Power of Will

What might have become of her! She was intelligent, assertive and inspirational; but Elisabeth Förster-Nietzsche (1846-1935) has gone down in history as the woman who falsified her brother’s writings, served the purposes of National Socialism with his philosophy and founded an Aryan settlement in Paraguay with her anti-Semitic husband. Why does her life still occupy us today?

Ulrich Sieg has discovered a large number of hitherto unpublished documents. They reveal a woman who in the era she lived could only fulfil her ambitions in the role of the sister. She was highly successful in publishing her brother’s estate as part of a professionally organised cult of personality. The Nietzsche Archive developed into a meeting place for scholars, although Hitler also came to visit. She was a self-confident person who remained true to her political ideas despite the changes taking place in the world. This is a dramatic story of ideas and politics - and highly unusual siblings.