Nietzsche's Letters | 1870This page in German© The Nietzsche Channel

Nietzsche's Letters

1870

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Richard Wagner's home in Tribschen.
From tinted photo by Franz Schneider, 1933.
Colorized and enhanced image ©The Nietzsche Channel.

Basel, late January and February 15, 1870:
Letter to Erwin Rohde.

My dear friend,

The other day I was overcome with concern about how things might be going for you in Rome, and how isolated from the world and perhaps how abandoned you would be living there. It would even be possible for you to become ill without proper care and without friendly assistance. Reassure me and take away my pessimistic notions. The Rome of the Council1 seems so incredibly poisonous to me — no, I won't write anymore, for the secrecy of a letter, for all ecclesiastical and Jesuitical matters, is not secure enough for me: they might sniff out what would be in the letter and make you pay for it. — You are studying antiquity and living in the Middle Ages. —

Now I want to tell you one thing quite emphatically. Think about staying with me for a while on your return journey: you know, it might be the last time for a long time. I really miss you so incredibly: so give me the comfort of your presence and make sure it is not too short. This is indeed a new feeling for me, having no one at all in town and in the area to whom I can talk about the best and most difficult things in life. Not even a really sympathetic colleague. My friendship really takes on a pathological quality under such hermit-like circumstances, in such young and difficult years: I implore you, like a sick person would: "Come to Basel!"

For me, my real refuge, which is not praised enough, remains Tribschen2 near Lucerne: but it's just that it's rarely visited. I spent the Christmas holidays there: most beautiful and uplifting memory! It is absolutely necessary that you be initiated into this magic as well. Once you are my guest, we will travel together to see friend Wagner. Can you write me something about Franz Liszt?3 If you could perhaps make your return journey via Lake Como, that would be a great opportunity to make us all happy. We, i.e. we Tribscheners, have our eye on a villa on the lake, near Fiumelatte, called: "Villa Capuana," two houses. Can you not subject this villa to an inspection and critique?

 


Title page:
Zwei öffentliche Vorträge über die griechische Tragödie.
Handwritten manuscript, 1870.
Enhanced image ©The Nietzsche Channel.

You have probably read about Wackernagel's death.4 The plan is that Scherer5 is supposed to replace him in Vienna. A new theologian is also on the way, Overbeck from Jena.6 Romundt7 is a teacher under Prof. Czermak8 and is well situated, thanks to Ritschl.9 Röscher,10 who wrote to me about his warmest admiration for you, is in Bautzen as an "important" pedagogue. Bücheler11 is said to have been called to Bonn. The Rhein[isches] Museum12 now has Latin type. I delivered a lecture13 to a mixed audience on "The Ancient Music Drama," and will deliver a second one on February 1 on "Socrates and Tragedy."14 I am getting more and more fond of Hellenism: there is no better way to approach it than through tireless further education and cultivation of one's own small person. The stage I have now reached is the most shameful confession of my ignorance. The existence of a philologist in any critical endeavor, but 1000 miles away from the Greeks, is becoming more and more impossible for me. I also doubt whether I can ever become a real philologist: if I don't achieve it by accident, thus fortuitously, then it won't work. The misfortune indeed is: I have no model and am in danger of becoming a fool by my own hand. My next plan is four years of cultural work on myself, then a journey for a year — with you perhaps. We really have a very difficult life, sweet ignorance at the hands of teachers and traditions was so blissfully secure.

Incidentally, you would be wise if you were not to choose such a small university as a place of residence. One gets lonely even in one's scholarship. What would I give if we could live together! I am forgetting how to speak altogether. But the most annoying thing for me is that I must always represent myself as the teacher, the philologist, the man, and that I first have to prove myself to everyone with whom I associate. But I am so bad at doing this and keep forgetting how. I remain silent or deliberately say only as much as a polite man of the world would normally say. In brief, I am more dissatisfied with myself than with the world and therefore all the more devoted to whom is most dear to me.

Mid-February. I am now extremely worried that your letters are not reaching me and mine are not reaching you: I have heard nothing since November. My esteemed friend Cosima advised me to get information about you from her father (Franz Liszt). I will do this some time soon, and today I am trying it once more with a letter. — We are well informed about the council through the "Roman" letters in the Augsburger: do you know the author?15 Then don't let it be known: there is a tremendous manhunt for him. — I delivered a lecture here on Socrates and Tragedy,16 which caused horror and confusion. On the other hand, it has strengthened the bond with my friends in Tribschen even more. I am still becoming a walking hope: Richard Wagner has also revealed to me in the most touching way what calling he sees mapped out for me.17 This is all very frightening. You know well what Ritschl has said about me.18 But I will not allow myself to be tempted: I really have no literary ambitions at all; I do not need to conform to a prevailing stereotype because I do not aspire to illustrious and celebrated positions. On the other hand, when the time comes, I will express myself as seriously and frankly as possible. Science, art, and philosophy are now coalescing so much in me that I will in any case give birth to centaurs one day.

My old comrade Deussen has gone over to Schopenhauer with body and soul, as the last and oldest of my friends. Windisch19 is in England for a year, in the service of the East-Indian-Office [sic] in order to compare Sanskrit manuscripts. Romundt has founded a Schopenhauer Society.20 — A scandalous writing against Ritschl has just been published (against his Plautus critique and the final D): by Bergk, to the disgrace of German scholarship.21

Once more, warmest and most heartfelt greetings. I am looking forward to the spring, because it will bring you to Basel: just let me know when that will happen. During the Easter holidays, I am with my family on Lake Geneva.

Farewell! Farewell!


1. The First Vatican Council declaring papal infallibility was held from December 8, 1869 to October 20, 1870.
2. From 1866-1872, Richard Wagner's home was in Tribschen, a district of the city of Lucerne, Switzerland.
3. Liszt was in Rome at the time.
4. Wilhelm Wackernagel (1806-1869): classical philologist. See his entry in Nietzsche's Library.
5. Wilhelm Scherer (1841-1886): classical philologist. See his entry in Nietzsche's Library.
6. The first mention of Franz Overbeck by Nietzsche. Overbeck would become his best friend.
7. Heinrich Romundt (1845-1919): Nietzsche's friend and classmate at the University of Leipzig. See his entry in Nietzsche's Library.
8. Johann Czermak (1828-1873): physiologist teaching at Leipzig at the time. See his entry in Nietzsche's Library.
9. Friedrich Ritschl (1806-1876): Nietzsche's philology professor at the University of Bonn and the University of Leipzig.
10. Wilhelm Heinrich Roscher (1845-1923): Nietzsche's friend and classmate at the University of Leipzig. See his entry in Nietzsche's Library.
11. Franz Bücheler (1837-1908): classical philologist. See his entry in Nietzsche's Library.
12. The philological journal, Rheinisches Museum für Philologie, was co-edited by Friedrich Ritschl and Anton Klette.
13. "Das griechische Musikdrama" (The Greek Music Drama). A lecture by Nietzsche held in the Basel Museum on 01-18-1870.
14. "Sokrates und die Tragödie" (Socrates and Tragedy). A lecture by Nietzsche held in the Basel Museum on 02-01-1870.
15. Johann Joseph Ignaz von Döllinger (1799-1890): German theologian who rejected papal infallibility. Under the pseudonym Quirinus von Ignaz, Döllinger published letters in the Augsburger Allgemeinen Zeitung ("Römische Briefe über das Konzil von Quirinus") about the First Vatican Council.
16. See Note 14.
17. Cf. Tribschen, shortly before 02-12-1870: Letter from Richard Wagner. "Sie könnten mir nun viel, ja ein ganzes Halbtheil meiner Bestimmung abnehmen. Und dabei gingen Sie vielleicht ganz Ihrer Bestimmung nach." (You could now take over a lot, even half, of my calling from me. And in doing so, you might be completely pursuing your calling.)
18. Cf. Elisabeth Förster-Nietzsche, Das Leben Friedrich Nietzsche's, Bd. 2, 1. Leipzig: Naumann, 1897, 7-8. "[Ritschl bemerkt:] 'Das habe ich schon immer gesagt, er kann seine wissenschaftlichen Untersuchungen so spannend machen, wie ein französischer Romancier seine Romane.'" ([Ritschl remarked:] "I have always said that he can make his scientific investigations as exciting as a French novelist can make his novels.") Confirmed by Nietzsche in Ecce Homo, "Warum ich so gute Bücher schreibe", §2 ("Why I Write Such Good Books," §2): "Mein alter Lehrer Ritschl behauptete sogar, ich concipirte selbst noch meine philologischen Abhandlungen wie ein Pariser romancier — absurd spannend." (My old teacher, Ritschl, even maintained that I still conceived my philological treatises like a Parisian novelist — absurdly exciting.)
19. Ernst Windisch (1844-1918): Nietzsche's friend and classmate at the University of Leipzig. See his entry in Nietzsche's Library.
20. Cf. Leipzig, 12-14-1869: Letter to Nietzsche in Basel from Heinrich Romundt (1845-1919), their friend and classmate at the University of Leipzig. "Die Societas Schopenhaueriana, nach der Du Dich erkundigst, soll Anfang des Jahres 1870 eröffnet werden: Plan ist: Vereinigung einer Anzahl philosophisch interessierter Leute, die wesentlich derselben Weltanschauung (der Schopenhauerschen) zuneigen zu Vorträgen und Debatten über philosophische Probleme und in Ermangelung dieser zu gemeinschaftlicher Lectüre und Erörtergung Schopenhauerscher Kapitel etc. Zusammenkunft allwöchentlich." (The Societas Schopenhaueriana [Schopenhauer Society], which you are inquiring about, shall start at the beginning of 1870. The plan is: to bring together a number of people interested in philosophy who essentially favor the same worldview (the one of Schopenhauer) for lectures and debates on philosophical problems and, in the absence of these, for collaborative reading and discussion of Schopenhauer's chapters, etc. Meeting every week.)
21. Cf. Theodor Bergk, Auslautendes D im alten Latein. Halle: Mühlmann, 1870. See his entry in Nietzsche's Library. Friedrich Ritschl, Neue Plautinische Excurse. Sprachgeschichtliche Untersuchungen. Heft 1: Auslautendes D im alten Latein. Leipzig: Teubner, 1869. See his entry in Nietzsche's Library.

 


Portrait of Richard Wagner.
Ca. 1870-75.
By: Franz Seraph von Lenbach.
Enhanced image The Nietzsche Channel.

Tribschen, shortly before February 12, 1870:
Letter from Richard Wagner.1

Dear friend!

It is nice when one can write letters like these!2 I now have no one with whom I can take as seriously as you — except for the unique one.3 God knows how else I'll start! When I, really consumed4 by discontent, finally yet again come back to my work, I often have to be in a particularly good mood because I really can barely comprehend it and then have to laugh about it. The realization of the reason for this then comes to me in a flash, but then I immediately feel that if I were to pursue it in order to translate it completely into "Socratic wisdom," I would have to have unlimited time and nothing better to do: for — making the wisdom of such reasons comprehensible to others requires at least the renunciation of all creative work. But in this case, division of labor5 is a good thing. You could now take over a lot, even half, of my calling from me. And in doing so, you might be completely pursuing your calling. You see how miserably I have resigned myself to philology, and, in contrast, how good it is tha[t] you have resigned yourself to music in just about the same way. If you had become a musician, you would be about what I would have become if I had obstinately stuck to philology. But now philology — as a meaningful talent — is always in my bones, indeed it directs me as a "musician." Now remain a philologist, while allowing yourself, as such, to be directed by music. What I am saying here is meant seriously. I have learned from yourself how unworthy the circle is in which such a specialist in philology can revolve today — and from me you will have learned in what numerical junk an absolute musician (in the best circumstances!) is now getting lost. Now then show me what philology is for and help me to bring about the great "Renaissance" in which Plato embraces Homer, and Homer, filled with Plato's ideas, now, more than ever, becomes the greatest Homer of all. —

These are the kinds of thoughts which now occur to me, but — full of hope, since I have grown fond of you, and never so clear, and (as you can see) determined to communicate — as since your lecture on the "centaurs."6 So do not be uncertain about the impression this work made upon me; it has awakened in me a profound, serious wish. You will understand it: for were it not your own, you would not even be able to fulfill it. —

But let's talk this over a bit. Which is why I think — to be short and sweet — you [should] come to Tribschen next Saturday:7 the bedroom, the "gallery" — is ready, "the chimney is also at your disposal"8 — well: goodbye! —

Cordially
Your
RW.

1. Reply to a lost letter from Nietzsche.
2. Ibid.
3. German: die Einzige (the unique one), a reference to Cosima von Bülow. Einzige seems to be the German translation by Richard Wagner for unica (unique), the Italian nickname given to Cosima by her father, Franz Liszt. Cf., e.g., Tivoli, 09-30-1878: Letter from Franz Liszt to Cosima von Bülow in Bayeuth. "Außer dem Beil, hast Du Kerker, Scheiterhaufen, Ertränkung, im wahren Sinne, erlitten und einen beharrlichen Mut gezeigt, würdig Deines Patrons St. Cosmus: Sieh, darum bist und bleibst Du meine liebste Tochter Cosima unica!" (Apart from the guillotine, you have suffered imprisonment, burning at the stake, drowning, in the true sense, and have shown a tenacious courage worthy of your patron Saint Cosmas: well, that is why you are and remain my beloved daughter Cosima unica!) Richard Wagner and Cosima von Bülow were not married until 08-25-1870.
4. German: zernagt. Literally: "gnawed to pieces."
5. In his lost letter, Nietzsche may have expressed thoughts on the division of labor similar to those in his second Unzeitgemäße Betrachtungen (Untimely Meditation), and later summarized in Ecce Homo, "Die Unzeitgemässen," §1 (Ecce Homo, "The Untimely Ones," §1). "Die zweite Unzeitgemässe (1874) bringt das Gefährliche, das Leben-Annagende und -Vergiftende in unsrer Art des Wissenschafts-Betriebs an's Licht —: das Leben krank an diesem entmenschten Räderwerk und Mechanismus, an der 'Unpersönlichkeit' des Arbeiters, an der falschen Ökonomie der 'Theilung der Arbeit.' Der Zweck geht verloren, die Cultur: — das Mittel, der moderne Wissenschafts-Betrieb, barbarisirt ... In dieser Abhandlung wurde der 'historische Sinn,' auf den dies Jahrhundert stolz ist, zum ersten Mal als Krankheit erkannt, als typisches Zeichen des Verfalls. —" (The second Untimely One (1874) brings to light the dangerous, life-gnawing and life-poisoning nature of our way of conducting scholarship [Wissenschafts-Betriebs] —: life is sick from this dehumanized mechanical grinding of gears, from the "impersonality" of the laborer, from the false economy of the "division of labor." The purpose is lost, culture: — the means, the modern way of conducting scholarship, is barbarized ... In this essay, the "historical sense," of which this century is proud, was recognized for the first time as a disease, as a typical sign of decay. —)
6. Cf. Homer und die klassische Philologie (Homer and Classical Philology), Basel: Bonfantini, 1869. Complete unannotated text in German. For annotated text, see: Dual text in German and English. With explanatory notes and sources. In: Nietzsche's Writings as a Professor. Homer and Classical Philology. The Nietzsche Channel, 2012. PDF. "Die gesammte wissenschaftlich-künstlerische Bewegung dieses sonderbaren Centauren geht mit ungeheurer Wucht, aber cyklopischer Langsamkeit darauf aus, jene Kluft zwischen dem idealen Alterthum — das vielleicht nur die schönste Blüte germanischer Liebessehnsucht nach dem Süden ist — und dem realen zu überbrücken; und damit erstrebt die klassische Philologie nichts als die endliche Vollendung ihres eigensten Wesens, völliges Verwachsen und Einswerden der anfänglich feindseligen und nur gewaltsam zusammengebrachten Grundtriebe." (The entire scientific and artistic movement of this peculiar centaur is meant to bridge, with tremendous force but cyclopic slowness that gap between the ideal antiquity — that is perhaps nothing but the finest flower of Germanic longing for the South — and the real antiquity; and therefore classical philology strives for nothing but the final completion of its very own being, complete fusion [Verwachsen] and unification [Einswerden] of initially hostile and only forcibly brought together fundamental drives.) Cf. Basel, late January and February 15, 1870: Letter to Erwin Rohde in Rome. "Wissenschaft Kunst und Philosophie wachsen jetzt so sehr in mir zusammen, dass ich jedenfalls einmal Centauren gebären werde." (Science, art, and philosophy are now coalescing so much in me that I will in any case give birth to centaurs one day.)
7. Cf. excerpt from Cosima von Bülow's 02-12-1870 diary entry: "Nachmittags kommt Pr. Nietzsche an. Eingehendes Gespräch über dessen Vortrag." (Prof. Nietzsche arrives this afternoon. Lengthy conversation about his lecture.)
8. Cf. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Goethe's sämmtliche Werke in vierzig Bänden. Bd. 11. Faust, I, Stuttgart; Tübingen: J. G. Cotta, 1854, 57: "Ein Rauchfang ist dir auch gewiß." (The chimney is also at your disposal.)

 


Front cover.
Homer und die klassische Philologie (Homer and Classical Philology),
Basel: [Bonfantini], 1869.1
Enhanced image The Nietzsche Channel.

Leipzig, February 12, 1870:
Fragment of a Letter from Sophie Ritschl.2

[+++]3 a hyper-intellectualism which then undermines the real power of their nature[.]4 — These are all just quiet thoughts that racked through my mind5 like fine clouds when I read your essay,6 you can use some of them, otherwise forget them and just remember that I love you sincerely, take the most active and understanding part in your joys and will always be very happy when I see you again or when you wish to send me something from your intellectual workshop.

I see the friendly greetings from your friends7 as just an expression of your friendly attitude, so I only thank you for them and do not allow myself to return them[;] R[ichard] W[agner] and F[rau] von B[ülow] hardly remember me in any particular way.8

My family sends you their warmest regards.

In sincere friendship
Your S. Ritschl

1. Complete unannotated text in German. For annotated text, see: Dual text in German and English. With explanatory notes and sources. In: Nietzsche's Writings as a Professor. Homer and Classical Philology. The Nietzsche Channel, 2012. PDF.
2. Sophie Ritschl (born Guttentag, 1820-1901): wife of Nietzsche's philology professor, Friedrich Ritschl (1806-1876). She was a friend of Richard Wagner's sister, Ottilie Brockhaus (born Wagner, 1811-1883), through whom (in 1868) she was able to introduce Nietzsche to Wagner.
3. The beginning of the letter (which contains her opinions on Nietzsche's Homer und die klassische Philologie (Homer and Classical Philology) is lost. Nietzsche had enclosed a dedicated copy of the book along with his Tribschen, 12-25-1869 letter to her.
4. German: Wesen.
5. German: Seele.
6. See Notes 1 and 3.
7. Richard Wagner and Cosima von Bülow were not married until 08-25-1870.
8. See Note 2.

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