Welcome to significant others, a podcast that takes a look at the less familiar side of history.

I'm Liza Powell O'Brien, and today we're asking the question,

how did a fiercely anti-nationalist thinker become a favored

tool for fascists and Nazis?

Thanks to his beloved sister, who appropriated his work, forged his letters, lied about his childhood, and was in

some circles believed to have been his incestuous lover.

This time on significant others, meet Elizabeth Forster Nietzsche. In 1951, a book was published under the name Friedrich Nietzsche that confesses to an

incestuous love affair between himself and his sister. It took decades to uncover the truth,

or at least part of it, which was that the book was definitely not written

by Friedrich Nietzsche.

The exact authorship has yet to be confirmed, so just know that if you do happen to pick up a used copy of it somewhere, it should definitely be read as fiction.

But that author was not the only fabricator of truths about Nietzsche, nor really was he the most egregious.

Nietzsche's sister Elizabeth committed far worse crimes against the historical record.

She wrote multiple biographies of her

brother in which she took endless liberties with the facts. It took years to dismantle her

lies so the bottom line is that even if you think you know the story of Friedrich Nietzsche and his sister Elizabeth, you might be wrong. The Niches were a devoutly Christian, proudly nationalist, and determinedly royalist family.

Friedrich was named for the King of Prussia and Elizabeth born a couple of years later

was named for the three royal princesses who their father,

pastor Carl Ludwig, had once tutored. They lived with their father's mother and his two sisters in the parish

house surrounded by lush grounds the children love to explore. At 17, Nietzsche

wrote, Here I lived in the happy circle of my family,

untouched by the wide world beyond.

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