Nietzsche: The Man and His Philosophy
The book I read on Friedrich Nietzsche was essentially broken down into four
separate parts. Part one of the book consisted of Nietzsche as a child, schoolboy, and a
student. The second part of the novel discussed Nietzsche and his life as a professor. The
third and fourth parts of the book contained the turning point of his life and then his
Many says that Nietzsche's philosophy is very ironic because of the background
from which he was brought up. His father, grandfather, and great grandfather's had all
been Lutherans dating back to the beginning of the 17th century. Friedrich Nietzsche was
born on October 15th, 1844 in Rocken. Pastor Nietzsche had named his son after the new
ruler of Prussia, Friedrich Nietzsche. Friedrich spent his first five years of living in a
patronage located on the countryside. After his father died at age 36, he left the
nationalistic roots of his family and became a rootless cosmopolitan. This proved to be a
huge event in Friedrich's life, and he recorded it in a sentimental piece known as Aus
Friedrich's intellectual and artistic abilities had been evident ever since he was a
little child, so when he received a full scholarship to the famous Pforta school, it was no
surprise. He was finally exposed to Wagner by his boyhood friend Krug, but after leaving
Pforta for Bonn and Leipzig, he never spoke with Krug again. In school Nietzsche became
very interested in ancient Greek and Latin, as well as mathematics and the sciences. He
was considered the best student in the school, but he failed the mathematics portion of the
exam. Because of his excellence in classical studies, the examiners asked 'Gentleman, are we
really going to fail the best pupil Pforta has ever had?' So Friedrich passed.
Nietzsche also studied Shakespeare and Lord Byron in school with a German
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