By , Nietzsche was becoming remarkably well known. The University of Copenhagen hosted a series of lectures about his philosophy, and translations of his key writings were in the works. So promising was the outlook that he made inquiries about buying back his oeuvre from his publisher. In early , he collapsed, his body exhausted from almost two decades of battling syphilis.
When he regained consciousness, the philosopher declared himself to be the reincarnation of Dionysus. It was not an ironic philosophical proclamation, but the desperate cry of a faltering mind. It was the end of his intellectual life, and the beginning of his immortality. But as Friedrich Nietszche and the nineteenth century entered their final years, German readers began to embrace the works of this native son.
Aschheim in The Nietzsche Legacy in Germany, — Kessler was one of those enraptured by the magic. Born in Paris in to a Hamburg banker and a British heiress, he spent his childhood straddling Victorian Britain and Wilhelmine Germany. The nationalist fervor of the late-nineteenth century, in combination with pressure from his father, made it impossible to be a citizen of Europe, as the sensitive young man would have preferred.
Faced with the prospect of becoming a banker, Kessler this time asserted himself and convinced his parents to let him study law and art history at Bonn and Leipzig. When it came time to fulfill his military service, he secured a spot in the elite Third Guard Lancers. At the end of , a friend lent him a copy of Human, All-Too-Human. Kessler read it, along with the Odyssey , on a voyage between S an Francisco and Yokohama.
After five years in Paraguay, Elisabeth returned to Germany in , arriving not as a triumphant first lady, but as a disgraced widow. Having already born the loss of her husband, Elisabeth found that she had two brothers: the philosopher being devoured by Germans like Kessler, and the madman haunting the halls of their childhood home.
On October 26, , Kessler paid a visit, meeting her for the first time. In , she wrested control of the copyright for his works from their mother and moved her brother to Weimar, a sleepy town regarded as the cradle of German culture.
There, she could position him as the equal of Goethe and Schiller. In August , the Nietzsches moved into Villa Silberblick, a four-story house that was an easy walk from the center of Weimar.
The villa was purchased for them to use by Meta von Salis, a Swiss aristocrat who had befriended Nietzsche when he lived in Zurich. Not long after the Nietzsches took up residence in Villa Silberblick, Kessler stopped in. He lay sleeping on a sofa. The mighty head rested, as if too heavy for his neck, sunk on his chest, hanging halfway to the right.
The forehead is quite colossal, the mane of his hair still dark brown, and also the shaggy, swollen moustache. There are wide, black-brown shadows sunk deep under his eyes into his cheeks. In his flat, loose face deep furrows from thought and desire are engraved but gradually fading and becoming smooth again.
The hands are like wax, with greenish-violet veins, and somewhat swollen, like those of a corpse. As always Kessler was making mental notes.
Kessler arrived home from reserve duty to find a telegram waiting. Please come if possible. Kessler booked a train ticket to Weimar for the next day.
The total impression is one of strength despite the pain. On the morning of the funeral, he arranged for a death mask to be made. They were done in a half hour. If he had revived he would have thrown the speaker out of the window and chased us out of the temple.
Otherwise, it was a Christian affair for a man who did not believe in God: the bells rang, a choir sang spirituals, and a silver cross lay on the coffin. As the new century inched forward, Kessler found himself drawn to Weimar for reasons other than Nietzsche. For a man who thrived on the cultural frisson of Berlin and Paris, the decision to ensconce himself in a town of thirty thousand, populated by retirees, was not undertaken lightly.
But the offer of an honorary directorship of the Museum of Arts and Crafts was hard to refuse and Kessler took up the post in March Kessler had grand plans for turning Weimar and the museum into a center for aesthetic modernism. He organized a series of exhibitions that promoted symbolist artist Max Klinger, French postimpressionism, and English book and theater design. Kessler also bought a house in Weimar, enlisting van de Velde to design the interior, and collaborated again with him on plans for the construction of a new theater.
Assembling the pieces of his vision led Kessler to spend long stretches in London and Paris, meeting with artists and dealers. When one has the movement, one has everything. In , he was forced to resign his post after an exhibition of watercolors of nude women by Rodin caused a scandal. Kessler quickly moved on to other projects, such as becoming a patron of artists whose work he admired.
He also collaborated with composer Hugo von Hofmannsthal for the libretto for Der Rosenkavalier , an opera composed by Richard Strauss. In , she formed the Nietzsche Archive Foundation, which formalized its operation. Kessler was given a seat on the board. The money to operate the archive came from Ernst Thiel, a Swedish businessman of Jewish descent. The volumes are riddled with forgeries large and small.
Did Kessler know about the sleight of hand? Planning for a memorial progressed in fits and starts until But how does one memorialize a philosopher, especially one who wrote deeply about art and had a poor opinion of contemporary art forms? Ever the architect, van de Velde argued for remodeling the existing archive by adding a great hall that incorporated a memorial.
In a nod to Apollonian principles, the courtyard would feature a statue of a naked youth carved by Aristide Maillol, a French Catalan sculptor known for his classical forms. The interior would invoke Dionysus, with a bust of Nietzsche and bas reliefs by Klinger.
Nietzsche quotations engraved by Eric Gill, a British artist with a flair for typography, would adorn the walls. The assembling of different artists in service of a larger project was pure Kessler.
He could also be incredibly persuasive. Building the temple required money, somewhere in the range of fifty thousand marks. Kessler also envisioned benefit performances, lectures, and concerts in Germany, France, Austria, and New York.
The informal committee soon morphed into a formal board, with Kessler as president. Easton speculates that Kessler might not have offered her one, fearful of giving her too much influence. When Kessler ventured to Paris in the spring, he talked up plans for the memorial among his social circle, which included poet Rainer Maria Rilke, the writer Jean Cocteau, theater promoter Gabriel Astruc, composer Reynaldo Hahn, and Ballet Russes founder Sergei Diaghilev.
The church was built during the first half of the 12th century. With its fortified tower facing West it is one of the oldest church buildings of the region.
The romanesque pillars with palmette ornaments, the small 18th century one-manual organ as well as two epitaphs of the last knights of Kratzsch from the 17th century are particularly interesting. After many years of battling illness, Friedrich Nietzsche died on August 25, in Weimar. Only a generous financial donation to the church parish ensured that Friedrich Nietzsche could be buried in the family crypt in the old cemetery. In , on the th anniversary of Friedrich Nietzsche, Klaus F.
The life-size bronze sculptures with white coating show Nietzsche three times at his own grave. The artist refers here to the well-known studio photo with the scene on his mother's arm and to a vision which Nietzsche described in a letter to his friend Jacob Burckhardt in "During this fall, and dressed with as little as possible, I attended my own funeral twice.
In , on the occasion of the th anniversary of Friedrich Nietzsche's death, the memorial underwent some extensive renovations.
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