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 nietszches sister




From: mtepper@panix.com (Michele Tepper)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
Subject: Re: FWD: Freidrich Nietszche's sister thought like you do.
Date: 3 Sep 1997 02:09:30 -0400

D. Sticher <sticherd@global2000.net> wrote: >
>Any word on the voracity of this one? Five generations from the
>19th-century sounds very not-right...
>>
>> Have you ever heard of the racially pure community that was founded by
>> Freidrich Nietszche's sister (who's first name temporarily escapes me).
>> This was set up last century in south america. Her and a band of about
>> 900 followers vowed only to breed pure aryans, and populate the
>> "degenerating" world with them.
>>
>> Within five generations, absolutely all of their offspring had severe
>> birth defects including missing limbs, bodily deformities, congenital
>> diseases, some of them were born dead with missing brains.

See Ben Macintyre's book _Forgotten Fatherland_, which of course I've sold to the used-book store. Elisabeth Nietzsche, who is (Macintyre makes a strong argument) primarily responsible for ol' Freddy's posthumous reputation as a Nazi avant la lettre, did pack up with her racist husband and a few racist friends and decamp to South America. As I recall the colony was a disaster from the word go, and a lot of the would-be Vaterlanders skipped out pretty quickly. Macintyre visits the colony in the book, and notes that there are very few people left, there's been some interbreeding with the locals, and describes meeting some fairly hinky racists who are still keeping the faith. He does *not* describe large numbers of birth defects among the children of those who stayed. There could be five generations from the late nineteenth century, but only just -- my great-grandparents were born in the late 1880s (in Bessarabia, although not in Paraic's .sig), and plenty of people my age have small children.

Anyway, the book should still be available in paperback at your local bookstore. It's an interesting read, although most interesting (and probably worth keeping) if you have something actually invested in ol' Freddy as a thinker.

Michele "I get all my Nietzsche second-hand, from Foucault" Tepper


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