Editing Friedrich Nietzsche (section)

=== Professor at Basel (1869–1879) ===
{{anchor|Professor at Basel|Basel}}
[[File:Rohde Gersdorff Nietzsche.JPG|thumb|upright|Left to right: [[Erwin Rohde]], Karl von Gersdorff and Nietzsche, October 1871]]
In 1869, with Ritschl's support, Nietzsche received an offer to become a professor of [[classical philology]] at the [[University of Basel]] in Switzerland. He was only 24 years old and had neither completed his doctorate nor received a teaching certificate ("''[[habilitation]]''"). He was awarded an [[honorary doctorate]] by [[Leipzig University]] in March 1869, again with Ritschl's support.{{sfn|Jensen|Heit|2014|p=129}}

Despite his offer coming at a time when he was considering giving up philology for science, he accepted.{{Sfn |Kaufmann |1974 |p=25}} To this day, Nietzsche is still among the youngest of the tenured Classics professors on record.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Bishop |first=Paul |title=Nietzsche and Antiquity |publisher=Boydell & Brewer |year=2004 |isbn=978-1571136480 |page=117}}</ref>

Nietzsche's 1870 projected [[doctoral thesis]], "Contribution toward the Study and the Critique of the Sources of Diogenes Laertius" ("''Beiträge zur Quellenkunde und Kritik des Laertius Diogenes''"), examined the origins of the ideas of [[Diogenes Laërtius]].{{sfn|Jensen|Heit|2014|p=115}} Though never submitted, it was later published as a {{Langx|de|text=Gratulationsschrift|label=none}} ('congratulatory publication') in [[Basel]].<ref>{{Cite web |last=McCarthy |first=George E. |title=Dialectics and Decadence |url=http://personal.kenyon.edu/mccarthy/Book1.htm}}</ref>{{efn-lr|Between 1868 and 1870, he published two other studies on Diogenes Laertius: ''On the Sources of Diogenes Laertius'' (''De Fontibus Diogenis Laertii'') Part I (1868) & Part II (1869); and ''Analecta Laertiana'' (1870). See {{harvnb|Jensen|Heit|2014|p=115}}}}

Before moving to Basel, Nietzsche renounced his Prussian citizenship: for the rest of his life he remained officially [[Stateless person|stateless]].<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Hecker |first=Hellmuth |year=1987 |title=Nietzsches Staatsangehörigkeit als Rechtsfrage. |trans-title=Nietzsche's nationality as a legal question |journal=[[Neue Juristische Wochenschrift]] |language=de |volume=40 |pages=1388–1391 |number=23}}</ref><ref>His, Eduard. 1941. "Friedrich Nietzsches Heimatlosigkeit." ''Basler Zeitschrift für Geschichte und Altertumskunde'' 40:159–186.

Note that some authors (incl. Deussen and [[Mazzino Montinari|Montinari]]) mistakenly claim that Nietzsche became a Swiss citizen to become a university professor.</ref>

Nevertheless, Nietzsche served in the Prussian forces during the [[Franco-Prussian War]] (1870–1871) as a medical [[orderly]]. In his short time in the military, he experienced much and witnessed the traumatic effects of battle. He also contracted [[diphtheria]] and [[dysentery]].<ref name=":2">{{Cite book |last=Deussen |first=Paul |author-link=Paul Deussen |title=Erinnerungen a Friedrich Nietzsche |date=1901 |publisher=[[F. A. Brockhaus AG|F.A. Brockhaus]] |location=Leipzig |language=de |trans-title=Memoirs of Friedrich Nietzsche}}</ref> [[Walter Kaufmann (philosopher)|Walter Kaufmann]] speculates that he also contracted [[syphilis]] at a brothel along with his other infections at this time.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Sax |first=Leonard |year=2003 |title=What was the cause of Nietzsche's dementia? |journal=[[Journal of Medical Biography]] |volume=11 |issue=1 |pages=47–54 |doi=10.1177/096777200301100113 |pmid=12522502 |s2cid=6929185}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Schain |first=Richard |title=The Legend of Nietzsche's Syphilis |publisher=Greenwood Press |year=2001 |location=Westwood}}{{full citation needed|date=November 2012}}</ref> On returning to Basel in 1870, Nietzsche observed the establishment of the [[German Empire]] and [[Otto von Bismarck]]'s subsequent policies as an outsider and with a degree of scepticism regarding their genuineness. His inaugural lecture at the university was "[[s: Homer and Classical Philology|Homer and Classical Philology]]". Nietzsche also met [[Franz Overbeck]], a professor of theology who remained his friend throughout his life. [[Afrikan Spir]], a little-known Russian philosopher responsible for the 1873 ''Thought and Reality'' and Nietzsche's colleague, the historian [[Jacob Burckhardt]], whose lectures Nietzsche frequently attended, began to exercise significant influence on him.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Green |first=M. S. |title=Nietzsche and the Transcendental Tradition |date=2002 |publisher=[[University of Illinois Press]]}}{{full citation needed|date=November 2012}}</ref>

Nietzsche had already met Richard Wagner in Leipzig in 1868 and later Wagner's wife, Cosima. Nietzsche admired both greatly and during his time at Basel frequently visited Wagner's house in [[Tribschen]] in [[Canton of Lucerne|Lucerne]]. The Wagners brought Nietzsche into their most intimate circle—which included [[Franz Liszt]], of whom Nietzsche colloquially described: "Liszt or the art of running after women!"<ref>[[Rupert Hughes|Hughes, Rupert]]. [1903] 2004. "[http://www.gutenberg.org/files/11419/11419-h/11419-h.htm#img2 Franz Liszt]." Ch. 1 in [http://www.gutenberg.org/files/11419/11419-h/11419-h.htm#img2 ''The Love Affairs of Great Musicians'' 2]. [[Project Gutenberg]]. Also available via [http://www.bookrags.com/ebooks/11419/1.html#gsc.tab=0 Book Rags].</ref> Nietzsche enjoyed the attention he gave to the beginning of the [[Bayreuth Festspielhaus|Bayreuth Festival]]. In 1870, he gave Cosima Wagner the manuscript of "The Genesis of the Tragic Idea" as a birthday gift. In 1872, Nietzsche published his first book, ''[[The Birth of Tragedy]]''. However, his colleagues within his field, including Ritschl, expressed little enthusiasm for the work in which Nietzsche eschewed the classical philologic method in favour of a more speculative approach. In his [[polemic]] ''Philology of the Future'', [[Ulrich von Wilamowitz-Moellendorff]] damped the book's reception and increased its notoriety. In response, Rohde (then a professor in [[Kiel]]) and Wagner came to Nietzsche's defence. Nietzsche remarked freely about the isolation he felt within the philological community and attempted unsuccessfully to transfer to a position in philosophy at Basel.
[[File:Friedrich Nietzsche-1872.jpg|thumb|upright|left|Nietzsche, c. 1872]]

In 1873, Nietzsche began to accumulate notes that would be posthumously published as ''[[Philosophy in the Tragic Age of the Greeks]]''. Between 1873 and 1876, he published four separate long essays: "[[David Strauss]]: the Confessor and the Writer", "[[On the Advantage and Disadvantage of History for Life|On the Use and Abuse of History for Life]]", "Schopenhauer as Educator", and "Richard Wagner in Bayreuth". These four later appeared in a collected edition under the title ''[[Untimely Meditations]]''. The essays shared the orientation of a cultural critique, challenging the developing German culture suggested by Schopenhauer and Wagner. During this time in the circle of the Wagners, he met [[Malwida von Meysenbug]] and [[Hans von Bülow]]. He also began a friendship with [[Paul Rée]] who, in 1876, influenced him into dismissing the [[Philosophical pessimism|pessimism]] in his early writings. However, he was deeply disappointed by the [[Bayreuth Festival]] of 1876, where the banality of the shows and baseness of the public repelled him. He was also alienated by Wagner's championing of "German culture", which Nietzsche felt a contradiction in terms, as well as by Wagner's celebration of his fame among the German public. All this contributed to his subsequent decision to distance himself from Wagner.

With the publication in 1878 of ''[[Human, All Too Human]]'' (a book of [[aphorism]]s ranging from metaphysics to morality to religion), a new style of Nietzsche's work became clear, highly influenced by [[Afrikan Spir]]'s ''Thought and Reality''<ref>{{Cite book |last=Safranski |first=Rüdiger |author-link=Rüdiger Safranski |title=[[Nietzsche: A Philosophical Biography]] |date=2003 |publisher=[[W. W. Norton & Company]] |page=161 |translator-last=Frisch |translator-first=Shelley |quote=This work had long been consigned to oblivion, but it had a lasting impact on Nietzsche. Section 18 of ''Human, All Too Human'' cited Spir, not by name, but by presenting a 'proposition by an outstanding logician' (2,38; HH I §&nbsp;18). |translator-link=Shelley Frisch}}</ref> and reacting against the pessimistic philosophy of Wagner and Schopenhauer. Nietzsche's friendship with Deussen and Rohde cooled as well. In 1879, after a significant decline in health, Nietzsche had to resign his position at Basel and was pensioned.<ref name=EB1911/> Since his childhood, various disruptive illnesses had plagued him, including moments of shortsightedness that left him nearly blind, [[migraine]] headaches, and violent indigestion. The 1868 riding accident and diseases in 1870 may have aggravated these persistent conditions, which continued to affect him through his years at Basel, forcing him to take longer and longer holidays until regular work became impractical.