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Nietzsche And Baumler

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Nazi philosophers such as Baumler, Rosenberg, and many others altered Nietzsche’s philosophy and manipulated it to support their views on Nazism with Nietzsche as their forefather. Alfred Rosenberg even quoted that Nietzsche was “bound to be misunderstood” (Aschheim 237). Nazi philosophers in the Third Reich appropriated the term nietzscheanism which applies the Nazi components of Nietzsche’s philosophy most notably his concept of the will to power in society (Aschheim 240). Baumler in his Nietzsche: The Philosopher and Politician sought to politicize Nietzsche in the direction of the radical right and edited previous editions of Nietzsche to depict him as a “monolithic philosopher of heroic realism” (Whyte 179). Baumler’s conception and his …show more content…

This revolutionary regeneration connects to Rosenberg’s racial construction theories. The Nazi’s sought to regenerate Germany with their euthanasia program to remove those who were not of the Aryan race as they were seen as tainting the people of German society. Nietzsche’s concept of the overman and his idea on eternal recurrence was misinterpreted by the Nazi leaders and theorists. The overman for Nietzsche takes a long time to become and achieve. As God is dead, God was the source of all values and there needs to be a new being that prescribes values on to the people. The overman is the creator of new values without having the values of the old tablets as found in Christian doctrine. In order to become the overman, one must accept there are no absolute truths, there is suffering in life, and one must control their impulses and behavior. In addition, one must accept that the world is in a state of flux as life is constantly changing and adapting and we must adapt as life does. Furthermore, Nietzsche’s overman is courageous, self-expressive, powerful, and has strong influence over others (Kaufmann

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