Nietzsche's Birth Place: Röcken
 | 1. Aufruf zur Unterstützung der Röckener Gedenkstätten |
| 2. Neu: bedenkliches Nietzsche-Denkmal an der Röckener Kirche |
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Karl Ludwig Nietzsche, the father of Friedrich Nietzsche, a theologian by degree and by profession, first held a position as private teacher of the Princesses at the Altenburg Ducal Court. In 1842, he received, "auf allerhöchsten Befehl" (on the highest order) of the King of Prussia, Friedrich Wilhelm IV., the post of village pastor of Röcken near Lützen in the Province of Saxony, and, together with his mother and his two sisters, set up his own household there.  Karl Ludwig and Franziska Nietzsche, Friedrich's parents On October 10, 1843, on his 30th birthday, he married the then 17-year-old daughter Franziska of his colleague David Ernst Oehler from the nearby village of Pobles. On October 15, 1844, their son Friedrich was born.  On this map, Röcken is pretty much situated
in the middle, left below Lützen, as the next map shows. You can find Naumburg,
the later place of residence of the family after the death of Nietzsche's
father, again a bit left below Schulpforta, the place at which Nietzsche
attended high school. It is situated near Nauburg at the Saale
river. Also Altenburg, the former place of employment of Nietzsche's
father, can be seen to the right, below.  Here, the village of Röcken is shown left, below Lützen. Röcken is
a small village with a population of 170 and is situated directly at the
Federal Highway 87 between Leizpig and Weißenfels in today's German State
of Sachse-Anhalt. Nietzsche's birth house, the church in which he was
baptised, his village school, his grave and two adjacent buildings still
bear silent witness to Nietzsche's time. On October 15, 1844,
Friedrich Nietzsche was born as the first child of the protestant village
pastoer Karl Ludwig Nietzsche and his wife Franziska. Here, in this
village, Nietzsche spent the first years of his childhood in the care of his
father, mother, grandmother and aunts. From October 1849 on, he
received his first school instruction from the village teacher Dathe in the
village school of Röcken.  The interior of the church at Röcken Even when the poet philosopher had been reduced to the forerunner of Nazism in the former German Democratic Republic, his gravesite at Röcken attracted interested visitors. This was tolerated silently and, in 1987, it was even declared a landmark. The many visitors who often asked for the gravesite when they came to the village, helped keep the local memory of the village's famous son alive. In spite of this, Nietzsche was probably better known world-wide than in his own native German province. The end of communism and Germany's reunion paved the way for a more open dealing with Nietzsche's life an work, also locally. On August 25, 1990, the village and the church of Röcken invited guests to a memorial celebration at the Röcken village church, of the 90th anniversary of Nietzsche's death. On the occasion of Nietzsche's 150th birthday on October 15, 1994, a great number of guests met at Röcken to lay down a wreath at Nietzsche's gravesite and to hold a memoral ceremony there, the speeches of which have been published in the "Jahresschrift Nietzscheforschung" (Annals of Nietzsche Research, Vol. 2, Berlin 1995). Arising from this occasion, there was established a museum site at Nietzsche's birth house. The Förder- u. Forschungsgemeinschaft Friedrich Nietzsche e.v. (Society in Support of Nietzsche Research) was instrumental in developing and conceptualizing the permanent exhibition "Friedrich Nietzsche at Röcken". The simple exhibition, together with the birth house, the baptismal church and the family gravesite, forms a group of commemorative sites that provides insight into the world of Nietzsche's early childhood.
 The Gravesite at Röcken After my August 2000 journey to Röcken, I can show you here a few photographs of the village church, of Nietzsche's birth house and of his gave. Here, to start with, the graves as they are lined up along the church wall: the picture below shows Nietzsche's grave to the left, his sister's grave (according to her own wishes...) in the middle, and to the right the grave of their parents.  Graves and Village Church (HW 2000) On the following picture to the left, you can see the back side of the Pastor's House of Nietzsche's father (which is, at the same time, also Nietzsche's birth house), in the foreground a part of the fortress-like church steeple, the first traces of its construction of which go back to the 12th century, and the picture to the right shows the present state of Fr. Nietzsche's grave.
"Der nackte Wahnsinn" ? In ihrer Ausgabe vom 8. November 2000 auf Seite 72 berichtet die FAZ von der Neuaufstellung eines Denkmals in Röcken, direkt neben der Kirche, an der Nietzsches Vater Dienst tat. Untertitel: "Friedrich Nietzsche erscheint dreimal an seinem Grab" - so die "Idee" des Bildhauers Klaus Friedrich Messerschmidt, der im nahen Wölkau lebt. Wenn dann sowohl die Merseburger Superintendentin Annette-Christine Lenk als auch der Gemeindekirchenrat die Aufstellung eines solchen Denkmals begrüßen, so stimmt das, neben der tiefen Ratlosigkeit, die mich als erstes bei diesem Anblick anfiel, zunächst einmal vor allem bedenklich ...
In der Zwischenzeit bin ich in dank meiner Leipziger Freunde von virtuSens, Mike Wolke und Jens Dechering, denen mein Dank gilt, in der glücklichen Lage, neueste Farbfotografien dieses "Maloptikums" vorzustellen - machen Sie sich selbst ein Bild! Vielleicht haben Sie Lust, Ihre Meinung dazu zu äußern? Kein Problem, gehen Sie einfach auf die Umfrage-Seite (Link links unten), Ihre Meinung wird dann auf der Umfrage-Seite veröffentlicht!
Die nachgebildete Grabplatte und die lebensgroßen Figuren sind mit Autolack weißlackierte Bronzen; eine Scheinlegitimation borgt sich der Bildhauer aus dem Wahnbrief Nietzsches an Jacob Burckhardt
(5. Januar 1889): "In diesem Herbst war ich, so gering gekleidet als möglich, zweimal bei meinem Begräbnisse zugegen, zuerst als als conte Robilant (- nein, das ist mein Sohn, insofern ich Carlo Alberto bin, meine Natur unten) aber Antonelli war ich selbst."
Das Nietzschesche "gering gekleidet" als Nacktheit zu interpretieren geht am Text vorbei und überschreitet die "künstlerische Freiheit" um einer oberflächlich-sensationsgierigen Geschmacklosigkeit willen, ohne aus sich heraus Sinn zu machen. Aufruf zur Unterstützung der Röckener Gedenkstätten In diesen Tagen wird darüber entschieden, ob die Gedenkstätte ausgebaut werden kann, was bei den bisherigen spartanischen Bedingungen schwierig ist. Um dieses Projekt zu unterstützen, haben meine Partner von virtuSens die Aktion Freunde von Röcken ins Leben gerufen. Informieren Sie sich mit dem folgenden Link, was Sie selbst tun können!
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