FREE ESSAY ON FRIEDRICH NIETZSCHE

FRIEDRICH NIETZSCHE

Friedrich Nietzsche
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 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, a 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 nationalism. 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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