Friedrich Nietzsche

Nietzsche grew up in a religious family in Röcken, near Leipzig (in present-day Germany), with his grandmother, mother, and two younger sisters. His father and younger brother died when he was a young boy. Soon after commencing undergraduate studies in theology at the University of Bonn, Nietzsche abandoned his goal because he felt that historical evidence undermined the teachings of Christianity. Nietzsche decided to pursue philology (the study of the history of languages) instead, and he became heavily influenced by Schopenhauer’s philosophy (which had a profound influence on his thought). When Nietzsche was 24 years old, he landed a prestigious academic post in classical philology at the University of Basel, where he worked for 10 years. During this decade, Nietzsche became a close friend of composer Richard Wagner and wrote extensively in praise of Wagner’s work, but he found himself growing disillusioned with Wagner’s nationalist political views during the formation of the German Empire. Nietzsche ended his friendship with Wagner before resigning his post in Basel due to ill health in 1878. For the next decade of his life, Nietzsche lived nomadically, traveling and writing in Europe as a stateless person. He planned to start an academic commune with his close friends Paul Ree and Lou Salome, but his plan failed after Salome rejected Nietzsche’s marriage proposal and distanced herself from Nietzsche. By 1882, Nietzsche was alienated from most of his social acquaintances, as well as his family (particularly his sister Elisabeth, who had grown increasingly anti-Semitic). Nietzsche began habitually using drugs, including opium and chloral hydrate, while his health continued to decline. Shortly after publishing On the Genealogy of Morals, Nietzsche had a mental breakdown and was diagnosed with syphilis in 1889. Nietzsche’s sisters and mother cared for him at home for the final decade of his life. Despite his tumultuous life, Nietzsche published over 15 philosophical books, beginning with The Birth of Tragedy in 1872 and ending with Ecco Homo (written in 1888 but published posthumously in 1906). Nietzsche’s philosophical writing had a profound influence on philosophy, giving rise to existentialism, critical theory, structuralism, and post-structuralist movements that dominated philosophical discourse for the subsequent century. Nietzsche’s writing style is earmarked by his tendency to favor poetic aphorisms and controversial polemics over dry academic writing.