Abstract

The present essay reconstructs a concept that up until now has received little attention: Nietzsche's concept of 'über-europäisch', ('supra-European', 'over-European'), where Europe is what has to be overcome, gone beyond, left behind. The philosopher already considers Thus Spake Zarathustra as an attempt at an 'oriental overview of Europe', but only after this poem do his reflections concentrate on the 'supra-European'. His 'good Europeans' should not only be 'supra-national', but finally 'supra-European', i.e., they must be able, at least occasionally and temporarily, to transcend the horizon of Western culture. This is the turn Nietzsche gives to his critique of European morals after Zarathustra. In European history he sees, if not a tradition of overcoming boundaries, at least some isolated individuals who at times have approached a supra-European wayof thinking, and sets himself the task of a 'supra-European view of Europe'. There are e few reasons to doubt whether he really accomplished it, but his attempt can be considered one model of the distant view on Western thought that remains a challenge for Europe itself