Professor Paul Deussen, Sanskritist and philosopher of Kiel, was
Friedrich Nietzsche's most intimate friend. They were chums together in
school in Schulpforta, and remained friends to the end of Nietzsche's
life. Nietzsche had come to Schulpforta in 1858, and Deussen entered
the next year in the same class. Once Nietzsche, who as the senior of
the class had to keep order among his fellow scholars during working
periods and prevent them from making a disturbance, approached Deussen
while he sat in his seat peacefully chewing the sandwich he had brought
for his lunch and said, "Don't talk so loud to your crust!" using
here the boys' slang term for a sandwich. These were the first words
Nietzsche had spoken to Deussen, and Deussen says:[1] "I see Nietzsche
still before me, how with the unsteady glance peculiar to extremely
near-sighted people, his eye wandered over the rows of his classmates
searching in vain for an excuse to interfere."
[Illustration: FRIEDRICH NIETZSCHE AS A PUPIL AT SCHULPFORTA IN THE
YEAR 1861.]
Nietzsche and Deussen began to take walks together and soon became
chums, probably on account of their common love for Anacreon, whose
poems were interesting to both perhaps on account of the easy Greek in
which they are written.
In those days the boys of Schulpforta addressed each other by the
formal _Sie_; but one day when Deussen happened to be in the dormitory,
he discovered in the trunk under his bed a little package of snuff;
Nietzsche was present and each took a pinch. With this pinch they swore
eternal brotherhood. They did not drink brotherhood as is the common
German custom, but, as Deussen humorously says, they "snuffed it"; and
from that time they called each other by the more intimate _du_. This
friendship continued through life with only one interruption, and on
Laetare Sunday in 1861, they stepped to the altar together and side by
side received the blessing at their confirmation. On that day both were
overcome by a feeling of holiness and ecstasy. Thus their friendship
was sealed in Christ, and though it may seem strange of Nietzsche who
was later a most iconoclastic atheist, a supernatural vision filled
their young hearts for many weeks afterwards.
There was a third boy to join this friendship--a certain Meyer, a
young, handsome and amiable youth distinguished by wit and the ability
to draw excellent caricatures. But Meyer was in constant conflict with
his teachers and generally in rebellion against the rules of the
school. He had to leave school before he finished his course. Nietzsche
and Deussen accompanied him to the gate and returned in great sorrow
when he had disappeared on the highway. What has become of Meyer is
not known. Deussen saw him five years later in his home at Oberdreis,
but at that time he was broken in health and courage, disgruntled with
God, the world and himself. Later he held a subordinate position in the
custom house, and soon after that all trace of him was lost. Probably
he died young.
This Meyer was attached to Nietzsche for other reasons than Deussen.
While Deussen appreciated more the intellectuality and congeniality of
his friend, Meyer seems to have been more attracted by his erratic and
wayward tendencies and this for some time endeared him to Nietzsche.
Thus it came to pass that the two broke with Deussen for a time.
The way of establishing a state of hostility in Schulpforta was to
declare oneself "mad" at another, and to some extent this proved to be
a good institution, for since the boys came in touch with each other
daily and constantly in the school, those who could not agree would
have easily come to blows had it not been for this tabu which made
it a rule that they were not on speaking terms. This state of things
lasted for six weeks, and was only broken by an incidental discussion
in a Latin lesson, when Nietzsche proposed one of his highly improbable
conjectures for a verse of Virgil. The discussion grew heated, and
when the professor after a long Latin disquisition finally asked
whether any one had something to say on the subject, Deussen rose and
extemporized a Latin hexameter which ran thus:
"_Nietzschius erravit, neque coniectura probanda est_"
On account of the declared state of "mad"-ness, the debate was carried
on through the teacher, addressing him each time with the phrase: "Tell
Nietzsche," "Tell Deussen," "Tell Meyer," etc., but in the heat of
the controversy they forgot to speak in the third person, and finally
addressed their adversaries directly. This broke the spell of being
"mad" and they came to an understanding and a definite reconciliation.
Nietzsche never had another friend with whom he became so intimate as
with Deussen. Deussen says (page 9): "At that time we understood each
other perfectly. In our lonely walks we discussed all possible subjects
of religion, philosophy, poetry, art and music. Often our thoughts ran
wild and when words failed us we would look into each other's eyes,
and one would say to the other: 'We understand each other.' These
words became a standing phrase which forthwith we decided to avoid as
trivial, and we had to laugh when occasionally it escaped our lips in
spite of us. The great ordeal of the final examination came. We had to
pass first through our written tests. In German composition, on the
'advantages and dangers of wealth' Nietzsche passed with No. 1; also in
a Latin exercise _de bello Punico primo_; but in mathematics he failed
with the lowest mark, No. 4. This upset him and in fact he who was
almost the most gifted of us all was compelled to withdraw."
While the two were strolling up and down in front of the schoolhouse,
Nietzsche unburdened his grief to his friend, and Deussen tried to
comfort him. "What difference does it make," said he, "if you pass
badly, if only you pass at all? You are and will always be more gifted
than all the rest of us, and will soon outstrip even me whom you now
envy. You must increase but I must decrease."
The course of events was as Deussen had predicted, for Nietzsche
though not passing with as much distinction as he may have deserved
nevertheless received his diploma.
When Deussen with his wife visited Nietzsche in August 1907 at
Sils-Maria, Nietzsche showed him a requiem which he had composed for
his own funeral, and he added: "I do not believe that I will last much
longer. I have reached the age at which my father died, and I fear
that I shall fall a victim to the same disease as he." Though Deussen
protested vigorously against this sad prediction and tried to cheer him
up, Nietzsche indeed succumbed to his sad fate within two years.
[Illustration: FRIEDRICH NIETZSCHE FROM PHOTOGRAPH IN THE POSSESSION OF
PROFESSOR DEUSSEN.]
* * * * *
Professor Deussen, though Nietzsche's most intimate friend, is by no
means uncritical in judging his philosophy. It is true he cherishes
the personal character and the ideal tendencies of his old chum, but
he is not blind to his faults. Deussen says of Nietzsche: "He was
never a systematic philosopher.... The great problems of epistemology,
of psychology, of æsthetics and ethics are only tentatively touched
upon in his writings.... There are many pearls of worth upon which he
throws a brilliant side light, as it were in lightning flashes....
His overwhelming imagination is always busy. His thoughts were
always presented in pleasant imagery and in language of dazzling
brilliancy, but he lacked critical judgment and was not controlled by a
consideration of reality. Therefore the creation of his pen was never
in harmony with the actual world, and among the most valuable truths
which he revealed with ingenious profundity there are bizarre and
distorted notions stated as general rules although they are merely rare
exceptions, as is also frequently the case in sensational novels. Thus
Nietzsche produced a caricature of life which means no small danger for
receptive and inexperienced minds. His readers can escape this danger
only when they do what Nietzsche did not do, when they confront every
thought of his step by step by the actual nature of things, and retain
only what proves to be true under the touchstone of experience."
Between the negation of the will and its affirmation Nietzsche granted
to Deussen while still living in Basel, that the ennoblement of the
will should be man's aim. The affirmation of the will is the pagan
ideal with the exception of Platonism. The negation of the will is the
Christian ideal, and according to Nietzsche the ennoblement of the will
is realized in his ideal of the overman. Deussen makes the comment that
Nietzsche's notion of the overman is in truth the ideal of all mankind,
whether this highest type of manhood be called Christ or overman; and
we grant that such an ideal is traceable everywhere. It is called
"Messiah" among the Jews; "hero" among the Greeks, "Christ" among
the Christians, and chiün, the superior man, or to use Nietzsche's
language, "the overman," among the Chinese; but the characteristics
with which Nietzsche endows his overman are unfortunately mere brutal
strength and an unscrupulous will to play the tyrant. Here Professor
Deussen halts. It appears that he knew the peaceful character of his
friend too well to take his ideal of the overman seriously.
We shall discuss Nietzsche's ideal of the overman more fully further
down in a discussion of his most original thoughts, the typically
Nietzschean ideas.
[1] See Dr. Paul Deussen's _Erinnerungen an Friedrich Nietzsche._
Leipsic, 1901.