Leipzig

Leipzig enters the book’s account of Nietzsche’s life as a destination of study and intellectual transition: in 1865 he left Bonn to follow Friedrich Ritschl, his former tutor in philology, and began reading Arthur Schopenhauer. The chronology later links Leipzig to the doctorate awarded to him in 1869, giving the city a second place in his academic biography.

The Move from Bonn

In 1865, after abandoning theology at Easter and losing his Christian belief, Nietzsche left Bonn for Leipzig. The account emphasizes the personal and academic connection behind the move: he followed Friedrich Ritschl, who had previously tutored him in philology. Leipzig is thus presented not as an isolated stop but as the next stage in a course shaped by his studies and his relationship with a teacher.

Reading and Academic Recognition

The chronology associates Nietzsche’s arrival with the beginning of his reading of Arthur Schopenhauer. It does not describe the circumstances or duration of that reading, but places it alongside the move to Leipzig as a significant intellectual development. In 1869, it records that Leipzig University awarded Nietzsche a doctorate. That recognition appears in the same year as his appointment to the chair of classical philology at the University of Basel, marking a later academic milestone in the chronology of a city he had first entered as a student.

Place in the Chronology

Leipzig’s importance in the account is defined by these linked biographical references: Nietzsche’s 1865 departure from Bonn to follow Ritschl and begin reading Schopenhauer, and the doctorate recorded four years later. The book offers no description of Leipzig’s streets, institutions beyond the university reference, or Nietzsche’s daily life there; its significance is the concise role it plays in tracing his education and early intellectual formation.