Nietzsche's Übermensch

Nietzsche did not invent the term Übermensch. As elaborated by Kaufmann, the concept of hyperanthropos can be found in the ancient writings of Lucian, and in German the word had been used before Nietzsche's time by H. Müller, J. G. Herder, Novalis, Heine, and, most importantly, by Goethe in relation to Faust. R. W. Emerson spoke of the Over-Soul and, perhaps with the exception of Goethe's Faust, his aristocratic, self-reliant "beyond-man" was the greatest contributor to Nietzsche's idea of the Übermensch. Nietzsche would, of course, have been familiar with all the above sources.

Problems with translating the word Übermensch persist. The difficulty hinges on the German prefix über (over, above, beyond) which has connotations of superiority, excessiveness and transcendence, depending on the word it precedes. This variation is reflected in Nietzsche's apparent penchant for über-words; in addition to Übermensch, he also used Überreichtum (super-richness), Überfluβ (overflow), Überfülle (superabundance), Überschuβ (surplus), and übervoll (overfull). In the Oxford-Duden German Dictionary, there are approximately 600 words with this prefix in current usage. Various translators have attempted to find the most fitting English word for Übermensch; for example, G. B. Shaw rendered it as "Superman", while Kaufmann opted for "Overman", and Parkes preferred "Overhuman". Ultimately, however, the word proves untranslatable.

The first time Nietzsche used the term Übermensch in his published writings was in the Prologue to Thus Spoke Zarathustra, which he composed during January and February of 1883 in Rapallo (south of Genoa, Italy). Out of 40 entries of the word Übermensch in the online Nietzsche Source (www.nietzschesource.org), 10 occur in Thus Spoke Zarathustra, one in The Antichrist, one in Twilight of the Idols and three in Ecce Homo, with the remaining 25 scattered throughout the unpublished notes comprising his Nachlaβ.

Nietzsche never explained what he meant by the Übermensch; he only intimated:

This hermeneutic vacuum provoked numerous interpretations in secondary literature. Kaufmann interpreted Nietzsche's Übermensch as a symbol of a self-overcoming man who created his own values, Jung interpreted it as "a deification of ordinary man", and Hollingdale saw it as denoting a man who had organised the chaos within. For Heidegger, the Übermensch was "a man who grounded being in the grand style of self-creation", whilst for the Nazis it became an emblem of a master race.

Nietzsche was a confessional philosopher, who not only lived in order to write, but who wrote to stay alive. The Übermensch, one of his most famous ideas, is interpreted here not as a philosophical concept but as a personal symbol of a man in turmoil. It arose from the depth of Nietzsche's psyche at a time of great personal disappointment, and it was designed, if unconsciously, to protect his vulnerable, wounded self. It gave, at least temporarily, a meaning to his existence.