The man with the moustache is Friedrich Nietzsche. Here on holiday with his friends Paul Rée
The man with the moustache is Friedrich Nietzsche. Here on holiday with his friends Paul Rée and Lou Salomé (yes, it’s a studio picture, but they were on holiday, it’s 1882). Of course Nietzsche wanted Lou to be much more than a friend, but he never had a chance. With her, or anyone else. Nietzsche tended to take love way too serious. He could fall in love and propose within 24 hours, it was all or nothing for him. You can imagine how that must end. Madness indeed. But then, how could he not fall for Louise? “She was twenty-one, beautiful, clever, flirtatuous and fascinated by his philosophy. He was defenceless.” Yes, she reigned: the photograph was a joke, but also a half-conscious expression of the underlying reality. Rée had more success, but in the end that only meant that he was the one to suffer most. For Lou he was never enough, nor was any other man. What she really wanted was to be a great writer, but her talents in that field were mediocre. So she suffered too. Later she had a long affair with young Rilke, eventually became a follower of Freud and dabbled in psycho-analysis. All to no avail. -- source link
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