Influences

Friedrich Nietzsche | Arthur Schopenhauer | Richard Wagner

Friedrich Nietzsche

The early works of Nietzsche had a strong influence on the members of the Circle, providing a framework for relating and developing a number of ideas within the membership. Nietzsche's work such as The Birth of Tragedy from the Spirit of Music and Untimely Observations, On the Uses and Disadvantages of History provided explanations for what the Circle perceived to be the decay of Austrian culture. Nietzsche also provided a vision of a vibrant alternative to this malaise.

Key ideas found in The Birth of Tragedy include:

• Art is not merely a diversion; it is one of humanity's highest tasks, metaphysical in nature, and central to cultural development.
• Cultural greatness is attained in a society in which there exists a dialectical balance between Appollonian and Dionysian influences. Pre-Socratic Greek culture provides a model of  this balance.
• German music would restore the missing Dionysian element in German culture, and thereby the greatness of that culture.
• Richard Wagner's opera Tristan und Isolde demonstrated the possibility to create a dialectical synthesis of Apollonian myth with Dionysian music.

In Schopenhauer as Educator, Nietzsche highlights Schopenhauer as an example of the kind of heroic figure needed to inspire a new culture in which all members sought to overcome their egoic existence and attain unity with nature and humanity and to transform culture with social action.

It was in 1877 in response to Schopenhauer as Educator that the young poet and Circle member Siegfried Lipiner sent a copy of his work Unbound Prometheus to Nietzsche, who responded with admiring declarations of Lipiner's genius. In turn, the Circle sent to Nietzsche their declaration to strive to live up to the ideals expressed in his writings.

Friedrich Nietzsche | Arthur Schopenhauer | Richard Wagner