By sending — I trustfully place my secret1 in your and your noble spouse's hands and assume that from now on it is your sec[ret] too. This book2 is by me: I have brought to light in it my innermost sent[iments] about people and things and for the first time circumnavigated the periphery of my own thinking. In times that were full of parox[ysms] and torments, this book was my means of solace, which never failed when all other m[eans of] solace failed. Perhaps I am still alive because I was capable of [writing] it.

[A] pseudon[ym] had to be chosen, firstly because I did not want to disturb the effect of my earlier writings, secondly because publ[ic] and private defilement of the dignity of my person would thereby be prevented (because my health can no longer endure such things)[;] finally and especially because I wanted to make an objective discussion possible, in which my so intelligent friends of all kinds could also take part, without any delicacy of feelings by them getting in the way, as has been the case up to now. No one wants to write and speak against my name. But I do not know of any of them who have the views of this book, but am very eager to learn the counter-arguments to be advanced in this case.

I feel like an officer who has stormed a redoubt. Indeed wounded — but he is at the top and — then unfurls his flag. More happiness, much more than sorrow, terrible as the spectacle around him is.

Although, as I said, I do not know anyone who at present is even my kindred spirit, I nevertheless have the presumption that I have thought not as an individual but as a collective — the strangest feeling of solitude and multitude. — Herald riding in front, [who] does not know exactly whether the knights are following him or if they even exist.

1. Nietzsche had planned to use a pseudonym for Menschliches Allzumenschliches (Human, All Too Human), German Text. According to Elisabeth Förster-Nietzsche, he was going to use the name Bernard Cron, and even invented a fake biography. See Elisabeth Förster-Nietzsche, Das Leben Friedrich Nietzsche's. Zweiter Band. Erste Abtheilung. Leipzig: Naumann, 1897, 290. "Herr Bernard Cron ist, so viel man weiß, ein Deutscher aus den russischen Ostseeprovinzen, der in den letzten Jahren auf Reisen unterwegs ist. In Italien, wo er sich unter Anderem philologischen und antiquarischen Studien hingab, machte er die Bekanntschaft des Herrn Dr. Paul Rée. Durch dessen Vermittelung ist er in Beziehung zu Herrn Schmeitzner getreten. Da sein Aufenthalt auch für die nächsten Jahre noch wechselnd und unbestimmt ist, sind eventuell Briefe an den Verlager des Herrn Cron abzugeben. — Herr Schmeitzner hat ihn nie seen him persönlich gesehen." (Herr Bernard Cron is, so far as is known, a German from the Russian Baltic Sea provinces who has been traveling in recent years. In Italy, where among other things he devoted himself to philological and antiquarian studies, he made the acquaintance of Dr. Paul Rée. Through his mediation, he entered into relations with Herr Schmeitzner. Since his whereabouts will be changing and uncertain for the next few years, letters should be delivered to Herr Cron's publisher. — Herr Schmeitzner has never seen him personally.) He was strongly dissuaded from using the pseudonym by Ernst Schmeitzner. See Chemnitz, 01-25-1878: Letter from Ernst Schmeitzner to Nietzsche in Basel. "Nur um Eines muß ich Sie noch ausdrücklich bitten, das ist, das Buch nicht pseudonym erscheinen zu lassen. Ich glaube, daß Ihre Schriften von verschiedenen Seiten ignoriert werden, hat Sie hauptsächlich zu der mir vorgeschlagenen Maaßregel veranlaßt; aber ich muß gestehen, daß in dieser Hinsicht die Wahl der Pseudonymität kein guter Griff ist. Es hieße das nicht anders, als um vielleicht 50 Feinde zu überrumpeln 300 Freunden das Buch vorenthalten. Für mich heißt Pseudonymität, das hier sehr kostspielige Erstlingswerk eines neuen Autors verlegen — bekanntlich das größte Risiko, was ein Verleger auf sich nehmen kann. Es ließe sich darauf entgegnen, das Buch werde seinen Weg schon zu finden wissen; allein kann es dies denn mit Ihrem Namen nicht noch viel besser. Und das was Ihre Gegner bei dem Namen Nietzsche hassen, werden sie schließlich auch bei einem anderen Namen heraus wittern. —" (There is only one thing I have to ask you specifically, and that is not to let the book appear pseudonymously. I believe that the fact that your writings are being ignored by various quarters is the main reason for the measure I have suggested; but I must confess that in this respect the choice of pseudonymity is not a good choice. It would not mean anything other than withholding the book from 300 friends in order to surprise perhaps 50 enemies. For me, pseudonymity means publishing the very expensive first work of a new author — as is well known, the greatest risk that a publisher can take. One could reply that the book will soon find its way; but it cannot do this much better than with your name. And what your opponents hate when they hear the name Nietzsche, they will eventually perceive under another name. —)
2. Menschliches Allzumenschliches (Human, All Too Human), German Text. Nietzsche also wrote a dedicatory poem that he purportedly sent to the Wagners along with the book. See Nachlass, Frühling-Sommer 1877 22[92]. "Dem Meister und der Meisterin / Entbietet Gruss mit frohem Sinn, / Beglückt ob einem neuen Kind, / Von Basel Friedrich Freigesinnt. / Er wünscht dass sie mit Herzbewegen / Auf's Kind die Hände prüfend legen / Und schauen ob es Vater's Art / Wer weiss? selbst mit 'nem Schnurrenbart — / Und ob es wird, auf Zween und Vieren / Sich tummeln in den Weltrevieren. / In Bergen wollt' zum Licht es schlüpfen / Gleich neugebornen Zicklein hüpfen / So gleich zu suchen eignen Gang / Und eigne Freude Gunst und Rang / Oder vielleicht Einsiedlers Klaus / Und Waldgethier sich wählet aus? / Was ihm auf seinem Erdenwallen / Beschieden sei: es will gefallen / Nicht Vielen: Fünfzehn an der Zahl / Den Andern werd'es Kreuz und Qual, / Dass nur, zur Abwehr ärgster Tücke / Des Meisters Treuaug segnend blicke! / Dass nur den Weg zur ersten Reise / Der Meisterin kluge Gunst ihm weise!" (To the master and his mistress / Compliments are offered with cheerfulness, / Happy due to a new child, / Friedrich Freemind from Basel. / He wishes that they touchingly / Place their hands on the child, to check / And see if it's father-related / Who knows? even with a mustache — / And whether it will be romping around / On two or four legs in the world's stomping grounds. / In the mountains it wants to emerge into the light / Leaping like a newborn yeanling / Immediately seeking its own path / And its own joy, favor, and rank / Or perhaps choose hermit Klaus / And forest creatures? / Something be granted to him on his / Earthly pilgrimage: it will not please / Many: fifteen in number, / It will be affliction and anguish for the rest, / The worst peril that can only be warded off / By the blessed glance from the master's faithful eye! / That only the mistress' wise favor knows / The way to his first journey!)

Reinhart von Seydlitz.
From b/w photo by Franz Neumayer.
Munich, ca. 1875.
Colorized and enhanced image ©The Nietzsche Channel.

Basel, January 4, 1878:
Letter to Reinhart von Seydlitz.

You are so kind, dear, dear friend with your wishes and promises and I am now so poor. Each of your letters1 is a nice piece of joie de vivre for me, but I can give you nothing, absolutely nothing, in return. Again, during the Christmas holidays, I spent bad, bad days, even weeks: now let us see what the new year can do. Bring us together? I will firmly keep this thought in mind.

Yesterday Parsifal2 arrived at my home, sent by Wagner. First impression on reading it: more Liszt than Wagner, spirit of the Counter-Reformation; for me, too much accustomed as I am to what is Greek, to what is human in general, everything is too Christian, temporally limited; sheer fantastic psychology; no flesh and far too much blood (especially during the Holy Communion everything seems to me too full-blooded); moreover, I do not like hysterical women; much that is tolerable to the inner eye will be almost unbearable during the performance: imagine our actors praying, trembling and with ecstatic throats. Also the interior of the Grail Castle cannot be effective on the stage, likewise the wounded swan. All these fine inventions belong in the epic and are, as I said, for the inner eye. The language sounds like a translation from a foreign tongue. But the situations and their sequence — is not this the highest poetry? Is it not an ultimate challenge to music?

So much for today. Be content with this. To you and your dear wife,

truly devoted
your friend Nietzsche.

P.S. Lipiner3 is, judging by his letter to me,4 a good Wagnerian; in passing, one should almost wish that he would like to write the Parsifal text over again.

1. E.g., Salzburg, 12-30-1878: Letter from Reinhart von Seydlitz to Nietzsche in Basel.
2. Richard Wagner, Parsifal: Ein Bühnenweihfestspiel. Mainz: Schott, 1877.
3. Siegfried Lipiner (born Salomo Lipiner, 1856-1911): Jewish Viennese writer. Lipiner was a member of the student organization at the University of Vienna, the "Leseverein der deutschen Studenten Wiens" (the group existed from 1872-1878). Amidst its members, he had assumed leadership of the "Pernerstorfer circle," or the so-called "Nietzsche Society." Earlier overtures by the group to Nietzsche were made in April and June 1876 by another member, Joseph Ehrlich. For more information on the "Pernerstorfer circle," see Aldo Venturelli, "Nietzsche in der Berggasse 19. Über die erste Nietzsche-Rezeption in Wien." In: Kunst, Wissenschaft und Geschichte bei Nietzsche. Berlin; New York: de Gruyter, 2003, 257-290 (also in Nietzsche-Studien, 13 (1984): 448-480). William J. McGrath, "Mahler and the Vienna Nietzsche Society." In: Jacob Golomb, ed., Nietzsche and Jewish Culture. London: Routledge, 1997, 218-232. Reinhard Gasser, "Kontakte mit Nietzsche-Verehrern in der Studentenzeit." In: Nietzsche und Freud. Berlin; New York: de Gruyter, 1997, 7-29. For more details on Lipiner, see Siegfried Mandel, "The Lipiner Interlude." In: Nietzsche & the Jews. Exaltation & Denigration. Amherst: Prometheus, 1998, 123-136. Cf. 04-02-1884 letter to Franz Overbeck.
4. Excerpt from Vienna, 12-26-1877: Letter from Siegfried Lipiner to Nietzsche in Basel. "Nur Eins müssen Sie mir gestatten: Sie haben wol von der Zeitschrift gehört, die Richard Wagner begründen will. Ich war von der Nachricht sehr erregt und wollte dem erhabenen Manne gleich schreiben. Sonst hatte ich mich gescheut, ihn mit meinem Buche oder mit einem Briefe zu belästigen. Aber diesmal wollte ich mich mit Prometheus, so zu sagen, legitimieren und ihm meine Dienste anbieten. — Nun aber habe ich gehört, dass von Wolzogen die Redaction übernimmt. Da bin ich von meinem Vorhaben abgestanden und wollte jedenfalls nicht früher einen Schritt thun, als bis ich Ihren Rath eingeholt hätte. Ich halte nämlich das ganze Unternehmen für a priori verunglückt, wenn es von Wolzogen geleitet wird. Es soll ja damit ein praktischer Zweck erreicht werden und diesen kann Alles à la Wolzogen nur schädigen. Das dürfte ein begabter und musikalisch gebildeter Mensch sein, aber das, was Wagner will, 'die Theilnahme beleben', die Idee von Bayreuth fördern, das kann er nicht. Er kann nur abstossen, nicht anziehen. Bitte, was meinen Sie?" (You only have to let me ask one thing: you have probably heard about the journal [Bayreuther Blätter] that Richard Wagner wants to found. I was very excited by the news and wanted to write to the august man at once. Otherwise I had shied away from bothering him with my book or with a letter. But this time with Prometheus [Lipiner's epic poem] I wanted to legitimize myself, so to speak, and offer him my services. — But now I have heard that [Hans] von Wolzogen is taking over the editorial work. So I gave up on my plans, and in any case I did not want to take a step before I had asked your advice. For I consider the entire enterprise to have failed a priori if it is headed by Wolzogen. A practical purpose is indeed supposed to be achieved with it, and everything à la Wolzogen can only damage it. The editor must be a talented and musically educated person, but what Wagner wants, "stimulating participation," promoting the idea of Bayreuth, he cannot do. He can only repel, not attract. Please, what do you think?)

Nietzsche's handwritten title page for
Unzeitgemässe Betrachtungen IV:
Richard Wagner in Bayreuth, 1876.
Enhanced image The Nietzsche Channel.

Berlin-Charlottenburg, January 18, 1878:
Letter from Otto Busse.1

A lot must have happened deep down within you, which certainly makes it plausible to me that we, especially on our new footing,3 will have to be good friends. You are now sailing into an unknown new sea; it even does me good to think that I have not spoiled your courage in the process, that you appreciate my freethinking, ,4 even to use it as a fair wind.

And isn't my face yet again Nietzschean and no longer Bülowian to you?5

The orchestra in your hands and under your intellectual guidance — is to me a very pleasant notion. Then it must enter the entire plan of your life: "at the end is sense," "at the beginning was nonsense": a saying that I find altogether magnificent.6

Remain kind to me!

Always devoted to you, even though my eyes force me to counter your rich letters with ungrateful silence. But you will also really appreciate this — once we actually appreciate ourselves.

Your cordially devoted
and grateful F. N.

1. 1876.
2. Rehearsals of Richard Wagner's Götterdämmerung and Die Walküre.
3. Klingenbrunn.
4. Menschliches Allzumenschliches (Human, All Too Human), German Text.