The Rudolf Steiner Archive

Foreword to the First Edition

[ 1 ] When I became acquainted with Friedrich Nietzsche's works six years ago, ideas similar to his were already formed in me. Independently of him and on different paths from him, I arrived at views that are in harmony with what Nietzsche expressed in his writings: Zarathustra, Beyond Good and Evil, Genealogy of Morals and Twilight of the Idols. Even in my little book Erkenntnistheorie der Goetheschen Weltanschauung, published in 1886, the same attitude is expressed as in Nietzsche's works mentioned above.

[ 2 ] This is the reason why I felt compelled to draw a picture of Nietzsche's imaginative and emotional life. I believe that such a picture becomes most similar to Nietzsche when it is created according to his last writings mentioned above. This is what I have done. Nietzsche's earlier writings show him as a seeker. In them, he presents himself to us as a restless upward striver. In his last writings, we see him as having reached the summit, which has a height appropriate to his very own way of thinking. In most of the writings on Nietzsche that have appeared so far, his development is presented as if he had had more or less divergent opinions at different times in his writing career. I have tried to show that there can be no question of a change of opinion in Nietzsche, but only of an upward movement, of the natural development of a personality that had not yet found the form of expression corresponding to its views when it wrote its first writings.

[ 3 ] The ultimate goal of Nietzsche's work is the creation of the “superman” type. I have considered characterizing this type to be one of the main tasks of my writing. My image of the superman has become exactly the opposite of the distorted image that is sketched out in the currently most popular book on Nietzsche by Mrs. Lou Andreas-Salomé. Nothing more contrary to the Nietzschean spirit can be put into the world than the mystical monster that Ms. Salomé has made of the superman. My book shows that nowhere in Nietzsche's ideas is there even the slightest trace of mysticism. I did not enter into the refutation of Mrs. Salomé's view that Nietzsche's thoughts in Menschliches, Allzumenschliches were influenced by the remarks of Paul Rées, the author of the Psychological Observations and the Origin of Moral Sentiments and so on. Such a mediocre mind as Paul Rée could not have made a significant impression on Nietzsche. I would not touch on these things here either if Mrs. Salomé's book had not done so much to spread downright repugnant views of Nietzsche. Fritz Koegel, the excellent editor of Nietzsche's works, has given this work of art the treatment it deserves in the Magazin für Literatur.

[ 4 ] I cannot conclude this short preface without thanking Mrs. Förster-Nietzsche, Nietzsche's sister, most sincerely for the many kindnesses I received from her during the time in which my work was written. I owe the mood from which the following thoughts are written to the hours spent in the “Nietzsche Archive” in Naumburg.