Zarathustra's Germanity: Luther, Goethe, Nietzsche

Nietzsche's distaste for Germans and the German culture of his day is well known. His claim to Polish ancestry, ¹ as well as other anti-German claims in his works, is noted by many scholars, especially those seeking to clear Nietzsche of charges of German nationalism, fascism, or anti-Semitism. ² Less discussed, but almost as prevalent, however, are Nietzsche's statements in favor of German culture. I will argue that Nietzsche's understanding of Germanity is more sophisticated than is usually thought, and further, that within this understanding Nietzsche leaves open the possibility of a Germanity productive of greatness, even after his break with Wagner. One example of the fulfillment of this possibility, for Nietzsche, is Nietzsche himself—by way of his Thus Spoke Zarathustra. As I will show here, another example is the protagonist of that work, Zarathustra. In the first section of this article, I will clarify Nietzsche's dual vision of Germanity, primarily by way of his Untimely Meditations. The second section sets Nietzsche's Zarathustra in the context of what Nietzsche considered the two founders and shapers of German culture before him, Luther and Goethe, and their works most closely resembling Zarathustra, the Evangelium St. Johannis and Faust. Here, Nietzsche's reasons for believing that Goethe is an overcoming of Luther—and that Goethe's Faust is an overcoming of Luther's Jesus—will become clear. The third and final section will concentrate on Zarathustra's overcoming of Faust, and how Nietzsche's placement of himself in the triad of German cultural fathers (within the context of a Nietzschean understanding of the duality of Germanity) can be best justified by way of Zarathustra. Zarathustra's Germanity is of paramount importance to determining the cultural relevance of Zarathustra, and the relevance of Zarathustra to German culture is key to understanding Nietzsche's conception of his own place within the development of that culture.

I. Nietzsche and the German

„Meine Gäste, ihr höheren Menschen, ich will deutsch und deutlich mit euch reden. Nicht auf euch wartete ich hier in diesen Bergen."

(„Deutsch und deutlich? Daß Gott erbarm!" sagte hier der König zur Linken, beiseite; „man merkt, er kennt die lieben Deutschen nicht, dieser Weise aus dem Morgenlande! Aber er meint „deutsch und derb"—wohlan! Das ist heutzutage noch nicht der schlimmste Geschmack!") ³

["My guests, you higher men, let me speak to you in plain and clear German. It was not for you that I waited in these mountains."
("Plain and clear German? Good God!" the king at the left said at this point, in an aside. "One can see that he does not know our dear Germans, this wise man from the East! But what he means is 'coarse German'; well, these days that is not the worst of tastes.") ⁴ ]

In the only passage in Thus Spoke Zarathustra in which the word "German" occurs, the only passage that touches upon the German directly, Zarathustra promises the guests at his fantastical dinner party that he will speak to them, or that he wants to speak to them, "deutsch und deutlich"; Germanly and plainly, or, as translator Walter Kaufmann would have it, "in plain German" (Z:4 "The Welcome"). ⁵ The king on the left opposes Zarathustra's will to plain German with an aside: Zarathustra does not mean plain German, this king maintains; he means to speak coarse German, he wants to speak "deutsch und derb." Of course, one could read this passage as a brief joke in the text at the Germans' expense—"our dear Germans" have a coarse, rough language, not a plain and clear one.

That Zarathustra wants to speak to the higher men in a certain fashion is not an indication that he will, or can, do so. ⁶ Zarathustra's statement of his desire, the desire to speak deutsch und deutlich with the higher men, is preface to the comment, "It was not for you that I...