The suppressed passages of Der Antichrist

Koegel's version of Der Antichrist omitted four passages.

(1) Aphorism 29: "das Wort Idiot." [KSA 6, p. 200, Zeilen 14-15] The passage reads: "Unser ganzer Begriff, unser Cultur-Begriff 'Geist' hat in der Welt, in der Jesus lebt, gar keinen Sinn. Mit der Strenge des Physiologen gesprochen, wäre hier ein ganz andres Wort eher noch am Platz: das Wort Idiot." [Hollingdale translation: "Our whole concept, our cultural concept 'spirit' had no meaning whatever in the world Jesus lived in. To speak with the precision of the physiologist a quite different word would rather be in place here: the word idiot."

(2) Aphorism 35: "Die Worte zum Schächer am Kreuz enthalten das ganze Evangelium. 'Das ist wahrlich ein göttlicher Mensch gewesen, ein "Kind Gottes" sagt der Schächer. "Wenn du dies fühlst -- antwortet der Erlöser -- so bist du im Paradiese, so bist auch du ein Kind Gottes..." [KSA 6, pp. 207-208. Hollingdale translation: "His words to the thief on the cross contain the whole Evangel. 'That was verily a divine man, a child of God!' -- says the thief. 'If thou feelst this' -- answers the redeemer -- 'thou art in Paradise, thou art a child of God.' "] Hoffmann suggests this passage was suppressed because it is an inaccurate citation of the New Testament passage.

(3) Aphorism 38: the word "junger" [KSA 6, p. 211, Zeile 6] The full sentence: "Ein junger Fürst, an der Spitze seiner Regimenter, prachtvoll als Ausdruck der Selbstsucht und Selbstüberhebung seines Volks, -- aber, ohne jede Scham, sich als Christen bekennend!" [Hollingdale: "A young prince at the head of his regiments, splendid as the expression of his people's egoism and presumption -- but without any shame professing himself a Christian!"] The Archive apparently feared that this would be taken as a reference to Wilhelm II, making them liable to legal action.

(4) Aphorism 62: "Und man rechnet die Zeit nach dem dies nefastus, mit dem dies Verhängniss anhob, -- nach dem ersten Tag des Christenthums! -- Warum nicht lieber nach seinem letzten? -- Nach Heute? -- Umwerthung aller Werthe!..." [this is the very end of the book; KSA 6, p. 253. Hollingdale's translation: "And one calculates time from the unlucky day on which this fatality arose -- from the first day of Christianity! -- Why not rather from its last? - From today? Revaluation of all values!"]

According to Montinari (and Hoffmann, who follows Montinari), passage 4 was restored in the 1899 edition and appeared in all subsequent editions. Passages 1 and 2, however, were never printed in any edition prepared by the Nietzsche Archive. The same is true of passage 3 (even though, oddly enough, it did appear in the pocketbook edition of 1906). The first edition that restored all four of these passages was the Schlechta edition of 1955. Cf. Montinari, KSA 14, pp. 435-436.

The key to restoring Der Antichrist has been a copy that Overbeck made very shortly after Nietzsche's collapse. This has permitted the editors to undo Köselitz' "corrections" and to restore the suppressed passages listed here.