Product Description

Elisabeth F–rster-Nietzsche was two years younger than her brother, Friedrich Nietzsche, and outlived him by thirty-five years. In 1901, a year after Nietzsche's death, she published The Will to Power, a hasty compilation of writings he never intended for print. In Nietzche's Sister and the Will to Power, Carol Diethe contends that F–rster-Nietzsche's own will to power and her desire to place herself, not her brother, at the center of cultural life in Germany are responsible for Nietzsche's reputation as a belligerent and proto-fascist thinker.

During the latter part of her life, F–rster-Nietzsche propagated and presided over a Nietzsche cult in Weimar Germany. Many intellectuals believed she had abetted her brother's legacy by bringing his publications to print. But, as Diethe claims, F–rster-Nietzsche's well-known fascist and anti-Semitic ties, as well as her declaration that her brother would have supported the Germans in World War I, have marred Nietzsche's legacy and linked him to political campaigns and ideals he did not actually endorse. Offering a new look at Nietzsche's sister from a feminist perspective, this spirited and erudite biography examines why Elisabeth F–rster-Nietzsche recklessly consorted with anti-Semites, from her own husband, Bernard F–rster, to Hitler himself, out of convenience and a desire for revenge against a brother whose love for her waned after she had caused the collapse of his friendship with Lou SalomÈ in 1882. In distilling the reasons F–rster-Nietzsche betrayed and endangered the reputation of the man she loved best, the book examines the dynamics of their family, Nietzsche's dismissal of his sister's early writing career, and the effects of limited education on intelligent women. Diethe also plumbs the details of F–rster-Nietzsche's brief marriage and her subsequent colonial venture in Paraguay, maintaining that her sporadic anti-Semitism was, like most things in her life, an expedient tool for cultivating personal success and status.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #2320860 in Books
• Published on: 2003-07
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 240 pages

Review
ADVANCE PRAISE "A pleasure to read. Diethe corrects the superficiality that has characterized prior treatment of Elisabeth Frster-Nietzsche, offering a nuanced explanation of her perspective and motivations and in turn illuminating hitherto underexamined aspects of the life, work, and psychology of Nietzsche himself." -- Kathleen Higgins, author of Comic Relief, Nietzsche's Gay Science

Review