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Zarathustra's Sister: The Case of Elizabeth and Friedrich Nietzche
While Nietzsche lay dying from syphilis and deterioration of the brain, Elizabeth wrested all literary rights from her ageing mother. She began writing books about him and supervising the editing of his voluminous works. This volume reveals the extraordinary amount that she got away with.
- GenresBiographyPhilosophy
300 pages, Paperback
First published September 1, 1985
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
November 8, 2025
Eu já tinha lido uma biografia mais recente sobre o assunto, de autoria de Carol Diethe, mas este é mais amplo e contém elementos ausentes no livro de Diethe: por exemplo, descrições da vida familiar dos Oehlers, de onde veio a mãe dos irmãos Nietzsche, e detalhes das relações que Elisabeth travou com vários membros da alta sociedade alemã e europeia a partir da década de 1890. Elisabeth portou-se como um verdadeiro parasita junto a seus amigos ricos, sugando suas finanças em nome de suas duas maiores ambições: a de fundar e sustentar os Arquivos Nietzsche e a de adquirir uma vida de luxo para si mesma. Como "rainha" da colônia alemã no Paraguai e em seu posto como senhora dos Nietzsche Archivs, ela passava por cima de quem quer que se lhe opusesse e questionasse sua autoridade. Quando pega em flagrante em alguma contradição, ela sempre contornava suas dificuldades no final, quer por desenvoltura própria ou com ajuda do acaso. Durante a leitura do livro, uma palavra sempre me vinha à mente ao pensar no tipo de personalidade de Elisabeth: trumpiana.
O livro também dá profundidade maior às posições políticas de Elisabeth durante o século XX. Qual não foi minha surpresa em saber que ela preferia Hindenburg a Hitler? Mesmo depois de Hitler subir ao poder e prestar-lhe suas homenagens (algo que deve ter conquistado alguém tão narcisista quanto Elisabeth), ela nunca manifestou entusiasmo pela truculência do nazismo. À maneira de muitos conservadores de hoje, que insistem em se manter cegos quanto ao verdadeiro caráter da laia de Trump, Bolsonaro e Orbán, e poupá-los da culpa pela violência contumaz de seus acólitos, as escaramuças nas ruas da Alemanha nazista Elisabeth as via, antes, como atos isolados de elementos marginais do movimento nazista que sem dúvida seriam reprimidos mais tarde, à medida que a Alemanha voltasse a ser um país de lei e ordem sob os cuidados de Hitler.
Apesar disso, Peters evita seguir o "easy way" trilhado pelos nietzscheanos liberais e de esquerda, que vertem inteiramente sobre Elisabeth a culpa pelo elo entre Nietzsche e o nazismo. Sua posição é de equilíbrio: de um lado, é inegável a distorção que Elisabeth cometeu contra o pensamento de Nietzsche para fazer dele um baluarte, primeiro do império alemão e depois do ideário nazista, dando-lhe um acabamento nacionalista e teutônico que jamais lhe coube. Mas, de outro lado, também é certo que Nietzsche continha em si uma metade belicosa, que ele rendia homenagens ao exercício da vontade de poder enquanto força bruta, enquanto conquista militar e imposição de hierarquias, tanto quanto a outra metade podia inspirar uma vida apolítica de quietude epicuriana, rica em eventos internos e fundada no amor à arte e no aperfeiçoamento individual.
Outras coisas de grande interesse aqui: Peters considera como inquestionável que a causa do declínio mental de Nietzsche fosse a sífilis contraída nas casas de prostituição. E ele atribui à doença, com seus baixos depressivos e altos grandiosos, certos aspectos da filosofia posterior de Nietzsche. Ele também insinua aqui e ali algo de mórbido na relação entre os irmãos, e, pelo que diz ele, rumores nesse sentido circulavam já nos dias em que Nietzsche não era nada mais do que um jovem acadêmico em Basileia que tinha sua irmã como colega de quarto. Até Bernhard Förster
via uma ameaça nessa relação, ainda que seja improvável, penso eu, que ele tivesse contraído casamento com uma mulher que ele suspeitasse de incesto. É difícil aceitar que algo nesse sentido jamais se tivesse consumado entre os irmãos - mas que, da parte de Elisabeth, houvesse algo escuso pelo menos no domínio da fantasia inconsciente, é inegável: isso o demonstra o livro de Diethe, que tem por apêndice uma novela escrita mas não publicada de autoria de Elisabeth, em que é narrada uma inocente história de amor entre um homem e uma mulher que são obviamente símbolos de Nietzsche e Elisabeth.
Assim como Diethe, ele também trata como verídica a versão de Lou Salomé sobre sua relação com Nietzsche, incluindo a história de que ele lhe propôs casamento duas vezes. Isto, porém, é algo que Rudolph Binion refuta na biografia que publicou sobre Lou. Como muitos nietzscheanos ainda nos dias de hoje, Peters em nenhum momento se refere à obra de Binion, apesar de Walter Kaufmann ter chamado atenção a ela 5 anos antes de Peters ter publicado seu próprio livro. Que as descobertas de Binion tenham restado intocadas apesar de nunca terem sofrido refutação alguma, só se pode atribuir à mentalidade de rebanho acadêmica. Esta é minha única objeção ao livro, mas no fim das contas é uma questão pequena. Peters também dá menos peso ao assunto do que Diethe, que chega ao ponto de interpretar as imposturas de Elisabeth enquanto editora de Nietzsche como vingança por Nietzsche ter-se apaixonado pela sua rival.
Para encerrar: Assim como Platão diz do homem de caráter timocrata que ele é, de todos os tipos platônicos, o que melhor se presta como personagem de épico, a vida de Elisabeth, com seus ricos eventos externos, conflitos pessoais sem fim e egoísmo instintivo, fornece material ímpar para uma biografia. E muitos aspectos do nietzscheanismo ela os encarnava melhor do que o próprio Nietzsche, pelo menos quanto à sua metade belicosa.
O livro também dá profundidade maior às posições políticas de Elisabeth durante o século XX. Qual não foi minha surpresa em saber que ela preferia Hindenburg a Hitler? Mesmo depois de Hitler subir ao poder e prestar-lhe suas homenagens (algo que deve ter conquistado alguém tão narcisista quanto Elisabeth), ela nunca manifestou entusiasmo pela truculência do nazismo. À maneira de muitos conservadores de hoje, que insistem em se manter cegos quanto ao verdadeiro caráter da laia de Trump, Bolsonaro e Orbán, e poupá-los da culpa pela violência contumaz de seus acólitos, as escaramuças nas ruas da Alemanha nazista Elisabeth as via, antes, como atos isolados de elementos marginais do movimento nazista que sem dúvida seriam reprimidos mais tarde, à medida que a Alemanha voltasse a ser um país de lei e ordem sob os cuidados de Hitler.
Apesar disso, Peters evita seguir o "easy way" trilhado pelos nietzscheanos liberais e de esquerda, que vertem inteiramente sobre Elisabeth a culpa pelo elo entre Nietzsche e o nazismo. Sua posição é de equilíbrio: de um lado, é inegável a distorção que Elisabeth cometeu contra o pensamento de Nietzsche para fazer dele um baluarte, primeiro do império alemão e depois do ideário nazista, dando-lhe um acabamento nacionalista e teutônico que jamais lhe coube. Mas, de outro lado, também é certo que Nietzsche continha em si uma metade belicosa, que ele rendia homenagens ao exercício da vontade de poder enquanto força bruta, enquanto conquista militar e imposição de hierarquias, tanto quanto a outra metade podia inspirar uma vida apolítica de quietude epicuriana, rica em eventos internos e fundada no amor à arte e no aperfeiçoamento individual.
Outras coisas de grande interesse aqui: Peters considera como inquestionável que a causa do declínio mental de Nietzsche fosse a sífilis contraída nas casas de prostituição. E ele atribui à doença, com seus baixos depressivos e altos grandiosos, certos aspectos da filosofia posterior de Nietzsche. Ele também insinua aqui e ali algo de mórbido na relação entre os irmãos, e, pelo que diz ele, rumores nesse sentido circulavam já nos dias em que Nietzsche não era nada mais do que um jovem acadêmico em Basileia que tinha sua irmã como colega de quarto. Até Bernhard Förster
via uma ameaça nessa relação, ainda que seja improvável, penso eu, que ele tivesse contraído casamento com uma mulher que ele suspeitasse de incesto. É difícil aceitar que algo nesse sentido jamais se tivesse consumado entre os irmãos - mas que, da parte de Elisabeth, houvesse algo escuso pelo menos no domínio da fantasia inconsciente, é inegável: isso o demonstra o livro de Diethe, que tem por apêndice uma novela escrita mas não publicada de autoria de Elisabeth, em que é narrada uma inocente história de amor entre um homem e uma mulher que são obviamente símbolos de Nietzsche e Elisabeth.
Assim como Diethe, ele também trata como verídica a versão de Lou Salomé sobre sua relação com Nietzsche, incluindo a história de que ele lhe propôs casamento duas vezes. Isto, porém, é algo que Rudolph Binion refuta na biografia que publicou sobre Lou. Como muitos nietzscheanos ainda nos dias de hoje, Peters em nenhum momento se refere à obra de Binion, apesar de Walter Kaufmann ter chamado atenção a ela 5 anos antes de Peters ter publicado seu próprio livro. Que as descobertas de Binion tenham restado intocadas apesar de nunca terem sofrido refutação alguma, só se pode atribuir à mentalidade de rebanho acadêmica. Esta é minha única objeção ao livro, mas no fim das contas é uma questão pequena. Peters também dá menos peso ao assunto do que Diethe, que chega ao ponto de interpretar as imposturas de Elisabeth enquanto editora de Nietzsche como vingança por Nietzsche ter-se apaixonado pela sua rival.
Para encerrar: Assim como Platão diz do homem de caráter timocrata que ele é, de todos os tipos platônicos, o que melhor se presta como personagem de épico, a vida de Elisabeth, com seus ricos eventos externos, conflitos pessoais sem fim e egoísmo instintivo, fornece material ímpar para uma biografia. E muitos aspectos do nietzscheanismo ela os encarnava melhor do que o próprio Nietzsche, pelo menos quanto à sua metade belicosa.
July 31, 2025
Great book, but my god. There is no other way to describe Nietzsche’s sister as anything but extremely emotionally incestuous. The way she acted would be a bit much even if Nietzsche was her husband.
It seems like she never really got out of being in her early 20s and play acting at keeping her brothers house when he was at Basel. Or wanting to marry him when they were children. Or acting like a couple when he came to visit her in high school. Throughout their lives her extremely jealous, parochial, and possessive spirit shines through, in everything from her sabotaging his friendship with Lou, marrying Forster (which in a lot of ways I think can be seen as a reaction against her brother), and her general attitude.
As a person, Nietzsche’s sister is the most superficial (never got over Nietzsche’s break with Wagner as sabotaging her link to high society), petty, and vindictive character in Nietzsche’s life.
And then…her behavior after Nietzsche’s breakdown is genuinely despicable. Using him as a prop for the media. Having Meta buy a house for them and then using HER money for renovations and to create her own little castle. Her numerous attempts to alter and sabotage her brother’s work. Her monopolization of the Nietzsche archive and bullying of Overbeck (to the point he couldn’t even attend his best friend’s funeral). And the treatment of her own mother towards the end of her life.
As to why that is, the book gives a lot of reasons (early life circumstances primarily). The book is a very interesting read but be warned it will drastically alter your assessment of Elizabeth’s character. It really does make you sympathize when Nietzsche calls his sister a curse on his life, and makes you wonder how different his life would’ve turned out if she wasn’t a central character.
P.S. In many corners of the Internet there’s this lionization of trad women, trad wives etc. This book is actually a great example of why you wouldn’t necessarily want that. In actuality, women who grow up in small parish towns with little exposure to the outside world aren’t the angels you think they are (Nietzsche’s critique of how bourgeois women pretend they’re the embodiment of the eternal feminine rings true here). They can be close minded (not in the sense that they oppose liberal values, but that they don’t want to see you doing anything great), vain (growing up in this way leads them to over privilege things like clout, money, etc.), dogmatic, gossipy, deceitful, overly possessive and jealous, etc.
P.P.S. This book also makes clear that many/modt of the misconceptions about Nietzsche stem directly from his sister. The “will to power” as a formal metaphysical system (which Heidegger mistakenly thinks) and that Nietzsche’s final book would’ve been the will to power and present a broad system. The idea that Nietzsche was an incel who was bad with women (this was driven by Elizabeth’s simultaneous possessive attitude towards her brother and also her desire to protect his — and most importantly hers by extension — reputation). The whole Salomé affair (the idea they broke because Nietzsche proposed and she rejected was done to absolve Elizabeth of her real role in orchestrating the whole thing). The idea that Nietzsche only cares about vague notions of strength and domination and he’s just an insecure chud on the inside (this was done by Elizabeth to make him more compatible with Prussian nationalism. Also the same lady who wanted to wholly not publish Zarathustra book 4 — the book with the ass festival). The idea that Nietzsche had little friends (she hated pretty much all of his friends except Peter Gast….and look who shows up in the record most often! And especially his female friends). Also the idea that he must’ve had syphilkis — albeit indirectly — by lying about their dad dying from a neurological disease and instead saying it was a fall (this was done to not make it seem like Nietzsche was an insane man the whole time). Since neurological disease was off the table, they had to go with the next best explanation.
It seems like she never really got out of being in her early 20s and play acting at keeping her brothers house when he was at Basel. Or wanting to marry him when they were children. Or acting like a couple when he came to visit her in high school. Throughout their lives her extremely jealous, parochial, and possessive spirit shines through, in everything from her sabotaging his friendship with Lou, marrying Forster (which in a lot of ways I think can be seen as a reaction against her brother), and her general attitude.
As a person, Nietzsche’s sister is the most superficial (never got over Nietzsche’s break with Wagner as sabotaging her link to high society), petty, and vindictive character in Nietzsche’s life.
And then…her behavior after Nietzsche’s breakdown is genuinely despicable. Using him as a prop for the media. Having Meta buy a house for them and then using HER money for renovations and to create her own little castle. Her numerous attempts to alter and sabotage her brother’s work. Her monopolization of the Nietzsche archive and bullying of Overbeck (to the point he couldn’t even attend his best friend’s funeral). And the treatment of her own mother towards the end of her life.
As to why that is, the book gives a lot of reasons (early life circumstances primarily). The book is a very interesting read but be warned it will drastically alter your assessment of Elizabeth’s character. It really does make you sympathize when Nietzsche calls his sister a curse on his life, and makes you wonder how different his life would’ve turned out if she wasn’t a central character.
P.S. In many corners of the Internet there’s this lionization of trad women, trad wives etc. This book is actually a great example of why you wouldn’t necessarily want that. In actuality, women who grow up in small parish towns with little exposure to the outside world aren’t the angels you think they are (Nietzsche’s critique of how bourgeois women pretend they’re the embodiment of the eternal feminine rings true here). They can be close minded (not in the sense that they oppose liberal values, but that they don’t want to see you doing anything great), vain (growing up in this way leads them to over privilege things like clout, money, etc.), dogmatic, gossipy, deceitful, overly possessive and jealous, etc.
P.P.S. This book also makes clear that many/modt of the misconceptions about Nietzsche stem directly from his sister. The “will to power” as a formal metaphysical system (which Heidegger mistakenly thinks) and that Nietzsche’s final book would’ve been the will to power and present a broad system. The idea that Nietzsche was an incel who was bad with women (this was driven by Elizabeth’s simultaneous possessive attitude towards her brother and also her desire to protect his — and most importantly hers by extension — reputation). The whole Salomé affair (the idea they broke because Nietzsche proposed and she rejected was done to absolve Elizabeth of her real role in orchestrating the whole thing). The idea that Nietzsche only cares about vague notions of strength and domination and he’s just an insecure chud on the inside (this was done by Elizabeth to make him more compatible with Prussian nationalism. Also the same lady who wanted to wholly not publish Zarathustra book 4 — the book with the ass festival). The idea that Nietzsche had little friends (she hated pretty much all of his friends except Peter Gast….and look who shows up in the record most often! And especially his female friends). Also the idea that he must’ve had syphilkis — albeit indirectly — by lying about their dad dying from a neurological disease and instead saying it was a fall (this was done to not make it seem like Nietzsche was an insane man the whole time). Since neurological disease was off the table, they had to go with the next best explanation.
August 5, 2024
A VERY INFORMATIVE ACCOUNT OF NIETZSCHE'S SISTER, ELISABETH
H.F. Peters also wrote books such as 'My Sister, My Spouse: A Biography of Lou Andreas-Salome' and 'Rainer Maria Rilke: Masks and the Man.'
He wrote in the Introduction to this 1977 book, "The reason why it has not been possible before now to show the interrelationship between Nietzsche and his sister is that as long as Elisabeth was alive nobody had access to her private papers, and even after her death they were kept under lock and key in the Nietzsche Archives... [such research] could only be made after the defeat of the Third Reich, and even then it took years before the rulers of the German Democratic Republic who inherited the Nietzsche Archives were willing to open that section that deals with Elisabeth. She had been an ardent Nazi... In December 1969 I was finally given permission to view them, to take extensive notes, and to order photostatic copies of entire documents." (Pg. x-xi)
Peters notes that Elisabeth "wrote [Nietzsche] that she was getting thoroughly familiar with his Leipzig past, a remark that must have made him wince, for there were aspects of his past that nobody knew---furtive nightly visits to prostitutes, anxious moments in doctors' consulting rooms. It was just as well that his faithful Llama would never know this part of his past." (Pg. 26) He observes that Elisabeth's "wedding took place in Naumburg amid a small circle of relatives and friends. The only member of the Nietzsche family who was conspicuously absent was Elisabeth's beloved brother, [Nietzsche]." (Pg. 84)
He records that as his reputation grew after his death, "the bleak financial future that Elisabeth faced ... had become a prosperous present. She was well on the way to becoming the recognized spokesman for an author who had risen overnight from obscurity to international fame and who, while still alive, lay entombed in a grave of madness. In the eyes of the world the sister of the mad philosopher became an object of reverence. Most reviewers read her book on her brother's life as a young man, in which she played an important part, in that light." (Pg. 140)
He adds that Dr. P.J. Möbius "listened to Elisabeth's explanations [for Nietzsche's illness], but after a careful study of Nietzsche's medical history, he dismissed them... [Möbius] hinted that it was caused by syphilis... Möbius warned his countrymen that they should beware of Nietzsche, for his works were the products of a diseased brain." (Pg. 183-184)
He recounts that two scholars "scrutinized Nietzsche's notebooks carefully and discovered numerous cases in which Elisabeth had used letters her brother had drafted for others but which she had published as though he had written them to her... when he confronted Nietzsche's sister with this evidence---she was almost ninety years old at the time---she became furious..." (Pg. 218)
Of Hitler's ascension to power, Peters writes, "If Elisabeth had hedged her bets about the Nazi leader until then, she now embraced his fervently... He could provide the financial support she needed. And she was not mistaken. Hitler listened to her requests for help with a sympathetic ear, made private contributions, and ordered official grants to be given to the Nietzsche Archives. Elisabeth felt that at long last the German Napoleon, the 'superman' her brother had called for, had arisen and that she had met him." (Pg. 220) When she was in the hospital, Hitler visited, and "wanted to assure her that he would provide the money for the construction of a Nietzsche memorial and library... Tears of joy ran down Elisabeth's cheeks... Her lifelong struggle to secure the future of her Archives had finally been won... her brother's work and her own were under the personal protection of the architect of the Thousand-Year Reich." (Pg. 222)
This is a very insightful book that will be of considerable interest to anyone wanting to more about the life of Nietzsche.
H.F. Peters also wrote books such as 'My Sister, My Spouse: A Biography of Lou Andreas-Salome' and 'Rainer Maria Rilke: Masks and the Man.'
He wrote in the Introduction to this 1977 book, "The reason why it has not been possible before now to show the interrelationship between Nietzsche and his sister is that as long as Elisabeth was alive nobody had access to her private papers, and even after her death they were kept under lock and key in the Nietzsche Archives... [such research] could only be made after the defeat of the Third Reich, and even then it took years before the rulers of the German Democratic Republic who inherited the Nietzsche Archives were willing to open that section that deals with Elisabeth. She had been an ardent Nazi... In December 1969 I was finally given permission to view them, to take extensive notes, and to order photostatic copies of entire documents." (Pg. x-xi)
Peters notes that Elisabeth "wrote [Nietzsche] that she was getting thoroughly familiar with his Leipzig past, a remark that must have made him wince, for there were aspects of his past that nobody knew---furtive nightly visits to prostitutes, anxious moments in doctors' consulting rooms. It was just as well that his faithful Llama would never know this part of his past." (Pg. 26) He observes that Elisabeth's "wedding took place in Naumburg amid a small circle of relatives and friends. The only member of the Nietzsche family who was conspicuously absent was Elisabeth's beloved brother, [Nietzsche]." (Pg. 84)
He records that as his reputation grew after his death, "the bleak financial future that Elisabeth faced ... had become a prosperous present. She was well on the way to becoming the recognized spokesman for an author who had risen overnight from obscurity to international fame and who, while still alive, lay entombed in a grave of madness. In the eyes of the world the sister of the mad philosopher became an object of reverence. Most reviewers read her book on her brother's life as a young man, in which she played an important part, in that light." (Pg. 140)
He adds that Dr. P.J. Möbius "listened to Elisabeth's explanations [for Nietzsche's illness], but after a careful study of Nietzsche's medical history, he dismissed them... [Möbius] hinted that it was caused by syphilis... Möbius warned his countrymen that they should beware of Nietzsche, for his works were the products of a diseased brain." (Pg. 183-184)
He recounts that two scholars "scrutinized Nietzsche's notebooks carefully and discovered numerous cases in which Elisabeth had used letters her brother had drafted for others but which she had published as though he had written them to her... when he confronted Nietzsche's sister with this evidence---she was almost ninety years old at the time---she became furious..." (Pg. 218)
Of Hitler's ascension to power, Peters writes, "If Elisabeth had hedged her bets about the Nazi leader until then, she now embraced his fervently... He could provide the financial support she needed. And she was not mistaken. Hitler listened to her requests for help with a sympathetic ear, made private contributions, and ordered official grants to be given to the Nietzsche Archives. Elisabeth felt that at long last the German Napoleon, the 'superman' her brother had called for, had arisen and that she had met him." (Pg. 220) When she was in the hospital, Hitler visited, and "wanted to assure her that he would provide the money for the construction of a Nietzsche memorial and library... Tears of joy ran down Elisabeth's cheeks... Her lifelong struggle to secure the future of her Archives had finally been won... her brother's work and her own were under the personal protection of the architect of the Thousand-Year Reich." (Pg. 222)
This is a very insightful book that will be of considerable interest to anyone wanting to more about the life of Nietzsche.
June 2, 2008
An very interesting and well-written biography of Elisabeth Forster Nietzsche.
January 24, 2013
Good biographical source for the lives of both siblings.
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