Biographies
(1844 -1900)
Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900) was born near Leipzig, Germany, and studied at the universities of Bonn and Leipzig. After establishing an academic reputation, he took the position of professor of classical philology at the university of Basle. Never healthy, Nietzsche had sustained a serious injury during his compulsory military training, and would go on to contract diphtheria and dysentery during his short experience of the Franco-Prussian War during 1870. Increasing ailments caused him to resign in 1879, and for the next nine years he led a restless life, wandering through most of western Europe and ceaselessly thinking and writing. His last full year of sanity, 1888, was marked by an incredible burst of activity in which he produced some of his most durable and influential works. In January 1889 he suffered a complete mental breakdown which rendered him an invalid for the rest of his life.