Abstract

In this scholarly, detailed, and illuminating intellectual biography of Nietzsche, Bergmann locates "the last anti-political German" in his time and place, meticulously portraying the social, political, and cultural influences that acted upon the generation of the 1860s in Germany. What is called the "anti-motif" is uncovered and its relevance for an understanding of Nietzsche's ambiguous legacy is explicated. More than most interpreters of Nietzsche's life and thought, Bergmann repeatedly shows that the disillusionment with Germany and its politics followed in the wake of the great expectations of Nietzsche's generation. He consistently tries to link the changing political attitudes of Nietzsche and the evolution of his strong antipolitical stance to the historical events of the middle to late nineteenth century.