Top 10 Interesting Facts about Friedrich Nietzsche

Friedrich Nietzsche by Friedrich Hermann Hartmann – Wikimedia commons

Top Ten Interesting Facts About Friedrich Nietzsche

Friedrich Nietzsche was born on 15 October 1844. He was the son of Carl Ludwig Nietzsche, a Lutheran pastor and a former teacher, and Franziska Nietzsche. Friedrich grew up in te town of Rocken, near Leipzig, in the Prussian Province of Saxony.

Friedrich was a German philosopher, cultural critic, and philologist. His work exerted a profound influence on modern intellectual history. He began his career as a classical philologist before turning to philosophy. In the article are the top ten interesting facts about Friedrich Nietzsche.

1. He was the youngest Classical philologist at Basel University

Friedrich Nietzsche by Ferdinand Henning – Wikimedia comons

Friedrich received an offer to become a professor at the University of Basel. Actually, it was with the help of Ritschl that he got the offer. He was to be the professor of Classical philology. What shocks me is that he was only 24 years.

He had not even gotten his doctorate or a teaching certification but he resumed the post of a professor. He must have been a genius in philology. He is among the youngest of the tenured Classics professors on record.

2. His sister edited his unpublished work after he died

Elisabeth Nietzsche by Louis Held – Wikimedia commons

After his death, Elisabeth became the curator and editor of Friedrich’s manuscripts. She edited his unpulished writings to fit her German ultranationalist ideology. Her ideologies of course contradicted to Friedrich’s stated opinions.

Friedrich’s work always opposed to the antisemitisime and nationalism.His anti semitism and nationalism would be felt in his letters though he was having a mental breakdown. It could be felt when he said that he created the world and was in the process of having all anti-semites shot dead.

3. He was named after a king

King Friedrich Wilhelm IV of Prussuia br Hermann Biow – Wikimedia commons

Friedrich Nietzsche was born on the 49th birthday of King Friedrich Wilhelm IV of Prussia. Fredrich Wilhel IV was the song of and successor of Frederick William III of Prussia. He assumed the name of the king and added his surname Nietzsche. Later though, Friedrich dropped the middle name Wilhelm

4. Friedrich was an amateur composer

He composed several works for voice, piano, and violin. This was the beginning of 1858. Actually, this was when he started to compose on musical compositions at the Schulpfortai Naumburg. His music though was mocked as the worst ever been heard.

People like Richard Wagner and Hans Von Bulow said that Richard’s pieces were the most undelightful and most unmusical that they ever faced in a long time.

5. He was hoping to become a minister

Nietzsche byGustav-Adolf Schultze – Wikimedia commons

After graduation in September 1864, Friedrich started studying theologyy and classical philologybat the university of Bonn.He was acturing aspiring to become a minister. Actually, the post minster I stated above is not the political minister like Minister of Security and staff, it is a Christian minister.

He wanted to be authorised by the church to perform functions such as teaching of believes and leading of services such as weddings, baptisms, and funerals. Due to the ange of his mother he stopped his theological studies and his hopes were shuned.

6. He served in the Franco-Prussian War

Nietzsche in his military uniform by Cassowary Colorizations – Wikimedia commons

The Franco-Prussian war took place from 1870-71. It was the war between the Second French Empire and the North German Confederation. It was led by the Kingdom of Prussia.Friedrich worked as a medical orderly in the war. His job was assisting medical and nursing staff.

7. He was an independent philosopher after his career at Basel

Due to health conditions, Friedrich resigned his post as a professor at Basel University. Living off his pension from the institution and aid from friends, he traveled frequently to search for a climate conducive to his health.

He became an independent philosopher. He used a typewriter to edit his work due to his failing eyesight which was an ailment since his childhood. Later he was helped by Peter Gast his past student. Gast transcribed almost all of Friedrich’s work.

8. Friedrich never married

Friedrich made three attempts of proposing to Lou Salome but was rejected. Salome viewed the idea of sexual intercourse as prohibitive and marriage as a violation. She viewed Friedrich as a friend.

Of course, is not the first time that Salome rejected a man so we cant deduce that she disliked him or his looks. Salome rejected Paul Ree and suggested they should live as brother and sister while they studied.

9. He suffered a mental breakdown

Sick Nietzsche by Hans Olde – Wikimedia commons

A mental breakdown is also called a mental disorder. It is a behavioral or mental pattern that causes significant stress or impairment of personal functioning. Such features may be persistent, relapsing, and remitting, or may occur in episodes.

Friedrich’s mental breakdown was an astonishing one. Actually, in his letters to his friends, he wrote that he had Caiaphas put in fetters, he was crucified by doctors in the previous year, Wilhelm, Bismarck, and all anti-semites abolished. I bet no normal person could write all this.

He added by commanding the German Emporer to go to Rome and get shot, summoned the European powers to take military action against Germany, and the pope should be put in jail. During his mental breakdown, his mother took care of him and when she died his sister Elizabeth took care of him until his death in 1900.

10. He was great in perspectivism

Friedrich Nietzsche by wikimedia commons

Friedrich claimed that the death of God would eventually lead to the loss of any universal perspective on things and any coherent sense of objective truth. Have you ever thought about such stuff? Well, let’s assume that this was Friedrich’s work, a philosopher, a cultural critic, and a philologist. Full of ideas.

He rejected the idea of objective reality. He argued that knowledge is contingent and conditional, relative to various fluid perspectives or interests. His views on various rules like those of philosophy and scientific methods acquired the name perspectivism.

Friedrich Nietzsche, left a legacy in his 55-year lifetime on earth. He was a person who was straightforward he once referred to Kant as a “moral fanatic”, Platoas “boring”, and Mill as “blockhead” Many Germans eventually dicovered his his appeals for greater indivualism and personality development.