Talk:Nietzsche Archive

Opening Paragraph
The opening paragraph currently says: "The Nietzsche Archive (German: Nietzsche-Archiv) is the first organization that dedicated itself to archive and document the life and work of the philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche, all sourced from Elisabeth Förster-Nietzsche, the philosopher's sister behind the belief that Nietzsche was one of the inspirers of Nazism and the concept of the higher race." this implies that the justification for the archive was "the belief that Nietzsche was one of the inspirers of Nazism and the concept of the higher race." This is impossible given that the archive was founded in 1894 and the Nazi party didn't exist until 1920. Also, it is a well documented misconception that Nietzsche was sympathetic to Nazi ideas. While there was no Nazi party during his lifetime there was a group, I believe called "Das Reich" that essentially were the proto-Nazis. Some of Nietzsche's most antagonistic prose was his criticism of this group. He broke off relations with his good friend Richard Wagner over Wagner's support of this group and their ideas. Nietzsche is on the record as supporting an organization of leading intellectuals that supported the opposite ideals of Das Reich. They supported the goal of a unified Europe. It is true that his sister was a proto-nazi as was her husband and they distorted and co-opted Nietzsche's work for goals that he was clearly against, after he was too ill to defend his own ideas. I will provide documentation later and plan to change this, especially as there is no reference for the Nazi claim, but I wanted to first document the issue in case people want to discuss. --MadScientistX11 (talk) 21:19, 12 August 2020 (UTC)
 * Here are some references to support my comment above. Anything in quotes is a quote from Nietzsche unless otherwise noted followed by a reference. All Nietzsche references are from Walter Kaufmann's translations. (Kaufman 1975) refers to Walter Kaufmann's book: Nietzsche: Philosopher, Psychologist, Antichrist. Princeton University Press; 4th edition (February 1, 1975) "What did I never forgive Wagner? …that he became reichsdeutsch" From Ecce Homo, written in 1888 and published in 1908. Note that "reicsdeutsch" is the name of the proto-Nazi party I alluded to above. "[I am] an incorrigible European and anti-anti-semite." Nietzsche letter #430 to his sister (Kaufman 1975) p. 44. Nietzsche frequently refers to himself as a European. This was to identify him as a supporter of the other group I alluded to above. An organization championed by Voltaire that was essentially the polar opposite of Reichsdeutsch. They were dedicated to a unified Europe and to the values of the enlightenment.  Nietzsche was writing the letter to his sister that this is excerpted from to express his disapproval of his sister’s and her husband’s embracing of the Reichsdeutsch proto-Nazi movement. "The whole problem of the Jews exists only in nation states, for here their energy and higher intelligence, their accumulated capital of spirit and will, gathered from generation to generation through a long schooling in suffering, must become so preponderant as to arouse mass envy and hatred. In almost all contemporary nations, therefore—in direct proportion to the degree to which they act up nationalistically—the literary obscenity of leading the Jews to slaughter as scapegoats of every conceivable public and internal misfortune is spreading." From Human All too Human. "Every Jew has in the history of his fathers and grandfathers a mine of examples of the coldest composure and steadfastness in terrible situations. . . . There has been an effort to make them contemptible by treating them contemptibly for two thousand years and by barring them from access to all honors and everything honorable…"  From The Dawn section 205. "Just now I am having all anti-semites shot. " Part of a note scrawled across a letter from Nietzsche to Burckhardt. (Kaufman 1975) p. 45. I think these quotes show quite clearly that even though his sister and later the Nazis appropriated Nietzsche's prose and terms for their own purposes in reality Nietzsche would have been completely opposed to the Nazis. I plan to rewrite the text but I'm fairly busy right now but I at least wanted to start by documenting that Nietzsche was in no way sympathetic to the ideas of German empire and anti-semitism that were the core beliefs of the Nazis and the groups that paved the way for them. Also, the German Wikipedia version of this article is much more balanced although unfortunately it too is short on references. The Google translation of the German article is surprisingly readable. --MadScientistX11 (talk) 01:40, 19 August 2020 (UTC)