The Nietzsche Channel: Nietzsche's Letters. 1862.

Nietzsche's Letters

1862

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Friedrich Nietzsche.
From tinted photo by Ferdinand Henning,
Naumburg, June 1862.1
Colorized and enhanced image ©The Nietzsche Channel.

Pforta, Late-February 1862:
Letter to Franziska Nietzsche.

Dear mama!

So you have taken away dear Lisbeth for a long time, who will certainly long for her return and will feel little at home in big Dresden.2 You yourself have certainly spent some beautiful days there, especially in reminiscence of bygone times; for over time everything that once delighted and astonished us becomes more dear to us. And it will be difficult for you to part from Dresden and Lisbeth — I know that quite well. — I do not know anything at all about her situation now; write to me quite lengthily and in detail, however, in general, we can write to each other in greater detail, since you need to spend less time on chores. If only she were residing in a posh boarding house! Dresden would not really appeal to me, it is not grand enough, and in its particularities, even its language, it is too closely related to the Thuringian aspects. Were she, e.g., to come to Hanover, she would become acquainted with completely different customs, particularities, language; it is always good when people are educated in different regions so as not to become biased. In other respects, as an artistic town, a small capitol [of Saxony], and in general for the development of E[lisabeth]'s intellect, Dresden will suffice and I envy her to a certain extent. But I think I can enjoy a lot more of that in my life. In general I am anxious to hear how Elisabeth is doing in her new circumstances. A boarding house like this is always a risk. But I have a lot of trust in Elisabeth. — If only she could learn to write even more neatly! Even when she talks, she has to omit those numerous "Ahs" and "Ohs." ["]You cannot believe how splendid, how wonderful, how enchanting, etc. that was."3 And, if she really pays attention, she will hopefully forget doing so much of it in polite society. — Well, dear mama, aren't you coming on Monday? The performance is at 4-7.4 I asked Hr. Dr. Heinze 5 about a ticket. You would do me a great favor if you sent me about ½ [an] almond, eggs and sugar, since such a freshening of the voice is absolutely necessary for our rehearsals, twice a day and three times on the main day. Fare quite wonderfully well, dear mama!

Your Fritz.

For reading, which you have a lot of time for now, I'll recommend to you [Berthold] Auerbach's "Barfüssele,"6 which brought me great delight. —

Title page: Ludwig Feuerbach, Das Wesen des Christenthums.
3rd edition. Leipzig: Wigand, 1849.
Enhanced image The Nietzsche Channel.

Pforta, April 27, 1862:
Fragment of a Letter to Gustav Krug und Wilhelm Pinder.1

Only a Christian point of view can produce such world-weariness, it is very far from a fatalistic one. It is nothing but despair of one's own strength, a pretext for weakness, to create one's lot with determination.2

When we first realize that we are only responsible to ourselves, that a reproach about a missed purpose in life can only apply to us and not to some higher power, only then will the fundamental ideas of Christianity discard their outer garb and become part of blood and marrow. Christianity is essentially a matter of the heart; only when it has embodied itself in us, when it has become soul itself in us, is man a true Christian. The main teachings of Christianity speak only the basic truths of the human heart; they are symbols, just as the highest must always only be a symbol of that which is still higher. Being saved through faith means nothing but the old truth that only the heart, not knowledge, can bring happiness. The fact that God became man only indicates that man should not seek his happiness in infinity, but found his heaven on earth; the delusion of a supernatural world had brought the human spirit into a wrong attitude towards the earthly world: it was the product of the childhood of peoples. The glowing youthful soul of humanity accepts these ideas with enthusiasm and expresses the secret, which at the same time has its roots in the past and into the future, that God has become man. Amid heavy doubts and struggles, humanity becomes virile: it recognizes in itself "the beginning, the middle, the end of religion."3

Fare sincerely well!

Your Fritz
SNmA.
V.G!4

— Please send me Narciß 5 from Domrich!6 — We now want to write our letters in this book!7 —

1. Gustav Krug (1844-1902) and Wilhelm Pinder (1844-1928) were Nietzsche's friends in Naumburg since childhood.
2. Cf. Nietzsche's 1862 essays written for "Germania," the literary club founded by Nietzsche, Wilhelm Pinder, and Gustav Krug on July 25, 1860: "Fatum und Geschichte"; and "Willensfreiheit und Fatum." Translated as "Fate and History" and "Freedom of Will and Fate" in: Nietzsche's Writings as a Student. The Nietzsche Channel, 2012, 61-73. Excerpt from "Willensfreiheit und Fatum (Freedom of Will and Fate): "Indem das Fatum dem Menschen im Spiegel seiner eignen Persönlichkeit erscheint, sind individuelle Willensfreiheit und individuelles Fatum zwei sich gewachsene Gegner. Wir finden, daß die an ein Fatum glaubenden Völker sich durch Kraft und Willensstärke auszeichnen, daß hingegen Frauen und Männer, die nach verkehrt aufgefaßten christl[ichen] Sätzen die Dinge gehen lassen wie sie gehen, da 'Gott alles gut gemacht hat,' sich von den Umständen auf eine entwürdigende Art leiten lassen. Überhaupt sind 'Ergebung in Gottes Willen' und 'Demut' oft nichts als Deckmäntel für feige Furchtsamkeit, dem Geschick mit Entschiedenheit entgegenzutreten." (While fate appears to man in the mirror of his own personality, individual freedom of will and individual fate are two equal adversaries. We find that the people believing in fate are distinguished by force and strength of will, that, on the other hand, women and men who let things happen according to perversely interpreted Christ[ian] tenets — since "God will make everything right" — allow themselves to be guided by circumstances in a degrading fashion. In general, "submission to God's will" and "humility" are often nothing but a cloak for cowardly timidity to face destiny with decisiveness.)
3. Nietzsche is parroting ideas from Ludwig Feuerbach (1804-1872): German philosopher. Cf. Ludwig Feuerbach, Das Wesen des Christenthums. Dritte, umgearbeitete und vermehrte Auflage. Leipzig: Wigand, 1849, 253. "Unsere wesentlichste Aufgabe ist hiermit erfüllt. Wir haben das außerweltliche, übernatürliche und übermenschliche Wesen Gottes reducirt auf die Bestandtheile des menschlichen Wesens als seine Grundbes standtheile. Wir sind im Schlusse wieder auf den Anfang zurückgekommen. Der Mensch ist der Anfang der Religion, der Mensch der Mittelpunkt der Religion, der Mensch das Ende der Religion." (Our most essential task is hereby fulfilled. We have reduced the other-worldly, supernatural and superhuman nature of God to the elements of human nature as its fundamental elements. In the end we came back to the beginning. Man is the beginning of religion, man is the middle of religion, man is the end of religion.)
4. Latin abbreviation: Semper nostra manet amicitia! (Our friendship ever endures!) The motto of "Germania": the literary club they founded together on July 25, 1860. "Vivat Germania" (Long live Germania!)
5. Albert Emil Brachvogel, Narciss. Ein Trauerspiel. Leipzig: Costenoble, 1857. The play was a ludicrous farce that was nevertheless one of the most popular plays in Germany for over 30 years.
6. Julius Domrich: a bookseller in Naumburg.
7. This letter and Wilhelm Pinder's reply of 05-22-1862 are written on pages from the same notebook.

Church at Schulpforta.1
Enhanced image The Nietzsche Channel.

Pforta, August 25, 1862:
Note to Prof. Jacobi.2

Nietzsche obediently requests permission 3 to play the piano from 8:45 to 9:00.4

1. Cover illustration for: Pförtner Bund, Wolfgang Knackstedt, Peter Maser, Pforta-Zisterzienserkloster und Landesschule. Pförtner Bund e. V.: Naumburg, 1996.
2. Andreas Jacobi (1801-1875): German professor of mathematics at Schulpforta.
3. While at Schulpforta, Nietzsche wrote notes (199 have survived) mostly to his tutors, Robert Buddensieg (1817-1861), Max Heinze (1835-1909), and Hermann Kletschke (1833-1902) — but also to teachers Andreas Jacobi (1801–1875) and Diederich Volkmann (1838-1903) — requesting various things: money, books, supplies, and permission for extracurricular activities, such as playing the piano.
4. Carl von Gersdorff recalled being with Nietzsche in the music room at Schulpforta: "Allabendlich zwischen 7 und ½8 Uhr kamen wir im Musikzimmer zusammen. Seine Improvisationen sind mir unvergeßlich; ich möchte glauben, selbst Beethoven habe nicht ergreifender phantasieren können, als Niezsche, namentlich wenn ein Gewitter am Himmel stand." (Every evening between 7 and 8:30 we met in the music room. I will never forget his improvisations; I would like to believe that even Beethoven could not improvise more movingly than Nietzsche, especially when there was a thunderstorm in the sky.) See "Vorwort." In: Friedrich Nietzsche; Peter Gast and Arthur Seidl (eds.), Friedrich Nietzsches Gesammelte Briefe. Erster Band. Berlin; Leipzig: Schuster & Loeffler, 1900, X-XI.

Friedrich Nietzsche.
From tinted photo by Ferdinand Henning,
Naumburg, June 1862.1
Colorized and enhanced image ©The Nietzsche Channel.

Pforta, November 10, 1862:
Letter to Franziska and Elisabeth Nietzsche.

Dear everyone!2

I am sorry that I could not meet you in Almrich 3 yesterday; but I was prevented, since I was detained. As far as that is concerned, I will tell you a little tale. Every week one of the newest senior students has School Inspector Week, i.e., he has to make note of everything in need of repair in the rooms, cabinets, and lecture halls and hand in a list with all these comments to the inspection office. I had this job last week; it occurred to me, however, to make this somewhat tedious business more piquant by means of Nietzsche humor and to write a list in which all the comments were couched in the form of a joke. The strict teachers were very astonished about that (how one could mix jokes in with such a grave matter), summoned me before the Synod Saturday, and there pronounced my punishment as nothing less than three hours detention and the loss of a few walks. If I could attribute to myself any other fault than carelessness, I would be angry about it; but as it is I have not troubled myself about the matter for a moment, and have only learned a lesson from it: next time to be more careful what I joke about.—4

By the way, I have waited for the chest day after day, especially for the big boots; hardly anything can be done in these. I still had clean clothes for Sunday. I do not have many clean socks. I always have a lot of work now, and yet I feel that I am doing quite well and only wish that the weather would be better.

Today is St. Martin's Day 5 and we ate the usual Martin goose (of course in 12 parts). This period is also marked by St. Nicholas [Day].6 This is a pleasant time, this transition from fall to winter, this preparation for Christmas, to which I look foward. Something we really want to enjoy together. Write to me soon. Warmest greetings to dear uncle and dear Lisbeth!7

Fritz.

1. See GSA 101/2. Carl Ferdinand Henning (1832-?): German portraitist and photographer with a studio at Topfmarkt 14, Naumburg. Henning took 5 photographs of Nietzsche from 1862-1868, and also reproduced two photos: a photo taken at the 1871 Leipzig Trade Fair, depicting Erwin Rohde, Carl von Gersdorff, and Nietzsche; and a photo taken in Basel in 1871 by Friedrich Hermann Hartmann. In 1862, Henning took three photos of Nietzsche. Nietzsche then ordered 2 sets of the three photos, making six in total. The Nietzsche Channel owns one of the 1862 photos (another copy is at GSA 101/3).
2. In her 11-12-1862 reply, Franziska Nietzsche chastised her son for this informal salutation: he never used it again.
3. A village between Naumburg and Pforta, where Nietzsche would meet his relatives on Sunday.
4. An excerpt from the 11-12-1862 reply of Franziska Nietzsche: "Gott Lob daß es kein schlechter Streich ist, aber offen gestanden mein lieber Fritz hätte ich Dir mehr Takt zugetraut. Du wirst von Neuen des Fehlers der Eitelkeit angeklagt worden sein, immer etwas anderes zu thun als die Anderen und finde die Strafe ganz gerecht, denn es erscheint als eine furchtbare Anmaßung, den Lehrern gegenüber sich so etwas zu erlauben. Also bitte sei vorsichtiger in Deiner Denkungsweise und Handlungsweise folge stets Deiner innern bessern Stimme und Du wirst vor aller Unruhe und Kämpfen die jetzt mehre in Dir und an Dir bemerkt haben, bewahrt bleiben." (Praise God it's not a bad prank, but quite frankly, my dear Fritz, I would have credited you with more tact. You will have been accused of the mistake of vanity by new people, always doing something different from the others, and finding the punishment quite fair, because it seems such a terrible presumption to allow yourself to do such a thing to the teachers. So please be more careful in your way of thinking and acting, always follow your better inner voice and you will be protected from all unrest and struggles that many have now noticed in you and about you.) Nietzsche's sister comments on the affair: "Der witzige Wochenbericht ist in Berlin im Verein alter Pförtner zum allgemeinen Amüsement vorgelesen worden. Mir selbst sind einige der anstoßerregenden Bemerkungen als äußerst harmlos in der Erinnerung geblieben, z. B.: 'Im Auditorium So und So brennen die Lampen so düster, daß die Schüler versucht sind, ihr eigenes Licht leuchten zu lassen.' 'In der Obersekunda sind kürzlich die Bänke gestrichen und zeigen eine unerwünschte Anhänglichkeit an die Besitzenden' u.s.w." (In Berlin, the facetious remarks were read aloud to the general amusement of the old Pforta alumni association. For myself, some of the utterly innocuous comments which caused such annoyance are stuck in my memory, e.g. 'In such and such lecture room, the lamps burn so dimly that the students are tempted to let their own brightness shine.' 'The benches in the Obersekunda were painted recently and manifest an undesirable attachment to those who sit on them' etc.") Elisabeth Förster-Nietzsche, Das Leben Friedrich Nietzsche's. Leipzig: Naumann, 1895, 1:170-71.
5. Celebrated on the evening of November 10 and on November 11.
6. Celebrated on December 6.
7. His maternal uncle Edmund Oehler (1832-1891) and his sister Elisabeth Nietzsche.