Friedrich Nietzsche is one of the most well-known German philosophers and influential thinkers of the 19th century. He is considered one of the first existentialist philosophers and his work influenced many future philosophers. He undoubtedly had an impact on 19th century philosophy and that impact continues on even today. However, most of Nietzsche’s views went against the popular and conventional beliefs of his time. His ideas challenged Christianity, contemporary German culture and traditional morality, which as a result, created a great deal of controversy. Nietzsche is also one of the most misunderstood philosophers and his work is often misconstrued, never more than with the Nazis. The Nazis claimed that Nietzsche was one of their biggest inspirations. They had an attraction to Nietzsche's ideas, such as his attacks against Democracy, Christianity, and Parliamentary Governments. They took a lot their like-mindedness towards Nietzsche from his work The Will to Power. The controversy comes from whether or not this was Nietzsche’s intention or if his work was taken out of context by the Nazis for their own interpretation. Although Nietzsche may have had a similar attitude towards concepts such as religion, the will to power, and the idea of an Übermensch (Superhuman) that the Nazis coincided with, his work was not intended to be used in reference to, or in support of, Nazism and/or Fascism. The Nazis misused Nietzsche's philosophy, misinterpreted his views and distorted his intentions to further support their own objectives. One must first know a little history of both Nietzsche and the Nazis before being able to establish any connection between the two. Friedrich Nietzsche was born on October 15, 1844 in the small German village of Röcken bei Lützen. He was named after the Prussian King, Friedrich Wilhelm IV because of the fact that he was born on the King’s birthday. Ironically, the man who is famously known for his statement in his book The Gay Science that “God is dead” came from a very religious Lutheran family. His father was the town minister and his uncle and grandfather were also ministers as well. Nietzsche’s childhood was shaken when at the young age of five his father died from a brain ailment after suffering a head injury from a fall the previous year. The young Nietzsche was devastated and to make matters worse, six months later he lost his two year old brother as well. These incidents greatly affected Nietzsche and he often referred to them in later writings. It was during this time shortly after the death of his father and brother that Nietzsche started to question religion, and more so, God. He had a hard time understanding how this all mighty God of love could be so cruel as to make a man, who was preaching his word, suffer so much and ultimately die a painful death. Not to mention also taking the innocent life of a two year old child. To Nietzsche, this just didn’t make sense and seemed very unfair. Soon after the death of his father and brother, his mother took the young Nietzsche and his sister to live with his grandmother and two aunts in Naumburg. Despite the fact that Nietzsche had started to have his doubts about God, at the age of fourteen he was awarded a scholarship to enter the preparatory school Schulpforta with the intent of training for the clergy and following in the footsteps of his father, uncle and grandfather. He graduated with a thesis on Theognis. He then shifted his intentions and proceeded to the universities of Bonn and Leipzig to study classical philology. At first Nietzsche had studied theology and classical philology, but in 1865 he gave up theology and followed his favorite teacher, Friedrich Ritschl, to Leipzig (Kaufman 26). At this time in Nietzsche’s life he no longer believed in Christianity. In 1869, at only 24 years old, Nietzsche became a professor of classical philology at the University of Basil. He taught there for the next ten years and it was during this time in 1872 that one of his first major publications, The Birth of Tragedy, earned him some notoriety in the philosophy circle. Unfortunately Nietzsche had to resign from his professorship in 1879 due to chronic ill health. For many years he had suffered from debilitating migraines that would literally paralyze him with pain. Despite the fact that he had resigned from teaching, he continued to write. Many of his well-known works were written during this time such as Daybreak (1881), The Gay Science (1882/1887), Thus Spoke Zarathustra (1883–85), Beyond Good and Evil (1886), and On the Genealogy of Morals (1887). Nietzsche's final active year of writing was in 1888. During this year he wrote The Case of Wagner, Twilight of the Idols, The Antichrist, Ecce Homo (although not released until 1908) and Nietzsche Contra Wagner. Concepts of Nietzsche’s writings and philosophy include the idea of life-affirmation, development of the individual’s wellbeing. He strongly believed in concentrating on the realities of the world we live in, rather than on those in a world beyond, such religion does with the idea of heaven.
After suffering with poor health for the majority of his life, in January 1889 while walking the streets of Turin, Italy, Nietzsche suddenly collapsed. This was followed by a psychotic breakdown which resulted in him being admitted to a mental asylum and then released to the care of his mother and sister. After suffering from mental and physical paralysis, Friedrich Nietzsche died on August 25, 1900 at the age of 55. The reason for his death is most commonly thought of as the result of syphilis. However some argue it was actually a type of dementia that specifically affects the frontal and temporal lobes. Regardless of which condition it was, both would explain the insanity and poor mental and physical health he experienced in his later years. The year after Nietzsche’s death, his sister Elizabeth published The Will to Power in which Nietzsche had been working on up until his death. The Will to Power is based on a series of notes from Nietzsche’s own journals. It is, by far, the main piece of his work that had been distorted and misinterpreted, especially by the Nazis. Nazism, also known as National Socialism, was an ideology first developed by Adolf Hitler who was one of the 20th century’s most powerful dictators. Hitler was primarily responsible for World War II and the death of millions of people. He encouraged fascism, racism, anti-Semitism and the rule of the Aryan master race over all other races. In 1941 the Nazis, under Hitler’s orders, constructed killing centers, also known as concentration camps. It was here that anyone not of the Aryan race was sent to and the majority of them met their demise. Hitler used the poor economic condition of Germany at the time to gain complete control over the country. This resulted in the holocaust which is the most horrifying account of Jewish persecution to date. It took place in Europe from 1933 to 1945 when Adolf Hitler tried to eliminate all people that he thought was inferior to the Germans, particularly the Jews. Hitler wanted a pure Aryan state and a country that had a superior race over the rest of the world. The result was the massacre of approximately six million Jews and millions of other non-Aryan races. To this day, Hitler’s name is synonymous with evil. So how does a philosopher such as Nietzsche, who’s consider one of the most intellectual thinkers of his time, become associated with someone like Hitler and the holocaust? How did Nietzsche obtain such a horrible nickname like Father of Fascism? These are both questions that raise a lot of controversy and debate, even today. Most of the Nazis who use Nietzsche as a defense to their beliefs get it from Nietzsche’s key concept of the will to power. Nietzsche believed that there was a driving force in man, something that gave a person ambition and made one strive to reach the highest possible position in life. He considered these all indications of mans will to power. The will to power is a principle that Nietzsche used to explain the nature of human behavior, life energies and the nature of existence itself. It is a desire for increasing development and strength of one kind or another. This concept by Nietzsche never made it into a formal book during his lifetime but after his death his sister, Elizabeth, compiled all of Nietzsche’s notebooks and published them under the title The Will to Power. During the Nazi rule between 1933 and 1945 Nietzsche’s writings were commonly studied in Germany. However, the Nazis only utilized certain selective readings of Nietzsche’s work. Basically they took whatever they thought fit into their ideology and discarded the rest. For example, they used the following quote to support their social program for woman:
“Man shall be trained for war and woman for the procreation of the warrior, anything else is folly. Women belong in the kitchen and their chief role in life is to beget children for German warriors" (Shirer 99).
Nietzsche’s intentions for the will to power were not necessarily toward any political or economic power like the Nazis had interpreted but instead an internal power. It was more about self- awareness and the power to overcome one’s own limitations.
“Thus, the distinction or power that one strives for is not necessarily political or economic power; but the power to create oneself by overcoming those obstacles that would stand in the way of self-realization” (Oaklander 82).
One of the main reasons there is any association between Hilter and the Nazis to Nietzsche is largely due to his sister, Elizabeth Foster Nietzsche and her editing of his journals in the work of The Will to Power. Elizabeth was a German nationalist, anti-Semite and supporter of the German National Socialists. She had exclusive rights to Nietzsche's work after his death and she took it upon herself to edit his unpublished work to further her own anti-Semitic interest and gain appeal by her political party. She basically took his work and twisted it to fit her own interpretation, even if she knew it wasn’t that of Nietzsche’s. This was made evident by a letter he had written to his sister before his demise. Part of it read “I am terrified by the thought of the sort of people who may one day invoke my authority” (Golomb 47). Elizabeth disregarded her brothers concern and continued with her own interpretations anyways which resulted in a substantial misrepresentation of Nietzsche’s original work and intentions. After Nietzsche’s death, Elizabeth presented this modified version of Nietzsche’s journals to the National Socialist Society, aka the Nazis. It was because of Elizabeth and the editing of Nietzsche’s journals, along with her association with Adolf Hitler that led some to believe that the work in The Will to Power was encouraging and inspiring future Nazis and Italian Fascists.
Another one of Nietzsche’s concepts that was taken out of context and distorted was his theory of the Übermensch, which when translated can mean the “Overman”, “Superman” or “Above-Human”. The concept of this Übermensch was first discussed in Nietzsche’s book Thus Spoke Zarathustra in 1883. According to Nietzsche, this “Superhuman” type of being is super-healthy, expresses a fundamentally victorious attitude and consequently lives closely in touch with the nature of life and existence. This idea of a “Superhuman” was attractive to Hitler and the Nazis who used their own interpretation and saw this human as the ‘Blonde Beast’, that being the ultimate human who of course would be of the Aryan race. This idea of a “Superhuman” who has a great “will to power” and would reign over other humans is the catastrophic result of how Nietzsche’s work was construed to fit the objectives of someone like Hitler. Others insist Nietzsche created this concept of Übermensch in contrast to Christianity. In actuality, the true meaning of Nietzsche’s concept of the Übermensch is unknown.
Friedrich Nietzsche has often been linked to Hitler, National Socialists and Fascism but these labels are often the result of the misinterpretation of Nietzsche’s work.
"To claim him, as the National Socialist and Nazis 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 81).
It is clear that Nietzsche’s philosophies can be dangerous if taken out of context or misinterpreted, Hitler and the Nazis are a prime example of this. The idea that Nietzsche was a National Socialist is absurd due to the fact that he died two decades before National Socialism even originated in Germany. Although some of Nietzsche’s ideas can be interpreted as conforming with those of the Nazis, the truth is people can find support for their ideas in any book if they look long and hard enough. Nietzsche used language that could be easily misunderstood and because of this he got a bad reputation and was essential guilty by association. It is well known that Hitler was a fan of Nietzsche’s due to the friendship he acquired with Nietzsche’s sister. Hitler, however, had never met Nietzsche so the real question is whether it was Nietzsche’s original work or the heavily modified version created by his sister, Elizabeth, that Hitler was attracted too. Elizabeth clearly tried to mold Nietzsche’s work to fit her own philosophies and further her own political agenda. The Nazis then picked apart Nietzsche’s work and only used what would fit in with their own beliefs and disregarded anything that didn’t support their claims. The debate is still strong today as to what Nietzsche’s true intentions were but the philosopher himself says it best when he states “there are no facts, only interpretations”.

Works Cited

Brett-Evans, David, Karl Marx, Friedrich W. Nietzsche, and Sigmund Freud. Makers of the Twentieth Century: Marx, Nietzsche, Freud. Englewood Cliffs, N.J: Prentice-Hall, 1968. Print.

Golomb, Jacob. Wistrich, Robert S. Nietzsche, Godfather of Fascism? On the Uses and Abuses of a Philosophy. Princeton University Press: Oxford University Press, 2002. Print

Kaufmann, Walter. Nietzsche: Philosopher, Psychologist, Antichrist. Princeton: Princeton University Press. 1950. Print.

Montinari, Mazzino. Whitlock, Greg. Reading Nietzsche (International Nietzsche Studies). University of Illinois Press. March 2003. Print.

Oaklander, Nathan L. Existentialist Philosophy An Introduction. Prentice-Hall Inc. 1996. Print.

Shirer, William Lawrence. The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich: A History of Nazi Germany, Simon and Schuster, 1960. Print.