Friedrich Nietzsche and Cosima Wagner

Author: Uwe Hohmann
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2000-03-01
Features: Friedrich Nietzsche and Cosima Wagner, two vastly different personalities on the cultural stage of the 19th century: one the prophet of the "übermensch"; the other a serious guardian of the sacred heart. Everything they did was influenced by their idol, Richard Wagner. This shared passion for the third party led to a relationship between them that most literature has remained silent about. Uwe Hohmann is the first to describe this moving and true story: how Nietzsche and Cosima, from a young age, became obsessed with Wagner as their idol, how Wagner's mistress drew him, the rising academic researcher and genius propagandist, into the labyrinth of Bayreuth, how Nietzsche joined their cultural struggle and incorporated their nihilism into his own writings, and ultimately—as he himself put it—was betrayed by Wagner. However, after Wagner's death, Cosima became incompatible with Nietzsche.