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Podach States Nietzsche Resented Anti-semitism

April 16, 1930
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In a book by Dr. E. F. Podach which has just appeared and which deals with the insanity of Friedrich Nietzsche, famous German philosopher-poet, letters and documents appear which show how Nietzsche was angered over the anti-Semitism displayed by his near relatives. In these letters he is especially bitter towards his sister, Elizabeth Forster-Nietzsche, who taunted him because of his association with Jews, like the late Georg Brandes, the Danish-Jewish critic, who was among the first to recognize Nietzsche’s greatness.

Although Nietzsche in his writings often displayed hostility towards the philosophy, the teachings and the precepts of Judaism, he was nevertheless a strong opponent of anti-Semitism. His quarrel with Richard Wagner was in great part also due to Wagner’s anti-Semitic leanings.

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