Somebody recently asked me what was Germany "going through" during the peak of Friedrich Nietzsche's literary productivity. I thought it was an oddly worded question, but I'll answer it anyway.
Nietzsche was born in 1844 and died in 1900, his years of flourishing were the 1880s, the decade of
THE GAY SCIENCE, THUS SPOKE ZARATHUSTRA, BEYOND GOOD AND EVIL, THE CASE OF WAGNER, etc. The end of that decade saw his descent into incoherence and madness.
For social/political context, let's back up a bit. In 1871 Prussia, under the leadership of the Hohenzollern family and their minister, Otto von Bismarck, declared the creation of the German Empire, comprising the northern German-speaking states (Austria was deliberately excluded). This was what would later be known as the Second Reich, following upon the death of the Holy Roman Empire early in the 19th century, the so-called First Reich.
The 1870s as a whole is remembered for the Kulturkampf, a deliberate attempt by the new state to undermine the Roman Catholic Church, even demanding a role supervising the education of RC clergy. This was largely designed to limit Austrian influence. By the end of that decade Bismarck dialed back on the anti-RC measures though, because many of his Lutheran supporters became concerned they were having a generally secularist effect.
The 1870s and 1880s are known in German history as the Grunderzeit, the "time of the founders," and sometimes looked back upon with a good deal of nostalgia.
It was a time when Germany established itself as an industrial and technological leader in the world.
Germany also became in the 1880s the first state to accept broad social welfare responsibilities for its population. Bismarck did this in large part to undercut the socialists, who were a large and well-organized force. In March 1884, Bismarck said: "The real grievance of the worker is the insecurity of his existence; he is not sure that he will always have work, he is not sure that he will always be healthy, and he foresees that he will one day be old and unfit to work." By addressing that matter of insecurity, he thought, Germany could make itself safe against the specter of class warfare.
In answer to the initial question, then, this was a prosperous time for Germany, and a time of strength in its relations with much of the rest of the world. The greatest danger, one might say, was one of overreach.
Nietzsche was born in 1844 and died in 1900, his years of flourishing were the 1880s, the decade of
THE GAY SCIENCE, THUS SPOKE ZARATHUSTRA, BEYOND GOOD AND EVIL, THE CASE OF WAGNER, etc. The end of that decade saw his descent into incoherence and madness.
For social/political context, let's back up a bit. In 1871 Prussia, under the leadership of the Hohenzollern family and their minister, Otto von Bismarck, declared the creation of the German Empire, comprising the northern German-speaking states (Austria was deliberately excluded). This was what would later be known as the Second Reich, following upon the death of the Holy Roman Empire early in the 19th century, the so-called First Reich.
The 1870s as a whole is remembered for the Kulturkampf, a deliberate attempt by the new state to undermine the Roman Catholic Church, even demanding a role supervising the education of RC clergy. This was largely designed to limit Austrian influence. By the end of that decade Bismarck dialed back on the anti-RC measures though, because many of his Lutheran supporters became concerned they were having a generally secularist effect.
The 1870s and 1880s are known in German history as the Grunderzeit, the "time of the founders," and sometimes looked back upon with a good deal of nostalgia.
It was a time when Germany established itself as an industrial and technological leader in the world.
Germany also became in the 1880s the first state to accept broad social welfare responsibilities for its population. Bismarck did this in large part to undercut the socialists, who were a large and well-organized force. In March 1884, Bismarck said: "The real grievance of the worker is the insecurity of his existence; he is not sure that he will always have work, he is not sure that he will always be healthy, and he foresees that he will one day be old and unfit to work." By addressing that matter of insecurity, he thought, Germany could make itself safe against the specter of class warfare.
In answer to the initial question, then, this was a prosperous time for Germany, and a time of strength in its relations with much of the rest of the world. The greatest danger, one might say, was one of overreach.
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