Editing Übermensch (section)

==Use by the Nazis==
The term {{lang|de|Übermensch}} was used frequently by [[Adolf Hitler|Hitler]] and the [[Nazism|Nazi]] regime to describe their idea of a biologically superior [[Aryan race|Aryan]] or Germanic master race;<ref name="Alexander 2011">{{cite book|last=Alexander|first=Jeffrey|title=A Contemporary Introduction to Sociology |edition=2nd |year=2011|publisher=Paradigm|isbn=978-1-61205-029-4}}</ref> a [[racism|racial]] version of Nietzsche's {{lang|de|Übermensch}} became a philosophical foundation for Nazi ideas.<ref>[http://www.trutv.com/library/crime/notorious_murders/famous/nietzsche_crimes/7.html "Nietzsche inspired Hitler and other killers – Page 7"], Court TV Crime Library</ref><ref>{{Cite web |url=http://econ161.berkeley.edu/tceh/Nietzsche.html |title=Nietzsche and Hitler |access-date=2010-04-19 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120313191954/http://econ161.berkeley.edu/tceh/Nietzsche.html |archive-date=2012-03-13 |url-status=dead }}</ref> The Nazi notion of the [[master race]] also spawned the idea of "inferior humans" (''[[Untermensch]]en'') who should be dominated and enslaved; this term does not originate with Nietzsche, who [[Philosophy of Friedrich Nietzsche#Jews, nationalism and European identity|was critical]] of both [[antisemitism]] and [[German nationalism]].

In his final years, Nietzsche began to believe that he was in fact [[Polish people|Polish]], not German, and was quoted as saying, "I am a pure-blooded Polish nobleman, without a single drop of bad blood, certainly not German blood".<ref>[[Friedrich Nietzsche]], "Ecce Homo: How One Becomes What One Is" [https://books.google.com/books?id=tVL-Dmg6TlUC]</ref> In defiance of nationalist doctrines, he claimed that he and Germany were great only because of "Polish blood in their veins",<ref>[[Henry Louis Mencken]], "The Philosophy of Friedrich Nietzsche", T. Fisher Unwin, 1908, reprinted by University of Michigan 2006, pg. 6, [https://books.google.com/books?id=nnEOAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA6]</ref> and that he would "[have] all anti-semites shot." Nietzsche died long before Hitler's reign, and it was partly Nietzsche's sister [[Elisabeth Förster-Nietzsche]] who manipulated her brother's words to accommodate the worldview of herself and her husband, [[Bernhard Förster]], a prominent German nationalist and antisemite.<ref>
{{cite web |url=http://users.utu.fi/hansalmi/forster.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20000920070116/http://users.utu.fi/hansalmi/forster.html |url-status=dead |archive-date=September 20, 2000 |author=Hannu Salmi |title=Die Sucht nach dem germanischen Ideal |year=1994|language=de}} Also published in ''Zeitschrift für Geschichtswissenschaft'' 6/1994, pp. 485–496</ref> Förster founded the ''Deutscher Volksverein'' (German People's League) in 1881 with [[Max Liebermann von Sonnenberg]].<ref>[[Karl Dietrich Bracher]], ''The German Dictatorship'', 1970, pp. 59–60</ref>