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Essay on Friedrich Nietzsche-2
Friedrich Nietzsche was born on October 15, 1844, in Röcken, a small town in Prussian Saxony, the first child of Ludwig Nietzsche, a Lutheran pastor and the son of a pastor. His mother, Franziska, was also the daughter of a Lutheran cleric. Little Fritz was born on the birthday of the reigning king of Prussia, Friedrich Wilhelm IV, so they named him Friedrich Wilhelm. For those who put stock in coincidences, it is of interest to note that all three--the king, the father, and the son--went insane.
On July 10, 1846, Elisabeth Therese Alexandria Nietzsche was born, the "sister of Zarathustra" who was to play such a fateful role in Nietzsche's life and especially in the making of the Nietzsche myth. Elisabeth loved and adored her older brother and considered him an authority on just about everything. Father Ludwig died in 1849, when Nietzsche was only four. In 1850 his two-year-old brother, Joseph, also died. Nietzsche had foreseen Joseph's death in a dream just a short time before, which may have been the beginning of his epistemological interest in dreams. These early deaths no doubt contributed to that trait of melancholy and seriousness that people observed in the young Nietzsche. He liked solitude and reflected on serious topics that children his age rarely consider. He early acquired the habit of self-absorption; he even wrote an autobiography at the tender age of fourteen entitled Aus meinem Leben.
Losing his father deprived young Fritz of a male role model, so he turned to his grandfather, Pastor David Oehler, a hunting parson of the old school, a large, robust man who fathered eleven children and died in full harness at the age of seventy-two. Grandfather Oehler was well-rounded, for in addition to his large body he had a large library and was musically gifted....
