The maestro’s verdict on this ‘masterpiece’ as “the most irritating musical extravagance” put a decisive end to Nietzsche’s career as a music composer.įor Nietzsche, the idea of Übermensch was more like a vision than a theory. Nietzsche’s affinity with Manfred culminated in him composing a piano duet called Manfred Meditation, which he sent to his musical hero, the conductor Hans von Bülow. Having challenged all authoritative powers, he dies defying the religious path to redemption. As a teenager Nietzsche had already applied the word Übermensch to Manfred, the lonely Faustian figure in Byron’s poem of the same name who wanders in the Alps tortured by some unspoken guilt. The first public appearance of Nietzsche’s Übermensch was in his book Thus Spoke Zarathustra (1883-5). Nietzsche was, however, well familiar with all the above sources. In America Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote of the Oversoul, and, perhaps with the exception of Goethe’s Faust, his aristocratic, self-reliant ‘Beyond-man’ was probably the greatest contributor to Nietzsche’s idea of the Übermensch. In German, the word had already been used by Müller, Herder, Novalis, Heine, and most importantly by Goethe in relation to Faust (in Faust, Part I, line 490). The concept of hyperanthropos can be found in the ancient writings of Lucian. The term Übermensch, often translated as Superman or Overman, was not invented by Nietzsche. “Man is a rope, fastened between animal and Übermensch – a rope over an abyss.” SUBSCRIBE NOW Nietzsche Reloaded Nietzsche’s Übermensch: A Hero of Our Time? Eva Cybulska dispells popular misconceptions about this controversial figure.
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