Hans Vaihinger und die Stiftung Nietzsche-Archiv. Die Briefe an Richard Oehler

Abstract

Abstract Hans Vaihinger and the Stiftung Nietzsche-Archiv. The Letters to Richard Oehler. Hans Vaihinger’s letters to Richard Oehler document the ideological constellation in the context of the First World War. Unconcealed enthusiasm for the war, associated national-chauvinist resentment, and pronounced anti-communism immediately after the war clearly emerge. At first sight, this may be surprising, since Vaihinger is generally regarded as a progressive liberal pacifist. As this article attempts to make clear, however, it is also evident in Vaihinger’s case that the First World War and its immediate aftermath led – at least temporarily – to quite questionable intellectual attitudes even among declared pacifists. In this respect, Vaihinger’s letters to Nietzsche’s cousin, librarian at the Nietzsche Archive in Weimar and later convinced National Socialist Richard Oehler are evaluated as revealing documents of contemporary history.