Editing Friedrich Nietzsche (section)

=== Youth (1844–1868) ===
{{anchor|youth}}
Born on 15 October 1844, Nietzsche<ref>{{Cite web |title=The Life Of Friedrich Nietzsche – YTread |url=https://youtuberead.com/the-life-of-friedrich-nietzsche |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230924033446/https://youtuberead.com/the-life-of-friedrich-nietzsche |archive-date=24 September 2023 |access-date=27 March 2023 |website=youtuberead.com |language=en}}</ref> grew up in the town of [[Röcken]] (now part of [[Lützen]]), near [[Leipzig]], in the Prussian [[Province of Saxony]]. He was named after King [[Frederick William IV of Prussia|Friedrich Wilhelm IV of Prussia]], who turned 49 on the day of Nietzsche's birth (Nietzsche later dropped his middle name, Wilhelm). Nietzsche's great-grandfather, {{ill|Gotthelf Engelbert Nietzsche|ja|ゴットヘルフ・エンゲルベルト・ニーチェ}} (1714–1804), was an inspector and a philosopher. Nietzsche's grandfather, {{ill|Friedrich August Ludwig Nietzsche|de}} (1756–1826), was a theologian.{{Sfn |Kaufmann |1974 |p=22}} Nietzsche's parents, [[Carl Ludwig Nietzsche]] (1813–1849), a [[Lutheranism|Lutheran]] pastor<ref name=EB1911/> and former teacher; and {{ill|Franziska Nietzsche|de}} (''née'' Oehler) (1826–1897), married in 1843, the year before their son's birth. They had two other children: a daughter, [[Elisabeth Förster-Nietzsche]], born in 1846; and a second son, Ludwig Joseph, born in 1848. Nietzsche's father died from a brain disease in 1849, after a year of excruciating agony, when the boy was only four years old; Ludwig Joseph died six months later at age two.<ref name="Wicks">{{Cite encyclopedia |year=2014 |title=Friedrich Nietzsche |encyclopedia=Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy Archive |url=http://plato.stanford.edu/archives/win2014/entries/nietzsche/ |last=Wicks |first=Robert |editor-last=Zalta |editor-first=Edward N. |edition=Winter 2014}}</ref> The family then moved to [[Naumburg]], where they lived with Nietzsche's maternal grandmother and his father's two unmarried sisters. After the death of Nietzsche's grandmother in 1856, the family moved into their own house, now [[Nietzsche-Haus, Naumburg|Nietzsche-Haus]], a museum, and Nietzsche study centre.
[[File:Nietzsche1861.jpg|thumb|upright|left|Young Nietzsche, 1861]]

Nietzsche attended a boys' school and then a private school, where he became friends with Gustav Krug and Wilhelm Pinder, both of whom came from highly respected families. Academic records from one of the schools attended by Nietzsche noted that he excelled in [[Christian theology]].<ref name="Human, All Too Human, BBC Documentary, 1999">{{Cite web |year=1999 |title=Friedrich Nietzsche |url=https://www.college.columbia.edu/core/content/human-all-too-human-bbc-documentary-1999 |access-date=16 October 2019 |website=Human, All Too Human |publisher=[[BBC]] Documentary |via=[[Columbia College (New York)|Columbia College]]}}</ref>

In 1854, he began to attend the Domgymnasium in Naumburg. Because his father had worked for the state (as a pastor), the now-fatherless Nietzsche was offered a scholarship to study at the internationally recognised [[Pforta|Schulpforta]]. The claim that Nietzsche was admitted on the strength of his academic competence has been debunked: his grades were not near the top of the class.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Brobjer |first=Thomas H. |date=2001 |title=Why Did Nietzsche Receive a Scholarship to Study at Schulpforta? |url=https://philpapers.org/rec/BROWDN |journal=[[Nietzsche Studien]] |volume=30 |issue=1 |pages=322–328 |doi=10.1515/9783110172409.322 |s2cid=151393894}}</ref> He studied there from 1858 to 1864, becoming friends with [[Paul Deussen]] and Carl von Gersdorff (1844–1904), who later became a jurist. He also found time to work on poems and musical compositions. Nietzsche led "Germania", a music and literature club, during his summers in Naumburg.<ref name="Wicks" /> At Schulpforta, Nietzsche received an important grounding in languages—[[Greek language|Greek]], [[Latin]], [[Hebrew language|Hebrew]], and French—to be able to read important [[primary source]]s;<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Krell |first1=David Farrell |title=The Good European: Nietzsche's work sites in word and image |last2=Bates |first2=Donald L. |date=1997 |publisher=[[University of Chicago Press]]}}</ref> he also experienced for the first time being away from his family life in a small-town conservative environment. His end-of-semester exams in March 1864 [[Academic grading in Germany|showed a 1]] in Religion and German; a 2a in Greek and Latin; a 2b in French, History, and Physics; and a "lackluster" 3{{nbsp}}in Hebrew and Mathematics.{{sfn|Cate|2005|p=37}}

Nietzsche was an amateur composer.<ref name="Grove">{{Cite encyclopedia |year=2001 |title=Nietzsche, Friedrich |encyclopedia=[[Grove Music Online]] |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |location=Oxford |url=https://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/grovemusic/view/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.001.0001/omo-9781561592630-e-0000019943 |last=Hollingdale |first=R. J. |author-link=R. J. Hollingdale |doi=10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.article.19943 |isbn=978-1-56159-263-0 |url-access=subscription}} {{Grove Music subscription}}</ref> He composed several works for voice, piano, and violin beginning in 1858 at the Schulpforta in Naumburg when he started to work on musical compositions. [[Richard Wagner]] was dismissive of Nietzsche's music, allegedly mocking a birthday gift of a piano composition sent by Nietzsche in 1871 to Wagner's wife [[Cosima Wagner|Cosima]]. German conductor and pianist [[Hans von Bülow]] also described another of Nietzsche's pieces as "the most undelightful and the most anti-musical draft on musical paper that I have faced in a long time".<ref>{{Cite web |title=Who knew? Friedrich Nietzsche was also a pretty decent classical composer |url=https://www.classicfm.com/discover-music/friedrich-nietzsche-composer/ |website=[[WCNY-FM|Classic FM]]}}</ref>

While at Schulpforta, Nietzsche pursued subjects that were considered unbecoming. He became acquainted with the work of the then-almost-unknown poet [[Friedrich Hölderlin]], calling him "my favourite poet" and writing an essay in which he said that the poet raised consciousness to "the most sublime ideality".{{sfn|Hayman|1980|p=42}} The teacher who corrected the essay gave it a good mark but commented that Nietzsche should concern himself in the future with healthier, more lucid, and more "German" writers. Additionally, he became acquainted with [[Ernst Ortlepp]], an eccentric, [[blasphemous]], and often [[drunken]] poet who was found dead in a ditch weeks after meeting the young Nietzsche but who may have introduced Nietzsche to the music and writing of [[Richard Wagner]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Kohler |first=Joachim |title=Nietzsche & Wagner: A Lesson in Subjugation |date=1998 |publisher=[[Yale University Press]] |page=17}}</ref> Perhaps under Ortlepp's influence, he and a student named Richter returned to school drunk and encountered a teacher, resulting in Nietzsche's demotion from first in his class and the end of his status as a [[School prefect|prefect]].{{sfn|Hollingdale|1999|p=21}}
[[File:Nietzsche-21.jpg|thumb|upright|Young Nietzsche|left]]

After graduation in September 1864,<ref>His "valedictorian paper" ({{lang|de|Valediktionsarbeit}}, graduation thesis for Pforta students) was titled "On [[Theognis of Megara]]" ("''De Theognide Megarensi''"); see {{harvnb|Jensen|Heit|2014|p=4}}</ref> Nietzsche began studying theology and classical philology at the [[University of Bonn]] in the hope of becoming a [[Minister (Christianity)|minister]]. For a short time, he and Deussen became members of the [[Burschenschaft]] ''[[Franconia|Frankonia]]''. After one semester (and to the anger of his mother), he stopped his theological studies and lost his faith.<ref name="Schaberg">{{Cite book |last=Schaberg |first=William |title=The Nietzsche Canon |publisher=University of Chicago Press |year=1996 |page=32}}</ref> As early as his 1862 essay "Fate and History", Nietzsche argued that historical research had discredited the central teachings of Christianity,<ref>{{Cite book |last=Salaquarda |first=Jörg |title=The Cambridge Companion to Nietzsche |publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]] |year=1996 |page=99 |chapter=Nietzsche and the Judaeo-Christian tradition}}</ref> but [[David Strauss]]'s ''[[David Strauss#Das Leben Jesu|Life of Jesus]]'' also seems to have had a profound effect on the young man.<ref name="Schaberg" /> In addition, [[Ludwig Feuerbach]]'s ''[[The Essence of Christianity]]'' influenced young Nietzsche with its argument that people created God and not the other way around.{{sfn|Solomon|Higgins|2000|p=86}} In June 1865, at the age of 20, Nietzsche wrote to his sister Elisabeth, who was deeply religious, a letter regarding his loss of faith. This letter contains the following statement:
<blockquote>Hence the ways of men part: if you wish to strive for peace of soul and pleasure, then believe; if you wish to be a devotee of truth, then inquire....<ref>{{Cite book |url=http://babbledom.com/2011/02/17/intermission/ |title=Nietzsche, Letter to His Sister (1865) |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121124011911/http://babbledom.com/2011/02/17/intermission/ |archive-date=24 November 2012 |url-status=dead |df=dmy-all}}</ref></blockquote>
[[File:Arthur Schopenhauer by J Schäfer, 1859b.jpg|thumb|upright|[[Arthur Schopenhauer]] strongly influenced Nietzsche's philosophical thought.]]
Nietzsche subsequently concentrated on studying philology under Professor [[Friedrich Wilhelm Ritschl]], whom he followed to the [[University of Leipzig]] in 1865.{{sfn|Magnus|1999}} There, he became close friends with his fellow student [[Erwin Rohde]]. Nietzsche's first philological publications appeared soon after.

In 1865, Nietzsche thoroughly studied the works of [[Arthur Schopenhauer]]. He owed the awakening of his philosophical interest to reading Schopenhauer's ''[[The World as Will and Representation]],'' later admitting that Schopenhauer was one of the few thinkers whom he respected, dedicating the essay "[[s: Schopenhauer as Educator|Schopenhauer as Educator]]" in the ''[[Untimely Meditations]]'' to him.

In 1866, he read [[Friedrich Albert Lange]]'s ''[[History of Materialism and Critique of its Present Importance|History of Materialism]]''. Lange's descriptions of [[Kant]]'s anti-materialistic philosophy, the rise of European [[Materialism]], Europe's increased concern with science, [[Charles Darwin]]'s theory of [[evolution]], and the general rebellion against tradition and authority intrigued Nietzsche greatly. Nietzsche would ultimately argue the impossibility of an evolutionary explanation of the human aesthetic sense.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Pence |first=Charles H. |year=2011 |title=Nietzsche's aesthetic critique of Darwin |url=https://www.academia.edu/759427 |journal=[[History and Philosophy of the Life Sciences]] |volume=33 |issue=2 |pages=165–190 |pmid=22288334}}{{Dead link|date=June 2022 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes}}{{dead link|date=November 2022}}</ref>

In 1867, Nietzsche signed up for one year of [[Enlistment|voluntary service]] with the [[Prussian Army|Prussian artillery division]] in Naumburg. He was regarded as one of the finest [[Horses in warfare|riders]] among his fellow recruits, and his officers predicted that he would soon reach the rank of [[Captain (Army)|captain]]. However, in March 1868, while [[Equestrianism|jumping into the saddle]] of his horse, Nietzsche struck his chest against the [[Pommel (saddle)|pommel]] and [[Muscle tear|tore two muscles]] in his left side, leaving him exhausted and unable to walk for months.{{sfn|Hayman|1980|p=93}}<ref>Nietzsche, Friedrich. [June 1868] 1921. "[[s: Selected Letters of Friedrich Nietzsche#To Freiherr boy Karl Von Gersdorff – June, 1868|Letter to Karl Von Gersdorff]]." ''Selected Letters of Friedrich Nietzsche'', translated by [[Anthony Ludovici|A. M. Ludovici]].</ref> Consequently, he turned his attention to his studies again, completing them in 1868. Nietzsche also met [[Richard Wagner]] for the first time later that year.<ref>Nietzsche, Friedrich. [November 1868] 1921. "[http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Selected_Letters_of_Friedrich_Nietzsche#To_Rohde_-_October.2C_1868 Letter to Rohde]." ''Selected Letters of Friedrich Nietzsche'', translated by [[Anthony Ludovici|A. M. Ludovici]].</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last1=Nietzsche |first1=Friedrich |author-link=Friedrich Nietzsche |url=https://archive.org/details/nietzschewagnerc00nietiala/page/n7/mode/2up |title=The Nietzsche-Wagner Correspondence |last2=Wagner |first2=Richard |author-link2=Richard Wagner |publisher=[[Boni & Liveright]] |others=[[H.L. Mencken|Introduction by Mencken, H.L.]] |editor-last=Foerster-Nietzsche |editor-first=Elizabeth |editor-link=Elisabeth Förster-Nietzsche |publication-place=[[New York City|New York]] |publication-date=1921 |translator-last=Kerr |translator-first=Caroline V. |asin=B000HFOAGI |translator-link=Caroline V. Kerr}}</ref>