THE REAL NIETZSCHE
By PETER F. WIENER N October z5th, 1844, Friedrich Nietzsche was born. Although
he suffered severely all his life, although he went—like Hoelderlin—hopelessly insane white still a relatively young man, his thoughts and his philosophy have had a greater influence on the development of modern Europe than the works of any other writer during the last century. To define this influence is not an easy, perhaps even an impossible, task. The one school of thought makes him responsible for all the diseases we are suffering from at the moment. On March zoth, 1935, Lord Samuel (then Sir Herbert Samuel) said in an important speech in the House of Commons : " Among the things responsible for the difficulties in Europe are Germany and the Nietzschean philosophy." The other school appeals to Nietzsche and his teachings as one of the possible agencies to turn the world into a more peaceful and habitable place. "Nietzsche," wrote H. W. Nevinson in The Times of September 9th, 1940, " stands in exact opposition to the doctrines of Hitlerism."
There are two main difficulties in interpreting Nietzsche. The first is that he has chiefly written in the form of aphorism, a dogmatic and unsystematic form of expression which was forced upon him by his physical sufferings, and which it is particularly easy to mis- quote. The other, much more important, peculiarity of Nietzsche's style is that he used a vocabulary entirely of his own. " We finally become aware," says Nietzsche himself, " that people with the same words mean, feel, discern, divine different things." One single example might illustrate this. Nietzsche has often been accused of glorifying war. " War and courage have done more great things than the love of one's neighbour," is one of his murderous dicta, which, incidentally, Bernhardi adopted as the motto of his war-cry, Germany and the Next War. ut the words " war " and " warrior " do not mean to Nietzsche what they mean to us today. Nietzsche's war has nothing to do with battlefields, blood and guns. He was, we ought to remember, an ardent student of Greek philosophy. He used the term " war " in that comprehensive or attenuated sense in which it was used by Heraclitus, for whom Nietzsche felt a sincere admiration. " War" means to him an intellectual activity, the interplay of cosmic forces. Indeed, he opposes " war " to " soldiering." " And if ye cannot be saints of kndwledge," he writes in Thus Spake Zarathustra," then, I pray you, be at least its warriors. They are the companions and forerunners of such saintliness. I see many soldiers ; could I but see many warriors! 'Uniform' one calleth what they wear ; may it not be uniform what they therewith hide." Professor A. Wolf goes so far as to state in his The Philosophy of Nietzsche—published early in the last war—that " Nietzsche's political views remind one of the peace-societies and the Society of Friends rather than of Bernhardi and Treitschke."
Space does not permit here of a definition of what such equally murderous expressions as " Anti-Christ," " Superman " meant to Nietzsche. (This is admirably done in a small but most stimu- lating book by the French scholar M. P. Nicolas, which has been
translated into English under the title From Nietzsche Down to Hitler.) But even if we venture to connect these terms in a vague
and meaningless way with the name of Nietzsche, we ought equally to remember that it was Nietzsche who coined the expression " The Good European " (his political ideal), that he was the first to style his fellow-countrymen " The Blonde Beast." There is no aspect of political, public and intellectual life on which Nietzsche's ideas are not worth while studying. What could be more topical just now than his demand to " encircle Germany with an iron- shirt' in order to protect europe from her spiritual and material aggression"?
Hitler sent Mussolini on his sixtieth birthday last year a complete set of Nietzsche's works. It was one of the Fuehrer's wisest inspi- rations. For the Duce might have read Nietzsche's appeal to the Italian people. " I should like to whisper into the ear of the Italian (whom I love) a little home-truth. How can you have anything to do with a Hornviehrasse (horned cattle race) like the Germans.. . With the 'Reich ' an intelligent people can only make a misalliance." To Russia, Nietzsche refers in the following terms : " Russia, the only great nation today that has some lasting power and grit in her, that can bide her time, that can still promise something ; Russia, the opposite of all wretched European petty-statism and neurasthenia, which the foundation of the German Empire has brought to a head." That the Nazis appeal to Nietzsche as their national philo- sopher should not deceive us in any way. Their intellectual is even greater than their political dishonesty. Nietzsche knew the Germans well enough—better, perhaps, than any other German—to be well aware of what they might try to do with his works. " I tremble," he confessed to his sister, "when I think of all those who without being entitled to, or prepared for, my ideas will one day refer to me as their authority."
Nietzsche is, beyond any doubt, one of the most quoted philo- sophers. But, without being cynical, one might wonder how much he has been read. The 18 volumes of his writings which exist in English—edited with great pain and with greater sacrifice by my venerable friend and teacher Oscar Levy—have sold little in English- speaking countries. I myself was rather surprised not many weeks ago to find in the Bodleian Library that a good many of the pages of the copy there are still uncut—forty years after publication. Perhaps his centenary may act as a stimulus to the reading of Nietzsche in the original. Then, and then only, could we approve of him, criticise him or reject him. In days like ours, when the word " philosophy " is associated by far too many people either with the brains-trust or with popular columns in certain sections of the Sunday Press, we might do far worse than discover for ourselves in Nietzsche's writings whether he must be saddled with a major share of the responsibility for the horrors which have befallen mankind, or whether perhaps he might really help us to find the way to live peacefully as "good Europeans."
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