Nietzsche's God is Dead: From Nihilism to the Übermensch

The Industrial Revolution and the advance of science cracked the Christian worldview. Darwin's theory of evolution (1859) shocked by suggesting humans may not be God's creation, and biblical criticism shook the historical foundations of religion. Nietzsche faced this crisis directly and declared 'God is dead' — not signifying the end of faith but the collapse of the absolute values upon which all of Western civilization rested.

Nietzsche's core challenge: after God's death, not falling into the abyss of nihilism but creating new values. The Übermensch answers this challenge. The will to power (Wille zur Macht) is not a desire to dominate but a drive for self-overcoming. Eternal recurrence is the existential test: 'If this life repeated infinitely, would you still want it?'

Nietzsche is one of the most misunderstood philosophers in history. Nazism distorted the Übermensch into the Aryan race and the will to power into military domination. Sister Elisabeth's editing played a decisive role. In reality, Nietzsche mocked German nationalism ('there is no German culture'), despised anti-Semitism ('anti-Semites are not worthy of being my readers'), and called the state 'the new idol.'

Nietzsche's influence spans modern philosophy as a whole. Heidegger radicalized the question of Being; Sartre developed the thesis that existence precedes essence. Foucault inherited Nietzsche in power-knowledge analysis; Derrida in deconstructing logocentrism. Today the 'Nietzschean turn' influences art, literature, psychology, and even management studies.