values. In three essays, he traced how 'good' originally meant noble and powerful, but was transformed by priestly classes into its opposite; how guilt and bad conscience arose from the internalization of aggressive instincts; and how ascetic ideals dominated Western culture. The work introduced his concept of 'ressentiment'—the resentful hatred of the weak for the strong that creates slave morality. The book's psychological penetration and philological rigor made it more influential than his more poetic works, and it laid the foundation for much of 20th-century moral psychology and critique of morality.

Nietzsche suffered a severe mental breakdown in Turin's Piazza Carlo Alberto. According to legend, he saw a horse being whipped by its owner, threw his arms around the horse's neck, and collapsed. He never recovered his sanity. In the following days, he sent bizarre letters signed 'Dionysus' or 'The Crucified' to friends, declaring himself a god and making grandiose claims. His friend Franz Overbeck rushed to Turin and brought him back to Basel, then to a clinic. The cause of his collapse has been debated—possibilities include syphilis, brain tumor, or inherited mental illness. For the remaining eleven years of his life, he lived in a state of mental oblivion, first in clinics and then cared for by his mother and sister, no longer able to write or recognize his significance.

Nietzsche died in Weimar after suffering multiple strokes, having spent the last eleven years in mental darkness. During these years, his works finally began receiving recognition and his fame grew, but he was incapable of understanding this. His sister Elisabeth, who cared for him, took control of his literary estate and later manipulated his writings to support her own nationalist and anti-Semitic views, which were contrary to Nietzsche's actual philosophy. His funeral was attended by a small group of friends and admirers. He was buried in the churchyard in Röcken, ironically next to the church where his pastor father had served. Nietzsche's posthumous influence would be enormous and controversial: inspiring existentialism, postmodernism, and psychology, but also being misappropriated by the Nazis. His radical questioning of truth, morality, and meaning profoundly shaped 20th-century thought, making him one of the most influential and misunderstood philosophers in history.