uni'wissen 02-2012 ENG

Nietzsche is dead. He died in 1900. But the works of the great thinker live on – and have inspired generations of scholars. All the more astounding that there is still no comprehensive commentary to his complete works that eluci- dates his writings and places them in their con- text. After all, Nietzsche is relevant for a wide range of disciplines: His writings touch on as- pects of literature as well as anthropology, art, history, psychology, physiology, and especially philosophy. However, such a diverse body of work is difficult to produce without inspiration from outside, even though Nietzsche stylized himself long before his mental collapse in 1889 as a gigantic philosophical monolith who created everything out of his own inner self. In order to afford a look behind the scenes and bring the reader closer to Nietzsche, his work, and his impact, the Heidelberg Academy of Sciences and Humanities resolved to commis- sion an interdisciplinary general commentary. The large-scale project is being coordinated at University of Freiburg Researchers Are Preparing an Indispensible Commentary for Future Research on Friedrich Nietzsche Great Thinker, New Perspective by Stephanie Streif “It seems as if the great ideological battles over Nietzsche have been fought out. The time was ripe” the University of Freiburg. It was initiated with the creation of two full-time positions in 2008 and is set to run for 15 years. The first two vol- umes were published in October 2012, with the next two to follow in 2013. A third of the work will then be complete. An initial evaluation report de- scribed the work the team has accomplished so far as excellent: “The commentary produced thus far offers an abundance of new insights into Nietzsche’s writings, their texture, and their sources,” praises the report. But why did we have to wait so long for a com- prehensive commentary of Nietzsche’s work? “It seems as if the great ideological battles over Ni- etzsche have been fought out. The time was ripe,” 36

uni'wissen 02-2012 ENG

Pages