The Antichrist

H.L. Mencken translated this version of The Antichrist following the end of World War I—with much of his introduction focusing on reconciling Friedrich Nietzsche’s work with its participation in said conflict. In his introduction, Mencken describes the leaders of Germany as having embraced Nietzsche’s concepts, while the Allied Powers opposed his work—branding it too anti-democratic. Further reconciliation is required to read The Antichrist following World War II, given the rise of Nazi Germany and its application of modernity and “science” in executing the Holocaust.

While Nietzsche’s popularity in Germany never fully waned following the country’s loss in World War I, his work became associated with the Nazi party due to his sister, Elisabeth Förster-Nietzsche, a noted antisemite and Nazi party member whose funeral was attended by Adolf Hitler himself in 1935. Förster-Nietzsche championed her brother’s work following his mental breakdown and death, and accounts persist that she edited his works to further accentuate antisemitic and eugenicist idioms that might indirectly cast the Nazi ideology in a positive light.

Mencken himself contributed to the Nazification of Nietzsche’s philosophies. Though he opposed the persecution of Jewish people in Europe and advocated for their admission into America, Mencken ultimately opposed America’s entry into World War II; his bibliography and introduction for The Antichrist include multiple antisemitic arguments.