<A>
Nietzsche (a Borgia): *
Nietzsche was hugely critical of his own modern, German society; he considered its men decadent, feeble, the degenerative consequences of Christian-European morality & culture. He looked back to history to find models of the “good European” and the “free spirit”. He describes the Italian Renaissance, as “the last great cultural harvest that still could have brought home”. It was “the revaluation of all Christian values, an attempt… to allow the opposite values, noble values to triumph”.
He observes in Human, all too Human:
“The Italian Renaissance contained within it all the positive forces to which we owe modern culture … which have up to now never reappeared in our modern culture with such power as they had then”.
Much of this was inspired by Burckhardt’s The Civilization of the Renaissance in Italy (1860) whom he met while at Basle University. And what was the product of the Renaissance? Cesare Borgia! Nietzsche posits that had Borgia ascended to the papal throne, it would have constituted the realization of the Renaissance as a countermovement to Christianity. Borgia is an example of an individual who, unlike the weak decadents but like his contemporaries, manages his instincts precisely because of who he is, because of his tyrannical nature and behaviour.
<B>
battle (1870): *
Nietzsche’s service with the army in 1870 was not his first encounter with the military. In 1867 he volunteered for a years’ service with the Prussian artillery; he was a fine rider predicted to soon reach the rank of captain. In 1868 however he suffered a riding accident, could not continue to ride & turned his attention back to study. In 1869 Basel University offered him a professorship of classical philology, age 24 (sans PhD or teaching qualification). Before he moved to Basel, he renounced his Prussian citizenship & became officially stateless. Despite this he served in the Prussian forces during the war. When he returned to Basel in 1870, he was sceptical of both Bismarck’s policies & the establishment of the German Empire
<C>
Wagner's Nibelung poetry of 1850 (“social-revolutionary ideas”): *
While in Dresden Wagner was active among socialist German nationalists, regularly receiving guests like the conductor & radical editor August Röckel and the Russian anarchist Mikhail Bakunin. He was influenced by the ideas of Proudhon & Feuerbach. He supported revolution & was active in the 1849 rising. When it failed he was exiled. During this period he wrote Art and Revolution and The Art-Work of the Future. Both were published in 1849 & both express the idea that art could play a leading role in the struggle for social equality. In Art and Revolution he prophecies a post-capitalist utopia: “The purpose of life will be the enjoyment of life…every human being will, in some way, truly be an artist.”
Wagner never mentioned Marx by name, he does make scattered references to communism. In an 1849 note by Wagner, the composer states:
“A tremendous movement is striding through the world: it is the storm of European revolution; everyone is taking part in it, and whoever is not supporting it by pushing forward is strengthening it by pushing back.”
This language almost echoes Marx’s The Communist Manifesto’s introductory lines: “A spectre is haunting Europe – the spectre of communism.”
Wagner’s tale of the corrupting power of the golden Ring matches Marx’s ideas on the “perverting power” of money. For both love & power are irreconcilable. Both use the German word for renunciation (Entsagung) in the same manner; for Marx it is the capitalist hoarder’s love for gold, for Wagner it is to the dwarf Alberich’s love for the Rheingold. The final scene in Gotterdammerung seems a kind of dream theatre for the imagination of a utopian future state.
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<D>
Wagner's Siegfried (symbol of the Fourth Estate):*
the 4th estate often refers to the press & news media as advocates & the framers of political issues; however it also has several alternative meanings. In 1580 Montaigne refers to the fourth estate of lawyers and both in Italy & England, the 4th estate was used to refer to the workers. This would seem to be the meaning Spengler is attaching to it.
The Ring cycle, besides its roots in Norse folklore, also has strong political overtones. It is a model of a capitalist society based on greed. The villain is the dwarf Albrecht (the quintessential entrepreneur) who using the ring enslaves the Nibelungs (the workers), forcing them to toil in the mines (industry); forever greedy he seeks to re-gain the ring for its unlimited power, hoping to enslave everyone. He is the face of capitalism. Fafner the dragon guards the hoard of gold (representing the banks). Siegfried, the popular hero, will slay Mime, Fafner and even defy the Gods themselves (the state).
<E>
Wagner, Hebbel and Ibsen (simultaneous dramatization of the Nibelung): *
Wagner: The first 2 operas of the Ring cycle, The Rheingold and The Valkyrie, were completed between 1854 and 1856.
Hebbel: Die Nibelungen trilogy, composed between 1850 & 1860; first performed 1862; included “The Invulnerable Siegfried”, “Siegfried’s Death” & “Kriemhild’s Revenge”; it was a grandiose clash between heathen and Christian.
Ibsen: The Vikings at Helgeland, 1857, Ibsen's 7th play, first performed 1858; set during the time of Erik Blood-axe ( 930–934) in N. Norway ; Norwegian society was adjusting to Christianity & abandoning the Old Norse Sagas. Ornulf, arrives with his 7 sons, seeking his daughters, who were abducted and married by Sigurd and Gunnar, respectively. Tragedy compounded by conceptions of honour & duty lead to the deaths of all of Ornulf's sons, Sigurd & Hjordis. The plot is reminiscent of the Germanic myth of Sigmund and Brynhilde.
<F>
Hebbel (and the Communist Manifesto): *
Hebbel’s drama has a strong element of Hegel within it. His work give play to the forces of the Absolute moving thru history, sometimes against individuals & crushing them (his tragedies Genoveva, Agnes Bernauer, Gyges und sein Ring ), sometimes being modified by individual actions (Judith, Maria Magdalene, Herodes und Mariamne). In both cases, whether the individual is opposed the Idea or serve as an instrument of it, the end is tragic, all individuals meet the same fate, they are crushed and absorbed by the Whole.
The Communist Manifesto by Marx & Engels was published in London during the Revolutions of 1848; it analyses the class struggle, and places it in a historic context. Like Hebbel it paints a dramatic background, employs a large scale historic setting & reflects German Idealism (even if mutated into materialism).
<G>
Hebbel (his Holofernes tragedy & Schopenhauer): *
Hebbel gives Judith sexuality & beauty fatal to the men around her, she is left a virgin on her wedding night because her beauty (or so she believes) renders her husband impotent; in Holofernes's tent, she subconsciously exercises her repressed sexual desire, leading Holofernes to rape her which then allows her to behead him. Schopenhauer’s Will to Live is represented dramatically in the sexual drive, which is also largely unconscious (as Freud showed); this aspect ties into Hebbel’s drama & his penchant to involve psychological dimensions, irrational motivations.
<H>
Hebbel (his Herodes una Mariamne & Schopenhauer):
The drama lies in the inner psychological development. Mariamne expects trust & confidence from Herod; when she doe not get this her life loses all value, she deliberately brings on her own death at the hands of Herod. For these 2, tragedy is unavoidable; both trapped inside their past; their love though real cannot escape tradition & heredity. The necessity for tragedy lies within the characters themselves, not outside of them in a superhuman power. It is irrational will which condemn them, not their rationality or intellect. Schopenhauer denied human freedom as humanity is caught up in a web of causation (his sufficient Reason). Thus neither Mariamne or Herod can change their fate.