The Story of Elisabeth Nietzsche Concluding programme about the sister of Germany's great philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche , the man Hitler and Mussolini claimed was their inspiration.
Mother of the Fatherland. In
1889, when her Aryan colony in Paraguay began to fail,
Elisabeth Nietzsche returned to Germany to look after her dying brother. Over the next 40 years, she so distorted his ideas that even now Nietzsche's name is still directly associated with European fascism.
Tonight's film uses material from the Nietzsche Archive
(opened following the collapse of the communist state in East Germany) to reveal how
Elisabeth Nietzsche was wooed by both Mussolini and Hitler, and how she became one of the most powerful women in the Third Reich.
Producer Candida Pryce-Jones Series editor Roy Davies ● STEREO