Nietzsche’s Passage from Germany to Europe: The Three ‘Deaths’ of the Higher Cultural Unity

Abstract

Nietzsche’s early philosophy was particularly addressed to the Germans. This does not imply that the themes themselves that were discussed by Nietzsche at that period were not universal. It is certain, nonetheless, that Nietzsche saw each of these universal themes as internally related to what he, at that time, considered the central scope of his intellectual efforts – and that was, to envisage and propagate the Ideal of the “German unity in the highest sense”. So, Nietzsche’s early themes like – ‘the Greeks’, critique of historicism, Schopenhauer and Wagner – were effectively addressed at two recipients at once: firstly, as universal topics of philosophy, they were addressed at everyone, and secondly, as the key components of the Ideal of the higher German unity, they were also addressed to the Germans in particular. However, by the time that Nietzsche started writing Human, All Too Human, this entire structure collapsed: Nietzsche had abandoned the Ideal of the German higher unity, and furthermore, his entire philosophy had taken the course of a radical critique of Idealism. Subsequently, Nietzsche also appears having found himself a new ‘audience’ at whom to address his philosophy: This new ‘audience’ at whom Nietzsche commenced addressing his philosophy, were “the Europeans”. However, the central problem of Nietzsche’s addressing of “the Europeans” consisted of the fact that “the Europeans” at whom Nietzsche’s philosophy had been readdressed, had yet to appear in order to recover Nietzsche’s message. Or, more precisely, Nietzsche’s addressal at the Europeans had to convey a message that would have itself accelerated their arrival.