Nietzsche was a German citizen who lived between the years of 1844 and 1900. He had strong sentiments on philosophy and was a cultural critic as well as a great essay writer. Some of the topics covered in his essays include truth, morality, history, power and consciousness among others.
Nietzsche lost his father when he was less than five years old. After the death of his father, his younger brother also died and this left Nietzsche as the only male in his family. Other members of his family were his sister, mother, aunt and grandmother. Nietzsche attended the prestigious school of Schulpforta. He studied subjects such as humanities and theology. In addition to academics, Nietzsche had a passion for music, which he composed and played the piano. In addition, he was a great reader of works by Friedrich Holderlin and Emerson.
When Nietzsche joined University of Bonn in 1864, he barely concentrated on his studies. At least for the first year of being at the university he did not have his intellectual focus. He spent his time by socialising with new and old friends. However, this new way of life did not last for long. He got his focus back and in the year 1865 concentrated on the study of humanities and philology. He got so engrossed into these studies that he followed Professor Friedrich Ritschl, who had been teaching him, into his studious life. It was during this time of following the professor that Nietzsche started writing some journals and publicising some other material, even though it was not the best work of his life.
At the age of 24 years, Nietzsche was still young both physically and intellectually. He was actually being swayed by opinions of other people. It was this swaying that actually made him interrupt his teaching career and become a member of the military in the year 1870. Luckily or unluckily for his military career, he had to quite the service because of suffering from dysentery as well as diphtheria.
After leaving military service, Nietzsche interacted a lot with Richard Wagner whom he had met earlier on in his life. Wagner was an artist and Nietzsche got to admire his artistry work. Actually, Wagner influenced Nietzsche back to his intellectual life and Wagner’s ideas are imminent in the first few written pieces by Nietzsche.
Good academic foundation and inspiring people played a great role in the development of Nietzsche into an intellect. However, one cannot overlook Nietzsche’s hard work and intellectual capacity.