Friedrich Nietzsche und Erwin Rohde

For both Nietzsche and Rohde, their friendship was the most intense one of their lives. Their correspondence, which has survived almost integrally, documents not only the peak of their friendship, but also their gradual estrangement. When an abridged edition of the correspondence was published in 1902, it was widely received as a unique testimony. However, in the context of the emerging Nietzsche cult their mutual estrangement was interpreted at Rohde’s expense. Based on the biographical stages of their friendship and the transmission of their correspondence, this article sets the framework for a discussion of Rohde’s critique of Nietzsche’s philosophical development, which hinged on what he called Nietzsche’s “dogmatism”