Nietzsche, Wagner, Europe

Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900) supported the unification of Europe and reflected on this like few other philosophers before or after him. Many of his works are concerned with the present state and future of European culture and humanity. Resisting the nationalist nonsense and politics of dissolution of his day, he advocated the birth of good Europeans, i.e. supra-national individuals and the amalgamation of nations. Nietzsche, Wagner, Europe analyzes the development of Friedrich Nietzsches ideal of European culture based on his musical aesthetics. It does so against the background of contemporary searches for a wider, cultural meaning beyond Europes economic-political union. The book claims that Nietzsche always propagated the aestheticization of Europe, but that his view on how to achieve this changed as a result of his dramatically altering philosophy of music. The main focus is on Nietzsches passion for and later aversion to Wagners music, and, in direct connection with this, his surprising embrace of Italian operas as new forms of Dionysian music and of Goethe as a model of Good Europeanism.