ZARATHUSTRA'S SISTER: The Case of Elizabeth and Friedrich Nietzsche

by H. F. Peters ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 12, 1977

Everyone knows about Nietzsche. In the name of Zarathustra, he proclaimed the death of God, the birth of the Superman, and the dawning of a ""new and more warlike age."" But not everyone knows that it was his sister, Elizabeth, who--after he fell insane--gave this ""seer-saint"" to the world through her biography of him, essays, editions of his works, and the Nietzsche Archive that became a shrine in Weimar. H. F. Peters, author of a book on Nietzsche's friend, Lou Salome, narrates the career of this remarkable woman from her childhood affection for ""Fritz"" through her marriage and sojourn in the ""New Germany"" of Paraguay and her 45 years of widowed devotion to her brother's reputation to her glorious funeral attended by Hitler. Regrettably, Peters does not scrutinize her influence on Nietzsche's reputation, but he does describe her battles for control of his writings and some of the differences between her ideas and his. The most important consisted in her anti-Semitism, Christian beliefs, and allegiance to Germany, all nourished by her husband, Bernhard Forster, and her close friend, Richard Wagner. Such attitudes once prompted Nietzsche to cry: ""people like my sister must be irreconcilable enemies of my thoughts and my philosophy."" Yet by the time Elizabeth died in 1935, all Germany identified those attitudes with her brother, confirming the prediction of one of his friends that ""she will be considered a prime example of the type: dangerous sisters."" Peters tells this unique story well, if unanalytically, partially filling a gap in our understanding of German culture while inviting a more thorough study of the two Nietzsches' place in it.

Pub Date: March 12, 1977

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Crown

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 1977

Categories: NONFICTION