Introduction: The Influence of Nietzsche

AN EARLY CHAPTER OF Der Mann ohne Eigenschaften records Ulrich's and Walter's youthful reading: “Nietzsche, Altenberg, Dostojewski oder wen immer sie gerade gelesen hatten.” Nietzsche, the preeminent analyst of modernity, exercised a paramount influence on critical intellectuals who grew up before 1914. Charlotte Dresler-Brumme notes that no other author is named and quoted in the novel as often as the philosopher, and that from 1928 until his death there is no year in Musil's diary without entries relating to Nietzsche. Musil's belief — evident in the first book of his novel — that decadence is connected with fragmentation, incoherence, and a time that “nicht mehr einheitlich umspannt werden kann” is clearly derived from Nietzsche's model of of the cyclical growth and decay of cultures. Here I do not intend to trace Nietzsche's influence on the novel in any comprehensive way but merely seek to indicate some of the Nietzschean elements that inform Musil's presentation of “pseudothinkers” in the state of Kakanien. The following three — all features of modernity — will be examined in this section: the philosopher's understanding of decadence, his attack on theatricality, and his analysis of nihilism.

“Gibt es … bei Nietzsche Stellen welche auf eine absolute Vorstellung von décadence schließen lassen? […] Muß die Kunst einer politisch decadenten Zeit decadent sein?”