Nietzsche

The philosopher with the hammer

Transcript

GERRIT’s PHILOSOPHY

Gerrit: I grew up in the gutters of Amsterdam! Lived through the Second World War as a child… only had five years of school. The little upbringing I had was full of Christian morals: Thou shalt not this, thou shalt not that… especially sex! We didn’t know anything and we couldn’t do anything!

Thank god… I discovered Nietzsche!

“The philosopher with the hammer” - he smashed the notions of authority and tradition! This appealed to me a lot!

[drawing of Nietzsche, smashing a cross marked Religion with a hammer, yelling: RAAAH God is dead! Christianity has killed him!]

THE LIFE OF FRIEDRICH NIETZSCHE (15 October 1844 - 25 August 1900)

Nietzsche was born near Leipzig, Germany. His father, Karl Ludwig, was a preacher.

Father: We’ll call him Friedrich Wilhelm, after our king who turns 49 today!

Nietzsche’s father died in 1848 and he grew up with five women: his mother, his grandmother, two aunts and one (younger) sister.

In1864 he went to study theology and philology in Bonn and later in Leipzig. He gave up Theology after a few months and became an atheist, which severely displeased his mother.

Soon, reading the works of Schopenhauer and Darwin, he started to rebel against authority and tradition.

Nietzsche: When you read these books, you can no longer take Christianity seriously!

In 1867 he volunteered in the Prussian army, serving in the French-Prussian war of 1870-71, where he contracted all sorts of diseases.

From 1869 until 1979 he was professor of philology in Basel, a job he had to quit due to health issues. He then began to roam Europe.

Nietzsche: France, Switzerland, Italy… preferably far away from my sister, with whom I quarrel a lot. I wrote one book a year: Also sprach Zarathustra, Die fröhliche Wissenschaft, der Antichrist…

In 1882 he met Lou Salomé, who turned down his marriage proposal.

Nietzsche: …because my sister was interfering, no doubt!

He became alienated and bitter, and suffered a nervous breakdown in 1889. During his last few years his sister Elisabeth, who would later handle his legacy, looked after him. He died after a series of strokes in August 1900, fifty-five years old.

His friend Peter Gast: Holy be his name for generations to come!

—

Gerrit: A central theme in Nietzsche’s work is the admonition to live life to the fullest!

Famous Nietzsche quotes:

There is more wisdom in your body than in your deepest philosophy

Is life not a thousand times too short to bore ourselves?

I would believe only in a God that knew how to dance

Without music, life would be a mistake

Only that which strengthens, is good

I am my own God

Gerrit: …how ironic that he ended up a prisoner of his own insanity, and misrepresented by his sister Elisabeth, who altered his writings to fit her ideas about racial purity.

Elisabeth: I think my brother meant that we should all be an Arian Übermensch!

Gerrit: But even so, his thoughts have liberated and inspired countless people: philosophers, artists and politicians, among others Sartre, Foucault, Heidegger, Roosevelt, Camus, Nixon.

Unfettered living.

Being critical.

Creating art.

I’ve done all of that.

Now I am seventy-two - my end is near, and once again I hear Nietzsche’s words:

My death I praise you, the free death, which comes to me because I want it…

And that’s that!

Original pages

Note:

I drew this in 2010. My friend Gerrit died in 2016, aged 76. In the spirit of Nietzsche’s philosophy, he brought about his own death.

‘The free death’, on his own terms.