Sources and Abbreviations

During my research I have used the Kritische Studienausgabe (KSA), edited by G. Colli and M. Montinari, Walter de Gruyter, Berlin (1980); and Sämtliche Briefe: Kritische Studienausgabe (KSB), edited by G. Colli and M. Montinari, Walter de Gruyter, Berlin (1986).

However, most German Nietzsche citations on this site are taken from the Digital Critical Edition of Nietzsche’s Works and Letters (eKGWB), an online resource based on the Kritische Gesamtausgabe (KGA) by G. Colli and M. Montinari, Walter de Gruyter, Berlin/New York (1967–), and edited by Paulo D’Iorio. I have chosen to use this relatively new medium for its universal accessibility and ease of use. The digital edition contains all the philological corrections from the different commentary volumes of the print edition, integrated directly into the electronic text; it can therefore claim to be “the most correct version of the Colli/Montinari critical edition” currently in existence.

Additionally, it makes the creation and retrieval of text references very easy. Every chapter, aphorism or fragment in the eKGWB can be accessed directly through its own unique and stable internet address. These URLs are constructed in a transparent and meaningful way, based on the standard abbreviations established by the printed German version. For instance, WL-1 refers to the first section of the essay “Ueber Wahrheit und Lüge im aussermoralischen Sinne”); when preceded by the eKGWB’s base URL, this yields the internet address for the passage in question. Thus, the original German text of the first section of “On Truth and Lies in a Nonmoral Sense” can be found online at this address: nietzschesource.org/texts/eKGWB/WL-1.

For more information, see here.

Below, I have listed all of Nietzsche’s works along with their abbreviations from the eKGWB, and the English translations I have used (in order of priority: the edition used for citations is listed first, followed by alternative translations that were consulted for comparison). Where no English edition is given, translations are mine.

  • AC—Der Antichrist
    • The Anti-Christ: A Curse on Christianity, in The Anti-Christ, Ecce Homo, Twilight of the Idols, and Other Writings (edited by Aaron Ridley and Judith Norman, translated by Judith Norman), Cambridge University Press, Cambridge (2005), pp. 1–68.
  • BA—Ueber die Zukunft unserer Bildungsanstalten
  • BVN—Briefe von Nietzsche
    Nietzsche’s letters. In some cases (where indicated), I will use the English translations of selected letters found in:
    • Selected Letters of Friedrich Nietzsche (edited and translated by C. Middleton), Hacket, Indianapolis/Cambridge (1969).
  • CV—Fünf Vorreden zu fünf ungeschriebenen Büchern
    • Über das Pathos der Wahrheit: “On the Pathos of Truth” (translated by B. Armstrong), in Philosophical Writings (eds. R. Grimm and C. Molina y Vedia), The German Library, Continuum, New York (1997);
    • Homer’s Wettkampf: “Homer’s Contest”, in On the Genealogy of Morality (edited by Keith Ansell-Pearson, translated by Carol Diethe), Cambridge University Press, Cambridge (2007), pp. 174–182.
  • DD—Dionysos-Dithyramben
  • DS—Unzeitgemässe Betrachtungen I: David Strauss
    • David Strauss, the Confessor and the Writer, in Untimely Meditations (edited by Daniel Breazeale, translated by R.J. Hollingdale), Cambridge University Press, Cambridge (1997), pp. 1–56.
  • DW—Die dionysische Weltanschauung
    • “The Dionysiac World View”, in The Birth of Tragedy and other writings (edited by Raymond Geus and Ronald Speirs, translated by Ronald Speirs), Cambridge University Press, Cambridge (1999), pp. 117–138.
  • EH—Ecce homo
    • Ecce Homo: How to Become What you Are, in The Anti-Christ, Ecce Homo, Twilight of the Idols, and Other Writings (edited by Aaron Ridley and Judith Norman, translated by Judith Norman), Cambridge University Press, Cambridge (2005), pp. 69–152.
  • FS—Frühe Schriften
    • Not available in eKGWB. Frühe Schriften (5 vols.; eds. H.J. Mette and K. Schlechta), Deutscher Taschenbuch Verlag, München (1994).
  • FW—Die fröhliche Wissenschaft
    • The Gay Science (edited by Bernard Williams, translated by Josefine Nauckhoff, poems translated by Adrian Del Caro), Cambridge University Press, Cambridge (2001).
  • GD—Götzen-Dämmerung
    • Twilight of the Idols, or How to Philosophize with a Hammer, in The Anti-Christ, Ecce Homo, Twilight of the Idols, and Other Writings (edited by Aaron Ridley and Judith Norman, translated by Judith Norman), Cambridge University Press, Cambridge (2005), pp. 153–230.
  • GG—Die Geburt des tragischen Gedankens
  • GM—Zur Genealogie der Moral
    • On the Genealogy of Morality (edited by Keith Ansell-Pearson, translated by Carol Diethe), Cambridge University Press, Cambridge (2007).
  • GMD—Zwei öffentliche Vorträge über die griechische Tragoedie I: Das griechische Musikdrama
  • GT—Die Geburt der Tragödie
    • The Birth of Tragedy, in The Birth of Tragedy and The Case of Wagner (translated by Walter A. Kaufmann), Vintage Books, New York (1967).
    • The Birth of Tragedy, in The Birth of Tragedy and other writings (edited by Raymond Geus and Ronald Speirs, translated by Ronald Speirs), Cambridge University Press, Cambridge (1999), pp. 1–116.
    • The Birth of Tragedy (translated by Shaun Whiteside), Penguin Books, London (1993).
  • HL—Unzeitgemässe Betrachtungen II: Vom Nutzen und Nachtheil der Historie für das Leben
    • On the Uses and Disadvantages of History for Life, in Untimely Meditations (edited by Daniel Breazeale, translated by R.J. Hollingdale), Cambridge University Press, Cambridge (1997), pp. 57–124.
  • IM—Idyllen aus Messina
  • JGB—Jenseits von Gut und Böse
    • Beyond Good and Evil (edited by Rolf-Peter Horstmann and Judith Norman, translated by Judith Norman), Cambridge University Press, Cambridge (2002).
  • M—Morgenröthe
    • Daybreak. Thoughts on the Prejudices of Morality (edited by Maudemarie Clark and Brian Leiter, translated by R.J. Hollingdale), Cambridge University Press, Cambridge (1997).
  • MA—Menschliches, Allzumenschliches
    • Human, All Too Human. A Book for Free Spirits (translated by R.J. Hollingdale), Cambridge University Press, Cambridge (1996).
  • MD—Mahnruf an die Deutschen
  • NF—Fragments from Nietzsche’s notebooks (Nachlass)
    When no source is given, the translation is mine. Where indicated), I will use the English translations of selected notes found in:
    • The Will to Power (translated by W.A. Kaufmann and R.J. Hollingdale), Vintage Books, New York (1968)
    • Writings from the Late Notebooks (edited by Rüdiger Bittner, translated by Kate Sturge), Cambridge University Press, Cambridge (2003).
  • NJ—Ein Neujahrswort an den Herausgeber der Wochenschrift “Im neuen Reich”
  • NW—Nietzsche contra Wagner
    • Nietzsche contra Wagner: From the Files of a Psychologist, in The Anti-Christ, Ecce Homo, Twilight of the Idols, and Other Writings (edited by Aaron Ridley and Judith Norman, translated by Judith Norman), Cambridge University Press, Cambridge (2005), pp. 236–282.
  • PHG—Die Philosophie im tragischen Zeitalter der Griechen
    • Philosophy in the Tragic Age of the Greeks (translated by Marianne Cowan), Regnery, Washington DC (1962).
  • SE—Unzeitgemässe Betrachtungen III: Schopenhauer als Erzieher
    • Schopenhauer as Educator, in Untimely Meditations (edited by Daniel Breazeale, translated by R.J. Hollingdale), Cambridge University Press, Cambridge (1997), pp. 125–194.
  • SGT—Sokrates und die griechische Tragoedie
  • ST—Zwei öffentliche Vorträge über die griechische Tragoedie II: Socrates und die Tragoedie
  • WA—Der Fall Wagner
    • The Case of Wagner: A Musician’s Problem, in The Anti-Christ, Ecce Homo, Twilight of the Idols, and Other Writings (edited by Aaron Ridley and Judith Norman, translated by Judith Norman), Cambridge University Press, Cambridge (2005), pp. 231–262.
    • The Case of Wagner, in The Birth of Tragedy and The Case of Wagner (translated by Walter A. Kaufmann), Vintage Books, New York (1967).
  • WB—Unzeitgemässe Betrachtungen IV: Richard Wagner in Bayreuth
    • Richard Wagner in Bayreuth, in Untimely Meditations (edited by Daniel Breazeale, translated by R.J. Hollingdale), Cambridge University Press, Cambridge (1997), pp. 195–254.
  • WL—Ueber Wahrheit und Lüge im aussermoralischen Sinne
    • “On Truth and Lies in a Nonmoral Sense” (translated by Daniel Breazeale), in Breazeale (ed.), Philosophy and Truth: Selections from Nietzsche’s Notebooks of the Early 1870s (Amherst, NY: Humanity Books, 1999), pp. 79–91.
    • “On Truth and Lying in a Non-Moral Sense”, in The Birth of Tragedy and other writings (edited by Raymond Geus and Ronald Speirs, translated by Ronald Speirs), Cambridge University Press, Cambridge (1999), pp. 139–153.
  • Za—Also sprach Zarathustra
    • Thus Spoke Zarathustra (edited by R. Pippin, and A. Del Caro, translated by A. Del Caro), Cambridge University Press, Cambridge (2006).
  • ZS—Zu Schopenhauer (1886)
    Not available in eKGWB. German version: “Zu Schopenhauer”, in Frühe Schriften 1854–1869, vol. 3: Schriften der Studenten- und Militärzeit (eds. H.J. Mette and K. Schlechta), Deutscher Taschenbuch Verlag, München (1994), pp. 352–361;
    • “On Schopenhauer” (translated by Claudia Crawford), in Keith Ansell Pearson and Duncan Large (eds.): The Nietzsche Reader, Blackwell Publishing, Oxford (2006), pp. 24–30;
    • “On Schopenhauer” (translated by Christopher Janaway), in Christopher Janaway (ed.): Willing and Nothingness: Schopenhauer as Nietzsche’s Educator, Oxford University Press, Oxford (1998), pp. 258–278.