Elisabeth Förster-Nietzsche
Biography
Weimar has Nietzsche because his sister brought him here, and the twentieth century received him in the shape she gave him. Both halves of that sentence are her doing, and only one of them is to her credit.
She built the institution, 1894–1900
She founded an archive for her brother's papers in Naumburg in 1894, while he was still alive, and moved it to Weimar in 1896. In 1897 she took the Villa Silberblick — endowed for the purpose by Meta von Salis — so that she could house and nurse him there, and he died in it on 25 August 1900. She was the archive's sole owner. Whatever else is true of her, the institution that preserved the manuscripts and the building a visitor can walk into both exist because she made them.
And she forged inside it, 1901–1935
No member of her staff had free access to the whole archive, which is why what the reference literature calls her notorious forgeries went unnoticed until her death in 1935. They mostly concerned passages about herself in her brother's letters, and their purpose was to legitimate a woman with no academic training as the head of a scholarly archive. The greater charge against her is a book: with Peter Gast she assembled "Der Wille zur Macht" out of the unpublished papers and presented it as Nietzsche's principal work — first in 1901, then in a much expanded version in 1906. It was not a work he wrote.
The visitors of the last years, 1932–1935
Between 1932 and 1934 she received Adolf Hitler several times at the archive. She died in Weimar on 8 November 1935. The house she built now devotes an exhibition to its own part in the Nietzsche cult of National Socialism, which is the honest end of the story: the archive that kept the papers is also the archive that helped hand the name to the people least entitled to it.
Questions visitors ask
- What is Elisabeth Förster-Nietzsche's connection to the Nietzsche-Archiv?
- She founded it in Naumburg in 1894, moved it to Weimar in 1896, and owned it outright. In 1897 she took the Villa Silberblick to house and nurse her brother, who died there in 1900.
- Did Elisabeth Förster-Nietzsche forge her brother's writings?
- Yes. Forgeries mostly concerning passages about herself in his letters went unnoticed until her death in 1935, and with Peter Gast she compiled "Der Wille zur Macht" out of his unpublished papers, presenting it as his principal work in 1901 and an expanded version in 1906 — a book he never wrote.
- What is the Nietzsche-Archiv's connection to National Socialism?
- Between 1932 and 1934 she received Adolf Hitler several times at the archive. It now devotes an exhibition to its own part in the Nietzsche cult of National Socialism.
- Can I visit the Nietzsche-Archiv?
- Yes, the Villa Silberblick, where she housed and nursed her brother from 1897 and later hosted Hitler.
Notable Works & Achievements
The founding of the Nietzsche-Archiv (1894)
"Der Wille zur Macht", compiled from the papers (1901, expanded 1906)
Connected Places in Weimar
Humboldtstraße 36, 99425 Weimar
She founded the archive and owned it outright; the Villa Silberblick was taken in 1897 for her and her brother to live in.
Historical Context
Her arrival, the archive's move to Weimar and her brother's last years all fall in the decades between Goethe's death and the end of the monarchy.
Goethe died in 1832, and Weimar had to work out what a town does after its golden age. It decided to keep going, and the answer took eighty-six years — the era the Klassik Stiftung Weimar calls the Silver Age. Music replaced literature as the thing Weimar was for, two royal patrons paid for it, and the schools they founded outlived the monarchy that funded them.
Read more about this period →She received Hitler at the archive several times between 1932 and 1934 and died in 1935 — the archive's part in the Nietzsche cult of National Socialism begins with her.
The regime wanted Weimar for what its name meant, and it built a concentration camp on the hill above the town. Both facts belong to the same twelve years.
Read more about this period →Quick Facts
1846
1935
German
In Weimar's history
Articles
Weimar's Jugendstil is a style of houses: the villa streets west and south of the old town, built between the 1890s and 1914, with Rudolf Zapfe's façades and Henry van de Velde's own buildings.
Worked at the court, with Harry Graf Kessler, to bring van de Velde to Weimar; his first Weimar work was the interior of her archive.