Daniel Tutt
To situate Nietzsche politically, it is essential that we grasp the historical context in which he lived as one of rapid political change in the direction of universal male suffrage, the introduction of universal education, and the advancement of working-class rights and welfare. Nietzsche enters the intellectual scene of Germany in the early 1870s, right as the Second Reich forms and unites Germany out of thirty-five ministates.
Although the 1848 revolutions, which Nietzsche’s birth preceded by four years, had resulted in the rise of reaction within Germany and the exodus of socialist intellectuals, there were undeniable egalitarian social changes occurring at the same time. For example, slavery was abolished in the colonies, and many figures within the German intelligentsia embraced more radical ideas…