Wagner has been cleared of being a Nazi muse; now it’s Nietzsche’s turn, says robert matthews |
|
Not even their oath of allegiance to the Fuhrer could persuade most Nazis to sit through a Wagner opera, it seems. According to new historical research, Hitler's devotion to the likes of Tristan und Isolde was not widely shared, with rank-and-file members much preferring Bizet's Carmen and Puccini's Madame Butterfly.
Modern-day Wagner enthusiasts will doubtless be relieved to see some distance put between their hero and Hitler. But the fact remains: Wagner was an anti-semite whose works provided the backdrop to countless Nazi events, rallies and broadcasts.
In contrast, the reputation of one of Wagner’s most brilliant contemporaries - the philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche - has yet to shake off the far greater calumny of providing the intellectual basis for Nazism.
At first sight, the originator of such concepts as the Ubermensch and the 'will to power' |
|
 |
 |
 |
| Nietzsche suffered a mental collapse in 1889, and his works fell into the hands of his nationalist, anti-semitic sister |
|
|
seems the perfect muse for Hitler and his henchmen. They were certainly keen to adopt him: a copy of his most famous work, Thus Spake Zarathustra, was enshrined alongside Mein Kampf in a Nazi monument in 1933.
But Nietzsche himself would have been appalled by such wilful misinterpretation of his philosophy. The Ubermensch was meant to crystallise the transcending of precisely the human failings and delusions that led to the rise of Nazism, not to justify it.
Tragically, Nietzsche suffered a mental collapse in 1889, and his works fell into the hands of his sister Elisabeth. A German nationalist and anti-semite, she became a tireless promoter of a corrupted version of her brother's philosophy, which the Nazis eagerly embraced.
Before his death in 1900, Nietzsche prophesied that he would be misunderstood in a letter sent to, of all people, his sister. A century on, it is time his reputation was wrested once and for all from the clutches of his poisonous sibling.
FIRST POSTED JULY 4, 2007
|
