338 Epilogue
Anti-Semitism also looked to Nietzsche for confirmation; a great deal
has already been written on this topic It is indisputable that Nietzsche
was an "anti-anti-Semite" for the simple reason that when he pictured
anti-Semitism, he saw the hated figures of his brother-in-law Bernhard
Förster and his sister. Furthermore, he abhorred German chauvinism.
He regarded the anti-Semitic movement of the 1880s as a mutiny of the
mediocre, who unjustifiably played themselves up as the master race just
because they considered themselves Aryans. Nietzsche was even pre-
pared to assert and defend the racial superiority of the Jews to anti-
Semites of this ilk. He contended that because the Jews had had to
defend themselves against centuries of attacks, they had become res-
olute and clever and introduced an invaluable richness into European
history. The Jews, he wrote, had the "most sorrowful history of all peo-
ples," and for this very reason we have the Jews to thank for "the noblest
human being (Christ), the purest sage (Spinoza), the mightiest book, and
the most effective moral code in the world" (2,310; HH I § 475). He
decried the misguided notions of the nationalists, who led "the Jews to
the slaughterhouse as scapegoats for every possible public and private
misfortune" (2,310; HHl § 475).
Nietzsche's hatred of anti-Semites grew in intensity in the final two
years before his breakdown. He broke off with his anti-Semitic pub-
lisher Schmeitzner and called his publishing house an "anti-Semitic
dump" (.Β 7,117; Dec. 1885). In a draft of a letter to his sister in late
December 1887, Nietzsche wrote:^ <cNow that I have even seen the name
Zarathustra in the Anti-Semitic Correspondence Newsletter; my patience has
run out I am against your husband's party as a matter of self-defense.
These cursed anti-Semitic nincompoops should not take hold of my
ideal" (B 8,218). In the fall of 1888, Nietzsche assembled his thoughts
on the psychology of anti-Semitism. He described anti-Semites as peo-
ple who, seized with panic when they realize they are too weak to give
their lives meaning, join whatever party satisfies their "tyrannical quest
for meaning." For example, they become anti-Semites "simply because
the anti-Semites have an extraordinarily handy target: Jewish money."