The Dark Legacy of Nietzsche's Übermensch

"You can't judge people by their race or colour. What really matters is character, integrity and respect for others.

- Martin Luther King Jr.

Friedrich Nietzsche, analysing the situation of modern man in terms of religiosity, stated that "God is dead". According to Nietzsche, there are no longer people who live according to Christian values. He believed that man himself was incurably nihilistic and therefore man, or rather the values he believed in, should be "finished".

The Übermensch is the only salvation for man, who, according to Nietzsche, should reject existing values and begin to create new ones. "The Übermensch is a being with an ever-increasing intensity of willpower. Thanks to this potential, he becomes capable of shaping his personality and acting independently". The Übermensch overcomes nihilism, rejects passivity and begins to create new values.

Nietzsche criticised the Christian values on which society functions, believing that people who blindly follow these values are slaves, while those who set these values for themselves are masters. The believer is not his own property and can only be a means that someone needs to use.

Along with the ideology of the Aryan race, the Nazis promoted Nietzsche's concept of the Übermensch, in which man himself was considered a weak nihilist. Hitler believed that only the best had the right to live and rule, leading to a policy of racial selection. German women were encouraged to have children, and children deemed unproductive, defective or sick were sent to concentration camps.

The origins of the idea of the Aryan race can be traced back in history. In 1767, the naturalist James Parsons first used the term 'Aryan' in his work The Remains of Japheth, where he proposed the theory that European and some Asian languages were derived from a common ancient language. This theory divided humanity into two groups - Aryans and Semites. This concept later became a tool of Nazi propaganda.

The Nazis promoted the ideology of the master race, which saw the Germans as representing the ideal and pure white race, leading to discrimination and atrocities against other peoples and races. Arthur Schopenhauer, a proponent of the concept of the Aryan race, also believed that the culture of the white race was superior to other cultures. These ideas, along with other concepts of German philosophical thought, influenced the development of Nazi ideology and led to one of the greatest genocides in human history.

The Nazi theory of the Untermensch was a reflection of the idea of the Übermensch. In 1942, Heinrich Himmler published a pamphlet entitled 'Der Untermensch' in which he explained the need to deal with the 'Untermensch from Eastern Europe' who were supposedly the heirs of the savage Huns and responsible for the devastation of Europe. According to the propaganda, the Übermensch had no ethical principles towards the Untermensch, and in the new 'Aryan' society the Untermensch were to perform back-breaking work as slaves in the service of the 'master race'.

It is worth noting that Nazi ideology was not the only ideology to make use of Nietzsche's concept of the Übermensch. Indeed, some elements of this idea appeared in other political movements, such as Italian fascism or Russian Eurasianism. In practice, however, Nietzsche cannot be clearly attributed to the political movements that used his ideas.

Nietzsche himself did not espouse a racist ideology, and his conception of the Übermensch was much more complex and multidimensional than the one-sided interpretation adopted by the Nazis. The fact that other politicians and ideologues used his philosophy only shows its popularity and influence on political thought at the time.

Some believe that the concept of the Übermensch can be interpreted in many ways, and Nietzsche himself encouraged creative approaches to his ideas. Nevertheless, it is difficult not to see that his philosophy influenced the formation of certain ideologies that had destructive consequences for humanity. In this regard, it is worth noting the context in which these ideas appear and the approach that different individuals and political movements take to them.