The translation of aristocracy into germanism:

a disputed issue in the debate between Nietzsche and Brandes

Abstract

Several references involving the themes of Germanism and aristocracy find in Nietzsche and Brandes a very fertile field. Both authors, committed to the discussion focused on the critique of Western culture, aim to promote the elevation of culture, which leverages the theme of aristocracy. The dynamics of forces, which characterizes Nietzschean thought, manifests, in the aristocracy, the will to overcome a people endowed with spirit. In Brandes' reception of this theme of Nietzsche's aristocracy, it acquires characteristics of a radicalism. For this reason, the aim of this investigation is, at first, to examine to what extent the aristocracy, elevated to radicalism, implies a reading that involves, in addition to the dynamics of self-overcoming, that of a Germanism, rooted in the exaltation of the race. Secondly, the aim is to assess the extent to which the implications of Brandes' reception of aristocratic radicalism, translated into Germanism, emphasized the Nazis' reading of Nietzschean thought.