Abstract
The ideas outlined by German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche in his 'Birth of Tragedy' (1872) and "Vom Nutzen und Nachteil der Historie für das Leben" [On the advantages and disadvantages of history for life] (1873-74) were among the earliest examples of the historicist movement that established itself in Germany at the turn of the 20th century. Nietzsche, influenced by the work of historian Jakob Burckhardt and theologian Franz Overbeck, distanced himself from the German empire created in 1870 and the political and cultural consequences of unification. He saw the remedies to these in a new German culture drawn from its past and turned to the myth of art championed by composer Richard Wagner and ancient Greek culture. After 1945, the notion of "critical history" that he introduced in 'Birth of Tragedy,' based on the questioning and judgment of a history that weighs heavily and from which one wishes to be free, took on a special relevance for German historians.