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Übermensch Is A Literary Figure
- The Übermensch appears centrally only in Thus Spoke Zarathustra and not across Nietzsche's works.
- Zarathustra parodies the New Testament, so the Übermensch functions as a literary, anti-Christian figure rather than a systematic ideal.
How Zarathustra Was Popularized
- Zarathustra became prominent partly because it was widely read and embraced early, including by institutions like the Kaiser in WWI.
- Nietzsche's sister then edited and promoted his work to fit proto-Nazi ideologies, amplifying the Übermensch interpretation.
Nietzsche's Critique Targets Judaism's Values
- Nietzsche was not an anti-Semite in the conventional sense and praised individual Jews in his work.
- His criticism targeted Judaism as the origin of Christianity and Christian moral values, not Jews as people.