First Summer in Sils Maria

The publication of Dawn coincided, almost exactly, with Nietzsche's arrival, on July 4, 1881, in Sils Maria, where he would remain until October 1. This established the pattern for the rest of his life. Save for 1882, during which normal life was disrupted, as we shall see, by the traumatic events of the ‘Salomé affair’, every year until his final collapse at the end of 1888 he would spend roughly three summer months in Sils.

The (still) small village of Sils Maria is located on a neck of land between Lake Sils and Lake Silverplana in the upper Engadine Valley at a height of 2,000 metres. Above the valley, seemingly in every direction, tower the Alps, the foot of Mount Corvatsch, the most breathtaking of all, a mere ten minutes' walk from the village. Nietzsche fell in love with Sils at first sight: with the grandeur of the scenery, the hard and simple life of the peasants, the thoughtful shade of the forests, the turquoise clarity of the lakes, the level walking paths around them, the tranquil silence broken only by cow- and church-bells, and the sense of the ‘meta-physical’, of being above and beyond the affairs of the world.

Shaded by a fir tree outside its small, solitary window and panelled in dark, light-absorbing pine, Nietzsche's room on the second floor of the Durisch house, lit only by a solitary spirit lamp, was dark and unheated (see Plates 21, 22).