Part 8: Peoples and Fatherlands - Chapters 240-256 Summary and Analysis

Richard Wagner's overture to the Meistersinger is a favorite of Nietzsche's. Nietzsche feels that Wagner's music expresses the basest opinion of the Germans: the German people belong to the day before yesterday and today after tomorrow, yet they have no today.

Many good Europeans will spend hours and permit themselves to "Fatherlandishness" and patriotism, to relapse into old loves and narrowminded ways.

The democratic movement in Europe accompanies a great tremendous physiological process. Europeans are becoming more similar to one another as they become more detached from the origins of race and class. The author believes that the democratization of Europe leads to the creation of a people that is prepared for slavery in the subtlest sense. At the same time, the democratization of Europe is an involuntary arrangement...