Friedrich Nietzsche, Else Lasker-Schüler and the Play Doll Johanna – Playing with Fiction

Abstract

A great philosopher, who was a passionate father and rescuer of a doll in his childhood and even went through fire for his doll child – this image of the philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche as a child was created by the poet Else Lasker-Schüler in her short prose The Little Friedrich Nietzsche. It tells a childhood episode of the philosopher as ‘rescuer of a doll from fire’ in the context of an anecdote with alleged truth claim. However, the search for biographical sources of this episode remains in vain. Thus, the text of Else Lasker-Schüler referes most likely to her adoration for Nietzsche and her desire for play with associations rather that to a secret passion for dolls of the philosopher as a child.