Franco-Prussian War Influence on Nietzsche's Warped Worldview

 ....and their foolish heart was darkened. Romans 1:21

"Nietzsche served in the Prussian forces during the Franco-Prussian

War (1870–1871) as a medical orderly. In his short time in the military, he experienced much and witnessed the traumatic effects of battle. In January 1889 he suffered a complete mental breakdown which rendered him an invalid for the rest of his life.

 

Nietzsche’s views on war apparently changed after he performed paramedical duties during the Franco-Prussian War. Or did he merely oppose Prussian attitudes? Most fail to understand that all the Germanic (Teutonic, Frankish, Swedish, Viking, Norse) people are instinctively soldiers, or marines (like Vikings). Clausewitz considered war to be “politics by other means.” If death is inevitable, is it not better to die on the battlefield, and thence, to Valhalla?

Nietzsche is a disciple of Heraclitues who said, “War is the father of all things.”

Nietzsche on war:

Why war is necessary:

“War essential. It is vain rhapsodizing and sentimentality to

continue to expect much (even more, to expect a very great deal) from mankind, once it has learned not to wage war. For the time being, we know of no other means to imbue exhausted peoples, as strongly and surely as every great war does, with that raw energy of the battleground, that deep impersonal hatred, that murderous coldbloodedness with a good conscience, that communal, organized ardor in destroying the enemy, that proud indifference to great losses, to one’s own existence and to that of one’s friends, that muted, earthquakelike convulsion of the soul.” (HAH, 477)

For Nietzsche, To prepare oneself: “One must learn from war … one must learn to sacrifice many and to take one’s cause seriously enough not to spare men.” (WP, 982).

And predictive of coming times:

“I welcome all signs that a more virile, warlike age is about

to begin, which will restore honor to courage above all. For this age shall prepare the way for one yet higher, and it shall gather the strength that this higher age will require one day—the age that will carry heroism into the search for knowledge and that will wage wars for the sake of ideas and their consequences.” (GS, 283)." StephenHicks