by Roy Jackson
Case study: Jacob Burckhardt
Burckhardt’s The Civilization of the Renaissance in Italy was widely significant and also very influential upon Nietzsche’s own ideas. Never out of print since it was first published, it is a classic of the nineteenth century and gives the reader a vision of Italy, at times quite dark and haunting, as the birthplace of modern individualism, political calculation, science and scepticism.
In this work, Burckhardt identifies the Italian Renaissance of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries as marking a profound break with the medieval past and the birth of modernity accompanying, as it does, a new sense of individualism. This new birth was, for Burckhardt, both good and bad: on the one hand, it resulted in the great creations of Raphael, Leonardo de Vinci and Michelangelo; on the other, it resulted in the violence, warfare, terror and bloodshed of the 30-year reign of the Borgias.
Burckhardt was quick to recognize Nietzsche’s intellect and certainly valued him from an academic point of view, but this acknowledgement never stretched as far as friendship. This may have been due to some extent to the age difference – Burckhardt was of the same generation as Nietzsche’s father – as well as differences in taste, for Burckhardt could never see what was so wonderful about Wagner. Burckhardt’s coolness towards Nietzsche should not have been taken too personally, though, for it seemed that he was asocial towards most people. While an incredible intellect, multi-talented (he was also a poet, a playwright, an artist and a musician) and a charismatic teacher, he was something of a depressed and retiring character outside academia. Nonetheless, mutual admiration and respect were long lasting, and these two figures would often engage in intellectual conversations, which Nietzsche would recall with fondness.
From 1871 Nietzsche started to become seriously ill. This illness was to dog him for the rest of his life. He had suffered from headaches since childhood, but now they were mostly in the form of migraines so severe and relentless that he could not eat, and would have to remain in bed in a darkened room for days on end. These recurrent episodes always left him exhausted, and so it is all the more amazing that he was able to work so prolifically. During one absence from university due to his illness, he worked on his first book, The Birth of Tragedy (1871). Although loved by Wagnerians, as it sang the praises of the composer, it was attacked by academics as little more than Wagnerian propaganda and lacking in scholarly study.
Nietzsche’s illnesses became steadily worse, forcing him to spend less time at the university. He was also becoming disillusioned with Wagner, whom he began to see as a sham philosopher. By now, Wagner had moved to Bayreuth, which put an end to the weekend visits. In 1878 Nietzsche wrote Human, All Too Human, a quite definitely anti-Wagnerian work, which caused Wagner to say that Nietzsche would one day thank him for not reading it. This work, though stylistically a great improvement on The Birth of Tragedy, was still viewed as lacking in intellectual rigour and coherence. This, together with increased bouts of severe illness and a loss of interest by students in his teaching, caused him to resign his university post on a small pension in 1879.
Key ideas
Lutheran: A follower of Lutheranism, which identifies itself with the theology of the German reforming theologian Martin Luther (1483–1546). It was Luther’s efforts to reform the Roman Catholic Church that resulted in the Protestant Reformation.
Philology: The study of language and literature
Theology: The study of religious belief and practice
Schopenhauerian: A follower of the philosophy of Arthur Schopenhauer
Franco-Prussian War: A conflict between the Second French Empire and the kingdom of Prussia from 19 July 1870 until 10 May 1871
Renaissance: A cultural movement lasting roughly from the fourteenth until the seventeenth century, and which began in Italy
Things to remember
• Nietzsche was born on 15 October 1844, in Röcken, Germany.
• His father died when Nietzsche was only five years old. A year later his brother died.
• His childhood was, however, largely a happy one, and he was doted upon by his female relatives.
• As a child, Nietzsche was very religious, although after he became exposed to biblical criticism as a young teenager he began to question religious tenets.
• In his twenties, Nietzsche quite possibly contracted syphilis, which was to plague him for the rest of his life.
• Nietzsche published his first major work, The Birth of Tragedy, in 1871. It was not well received in the academic world.
• The year 1876 is significant for two reasons: it was when Nietzsche met Wagner for the final time, and it was also when Nietzsche published Untimely Meditations, in which he split from Schopenhauer‘s ideas.
Fact-check
1 In which year was Nietzsche born?
a 1734
b 1800
c 1844
d 1900
2 Nietzsche was bought up as which of the following?
a Lutheran
b Catholic
c Atheist
d Russian Orthodox
3 While wandering around a second-hand bookshop, which book did Nietzsche come across?
a His own book The Birth of Tragedy
b A book by Richard Wagner
c The Communist Manifesto by Karl Marx
d The World as Will and Idea by Arthur Schopenhauer
4 Which foreign languages were the main focus on the curriculum at Pforta school?
a Greek and Latin
b English and French
c Persian and Arabic
d Spanish and Italian
5 What is the study of philology?
a Language and literature
b Old bones
c Greek culture
d Greek religion
6 Which one of the following universities did Nietzsche not attend?
a Bonn
b Leipzig
c Basel
d Berlin
7 At what age did Nietzsche become a university professor?
a 24
b 34
c 43
d 19
8 In which war was Nietzsche a nursing orderly?
a Austro-Hungarian War
b First World War
c Franco-Prussian War
d Thirty Years’ War
9 Who was Jacob Burckhardt?
a A professor of the history of art and civilization at Basel University
b A great composer
c The husband of Nietzsche’s sister
d Nietzsche’s doctor
10 What was the title of Nietzsche’s first book?
a Human, All Too Human
b The Birth of Tragedy
c Thus Spoke Zarathustra
d Ecce Homo
Dig deeper
Jacob Burckhardt, The Civilization of the Renaissance in Italy (Oxford: SMK Books, 2012)
Elisabeth Forster-Nietzsche, The Young Nietzsche (London: Heinemann, 1912)
F.A. Lange, History of Materialism: And Criticism of Its Present Importance, Vol. 1 of 3 (Hong Kong: Forgotten Books, 2012)
Carl Pletsch, Young Nietzsche: Becoming a Genius (NY: The Free Press, 1992)
2
Philosophical influences
In this chapter you will learn:
• about the influence and views of the composer Richard Wagner
• about the influence of the writings of the philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer
• about Nietzsche’s position in the philosophical tradition from Plato to Kant.
Nietzsche’s dissatisfaction with the academic world is reflected in his work. Although he did write some scholarly articles in the 1860s, he was a reluctant adherent to the accepted norms of the academic style. Nietzsche also considered himself to be something of a poet and a composer. He liked to improvise on the piano and wrote music himself. Certainly, he saw his writing as an outlet for his artistic capabilities and, indeed, much (though not all) of his philosophy is extremely poetic
and dramatic. Nonetheless, in his early work especially, this can come across as evidence of an immaturity and a deflection from any kind of rigorous scholarly coherence that would have been expected of a university professor. Coupled with this, his relationship and blind love for Wagner infected his early writing.
This chapter discusses the major influence of Wagner on Nietzsche’s development as a philosopher, as well as the influence of Schopenhauer, Plato and others.
The influence of Wagner
‘All in all I could not have endured my youth without Wagnerian music. For I was condemned to Germans. If one wants to get free from an unendurable pressure one needs hashish. Very well, I needed Wagner. Wagner is the counter-poison to everything German par excellence – still poison, I do not dispute it.’
Ecce Homo, ‘Why I Am So Clever’, Section 6, p. 61
Wagner was always a controversial and larger-than-life figure. Although he had already written four operas, it was Tannhauser in 1845 that caused the most controversy. Because of its innovations in structure and technique, it both confused and shocked his audiences. He was also a political radical, taking an active part in the revolution in Germany in 1848, which required him to live in exile in Zurich, where he started composing the famous Ring Cycle. The political ban against Wagner was lifted in 1861 and he returned to Prussia. Despite marrying an actress in 1836, Wagner had a number of affairs, most notably with the daughter of the composer Liszt, Cosima von Bulow, whom he married in 1870.
Wagner was more than a composer, however. He was also a musical theorist, and his thought on political issues such as nationalism and social idealism greatly influenced the nineteenth century. His music was strongly nationalist, and he had also expressed clear anti-Semitism in his writings, making him an attractive composer for the Nazis. Despite this reputation, Wagner did effect a revolution in the theory and practice of operatic composition, and it was this factor that would have appealed to Nietzsche and his early belief that music acted as a salvation.
In retrospect, it seems surprising that someone as perceptive as Nietzsche seemed to be so taken in by the flamboyant ego of Wagner. It is said that, during Nietzsche’s weekend visits to Tribschen, Wagner would behave as if in one of his own operas. Dressed extravagantly, with only his own music playing, he would waft across the gardens and corridors of his luxurious villa among busts of himself, talking mostly about himself! However, this picture is most likely an exaggeration, and Nietzsche did learn much from being in the company of Wagner, for he recognized the composer’s ego as a need to dominate others, to exert his power over them. Undoubtedly, Wagner was a charismatic figure, and it is quite impressive what he could persuade others to do for him.
From studying Wagner, Nietzsche developed his own views on psychology and on humans’ desire to dominate others. In this respect, Wagner’s eccentricities were a minor irritation. However, during the early Leipzig years, Nietzsche’s infatuation with Wagner and his willingness to sacrifice his own career, if need be, to serve under the composer came across only too obviously in his early writings, especially with his first major work, The Birth of Tragedy.
It was in Wagner’s writings, especially in five essays published during 1849–51, that laid the basis for Nietzsche’s early philosophy. Wagner wrote a series of works discussing his views on the relationship between art and life. Some of the most significant, in terms of influencing Nietzsche, were:
• ‘Art and Revolution’ (July 1849)
Tracing the history of the arts, Wagner holds that the individual arts (music, drama, theatre, etc.) were once a complete and perfect whole. This art form existed only in the tragic drama of ancient Athens and disappeared when it split into its various components. After that time, and up until the present day, people looked to philosophy rather than art for an understanding of their world. Art in its highest and most perfect form is, therefore, pre-Christian.
• ‘The Artwork of the Future’ (September 1849)
Here, Wagner argues that all the greatest inventions of humankind, from language to society, are a product of the Volk (‘folk’). The Volk is more than a collection of individuals; it is the submersion of individual identity and ego and the resulting expression of a mystical group consciousness. The highest expression of this Volk consciousness is art, and Wagner makes a link between Volk art and nature. Therefore, the future of artwork is for all artists of all types to put aside their own individuality and ego (rather ironic coming from Wagner!) and the result will be a true expression of nature as art.
• ‘Opera and Drama’ (January 1851)
This is not so much an essay as a full-scale book. The composer sings the praises of his forthcoming opera cycle The Ring of the Nibelung as an example of complete art, and criticizes the opera of his contemporaries such as Rossini.
• ‘A Communication to My Friends‘ (August 1851)
Wagner considers the faults and successes of his own previous works and explains why he feels the need for a new kind of musical drama. Wagner presents his own plan to produce a four-part musical drama – the Ring Cycle – as a model of perfect art. He advertises his intentions to present this work at some future festival.
THE BAYREUTH FESTIVAL OF 1876
This future festival became the Bayreuth Festival of 1876, which consisted of the complete first performance of Wagner’s Ring Cycle. It is a significant event in that it marks Nietzsche’s realization that Wagner was not the great saviour he had envisioned. Attending the festival, Nietzsche was later to remark that he found the whole performance indicative of Wagner’s German nationalism and anti-Semitism: two things Nietzsche found particularly distasteful. However, in 1871, when The Birth of Tragedy was published, Nietzsche was still very firmly in the grip of Wagner’s charisma.
Case study: Wagner’s music
It is something of a myth that Wagner was a late developer when it came to composing (a myth that Wagner himself encouraged). In fact, he had already decided in his teens that he wanted to be a composer of operas and, indeed, started work on his first composition. At this time, in the 1820s, there were three forms of contemporary opera:
• German romantic opera, and especially the works of Carl Weber (1786–1826) such as Euryanthe and Oberon, with an emphasis on supernatural events and a focus on the orchestra rather than the singing
• Italian opera, represented by the likes of Vincenzo Bellini (1801–35) and Gioachino Rossini (1792–1868), who tended to write more traditionally romantic love stories and concentrated more on the singing
• French opera, with composers such as Daniel Auber (1782–1871), who tended to write very long works with grand panoramic sets and a large cast, staging historical events – for example, the hugely successful five-act opera Gustave III, which concerns the assassination of the King of Sweden.
Wagner, for his part, decided to write three operas, each in these respective styles. His first full-length opera was The Fairies (1834), in the German romantic style; his second was The Ban on Love (1836), in the Italian style; and the third was Rienzi (1840), in the French style.
Wagner then decided that the French and Italian styles were ‘decadent’ (i.e. had reached their end), whereas there was more work to be done with the German romantic style. His next three operas, The Flying Dutchman (1841), Tannhauser (1845) and Lohengrin (1848), all encompassed and, indeed, developed beyond what had been achieved in this style.
But it is Wagner’s later works, what are known as his ‘mature operas’, that make him stand out as the creator of a new form of opera, with his Ring Cycle, Tristan and Isolde, The Mastersingers and his final opera, Parsifal. These were Gesamtkunstwerke, ‘total works of art’ that aimed to combine drama, music, poetry and visual art.
Nietzsche intended his book The Birth of Tragedy (see Chapter 4) to be a manifesto for change, as a call for a revolution. He believed that humankind had lost all sense of purpose and was clinging on to religious and philosophical views that were no longer credible. He called for a r
eturn to the principles of Greek tragedy and devoted the final third of the book to the praise of Wagner as the new tragedian.
In this respect, the book failed completely. It was attacked severely by academics, although, not surprisingly, praised by Wagnerians. Nietzsche himself, in a preface to the book added in 1886, described it as badly written and confused. However, perhaps Nietzsche is too severe a critic of his own work. It has elements of originality and, most importantly, it raises the question of the importance of art in our understanding of the world and our place within it. Art, together with our instinctual side, can also provide us with insights that are not accessible through reason.
The more cynical critics of Nietzsche saw The Birth of Tragedy as little more than a publicity stunt for Wagner. Their criticisms are understandable, in that there did seem to be some mutual back-patting going on. Wagner, for his part, introduced Nietzsche to his publisher, while Nietzsche devoted a good deal of his book and his own time towards promoting Wagner as the new revolutionary, and, in so doing, laid the groundwork for the success of the Bayreuth Festival.
When, in 1872, Wagner left Tribschen and moved to Bayreuth, the relationship between the two mellowed. Nietzsche, despite growing doubts, remained a Wagnerian. In fact, Nietzsche’s publicizing for the composer did not stop there, as is evident from the fourth of his Untimely Meditations written in 1876.
After a series of financial difficulties that were resolved only by the offer of a subsidy by King Ludwig, the festival was finally set for August 1876. The small town of Bayreuth was chosen, and Wagner engaged in an immense process of creative and exhausting industry to prepare for what was to be an incredible musical endeavour.
Spotlight
In the summer of 1874 Nietzsche decided to visit Wagner’s house. This was the worst time Nietzsche could have chosen, for Wagner was not ready for interruptions as he had yet to complete his composition for the festival. Nietzsche annoyed Wagner intensely during this period, as may well have been his intention: he employed seemingly deliberate tactics to antagonize the composer, such as carrying a score of Brahms with him (Wagner hated Brahms) and even playing it on Wagner’s own piano.
