Friedrich Nietzsche (1844 - 1900) , son of a Protestant pastor, was assistant professor of classical philology at the University of Basel at the age of 24. The key figures in this period of his life were Schopenhauer, whose mind had been engaged intensively since 1865 , and Wagner, whose music was expecting a universal reform culture. In 1879 he resigned his teaching position due to health problems and moved to Italy, France and Switzerland. In 1882 he met Lou Andreas - Salome. After a painful breakup with her, retired to the solitude and during this crisis philosophical poem Thus Spake Zarathustra emerged. In early January 1889 he was admitted to the clinic for nervous diseases Basel and a week later in the asylum at Jena. In a growing dementia, Nietzsche spent the last years of his life, first under the care of his mother and his sister since 1897 with Elisabeth Förster- Nietzsche in Weimar.

Thus Spoke Zarathustra is a seminal work of Western philosophy . Superman , the will to power and eternal return are the most important thoughts in writing. After the death of God, Zarathushtra two evolutions are possible: Superman announced by Nietzsche or the ' last man ' , mediocre and unable to create . This work has been the focal point of the wide reception of Nietzsche in the early twentieth century.