KOHLER, Joachim 1952-

PERSONAL: Born 1952. Education: Attended University of Tubingen, Germany, and University of New York; Stanford University, Ph.D.

ADDRESSES: Agent—c/o Yale University Press, P.O. Box 209040, New Haven, CT 06520-9040.

CAREER: Journalist, publisher, and author.

WRITINGS:

Das Ringen um die tridentinische Erneuerung im Bistum Breslau vom Abschluss d. Konzils bis z. Schlacht am Weissen Berg, 1564-1620, Bohlau Verlag (Vienna, Austria), 1973.

Abgaben zollgleicher Wirkung im Recht der Europäischen Gemeinschaften, Duncker & Humblot (Berlin, Germany), 1978.

(With Walter Hallstein) Europäische Reden, Deutsche Verlags-Anstalt (Stuttgart, Germany), 1979.

(Editor) Sakularisationen in Ostmitteleuropa. ZurKlarung des Verbaltnisses von geistlicher und weltlicher Macht im Mittelalter, von Kirche und Staat in der Neuzeit, Bohlau Verlag (Cologne, Germany), 1984.

(Editor) Siegerin in trummern: Die Rolle der katholischen Kirche in der deutschen Nachkriegsgesellschaft, Kohlhammer (Stuttgart, Germany), 1998.

Nietzsche and Wagner: A Lesson in Subjugation, translated by Ronald Taylor, Yale University Press (New Haven, CT), 1999.

Geschichte—-Last oder Befreiung: ausgewahlte Vortrage und Aufsatze, Schwabenverlag (Ostfildern, Germany), 2000.

Wagner's Hitler: The Prophet and His Disciple, translated by Ronald Taylor, Polity Press (Cambridge, MA), 2000.

Zarathustra's Secret: The Interior Life of Friedrich Nietzsche, translated by Ronald Taylor, Yale University Press (New Haven, CT), 2002.

Author's works have been translated into eleven languages, including English.

SIDELIGHTS: Joachim Kohler is a well-known author in Germany, and his works have been widely translated. Several of his books are available to his English-speaking audience, covering subjects that range from dictator Adolf Hitler, composer Richard Wagner, and philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche. The books address not only the lives of each individual but also the personal and historical relationships that existed between them.

In Wagner's Hitler: The Prophet and His Disciple, Kohler attempts to link Hitler's hatred of Jews to what Richard J. Evans, writing for the Journal of ContemporaryHistory, referred to as the dictator's "fanatical admiration for Wagner." Wagner was notoriously anti-Semitic, and it was well known that Hitler was enthralled by Wagner's music. Some have even speculated that Hitler's regime was based in part on themes that Wagner explored in his operatic dramas. Evans found the connection that Kohler attempts to solidify between the Hitler and Wagner rather unconvincing. "To make Wagner directly responsible for the Nazi extermination of the Jews, as Kohler does, is hardly plausible," Evans wrote. Choice reviewer M. Deshmukh also expressed doubts, noting that "the simple juxtaposition of Wagnerian ideas and Hitler's pronouncements do not necessarily advance the clearly established view that one of Wagner's greatest fans was Hitler himself."

More successful is Kohler's examination of the relationship between Wagner and Nietzsche. In his Nietzsche and Wagner: A Lesson in Subjugation, Kohler creates what Alan Ryan, writing for the New York Times Book Review, described as a "Nietzsche for beginners—that is, without philosophy—though it is hardly Nietzsche without tears." In this work, Kohler posits that Nietzsche's attraction to Wagner was based not only on the composer's music but also on Wagner's promise to create in Germany a "cultural climate in which the classical Greek world had created the tragedies of Aeschylus," Ryan wrote. Nietzsche became somewhat intoxicated with this concept and thus more pliable in the hands of both Wagner and Wagner's wife. Cosima wanted Nietzsche to dedicate himself to promoting Wagner, to write of Wagner's credits in response to any harsh criticism Wagner received. Nietzsche did that, but in his own way. In 1876, after he had become disillusioned in their relationship, Nietzsche published a book about Wagner. In it he praised him but in such a way that made Wagner very unattractive. Nietzsche "heaped praise on Wagner while simultaneously describing him as the seductive destroyer of all who came within his power," wrote Ryan. After this, a battle of words and insinuations ensued between Wagner and Nietzsche. Their bond would never be repaired. Wagner died, and Nietzsche went mad, believing until his death that Cosima would finally save him. Nietzsche would be forever wounded by his inability to come to terms with what went wrong with the relationship between himself and Wagner. As Byron Nelson, writing for the Southern Humanities Review, put it: "Joachim Kohler argues compellingly that, far from resisting the magnetic force of Wagner, Nietzsche was quite unable to find his way out of the . . . labyrinth."

In 2002, Kohler focused on the life of Nietzsche in his Zarathustra's Secret, which offers new interpretations of Nietzsche's letters, diaries, and writings. In Kohler's view, Nietzsche's suppressed homosexuality and his distaste for Christianity and conventional morality became the central influence on his philosophical thoughts. Allan Megill, writing for the Journal of Modern History, speculated that Kohler wrote Zarathustra's Secret "out of a deep dissatisfaction with Nietzsche's philosophical position." Kohler attempts to argue that Nietzsche's philosophy is flawed by his own repressed desires, namely, his homosexuality. Megill remarked that Kohler's "sharply negative view of Nietzsche makes his book quite atypical of most recent contributions to the literature," and concluded that, although Kohler's argument is not based on solid evidence, Zarathustra's Secret is a welcome attempt to answer questions about Nietzsche that oblique details and confusing writing may have prompted others to skip over. "Kohler's work helps us to see that important issues in Nietzsche's biography remain unsettled," Megill concluded.

Robin Smyth, writing for the London Observer, pointed out that Kohler was "most persuasive" when he confined himself to a "general picture of Nietzsche's leanings—the worship of the naked male body, the importance of bathing with men friends, who were not always too keen, and the mourning when they got married," rather than drawing conclusions that Nietzsche was a homosexual, a fact that Smyth found had not been proven by Kohler's book. Noel Malcolm, for the London Telegraph also indicated that more proof was needed. Malcolm wrote that Kohler has "an almost magical ability to conjure up evidence out of nothing at all." After reading Kohler's book, Malcolm concluded that Kohler's mind was set in advance to find proof of his hypothesis. Therefore, he interpreted what he found to prove his point. "This is a method of interpreting evidence guaranteed to find whatever it is looking for," Malcolm stated. Despite the flaws in Kohler's arguments, Brian Leiter, for the Times Literary Supplement, concluded that if Kohler's book makes readers "scrutinize his [Nietzsche's] claims all the more carefully before accepting them," then all the better. "What could be more Nietzschean than such an approach?" Leiter asked.

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Catholic Historical Review, April, 1988, Leo A. Nicoll, review of Sakularisationen In Ostmitteleuropa, pp. 301-302.

Central European History, February, 2001, Gerd-Rainer Horn, review of Siegerin in trummern, pp. 294-295.

Choice, May, 2000, review of Wagner's Hitler: TheProphet and His Disciple, pp. 1712-1713.

Journal of Contemporary History, January, 2002, Richard J. Evans, "New Perspectives on Hitler," review of Wagner's Hitler, pp. 147-153.

Journal of Modern History, Allan Megill, "Historicizing Nietzsche? Paradoxes and Lessons of a Hard Case," review of Zarathustra's Secret: The Interior Life of Friedrich Nietzsche, pp. 114-153.

Journal of the American Musicological Society, fall, 2001, Hans R. Vaget, "Poisoned Arrows: Wagner, Hitler, 'und kein Ende,'" reviews of Nietzsche and Wagner and Wagner's Hitler, pp. 661-679.

Library Journal, November 1, 1998, Timothy J. McGee, review of Nietzsche and Wagner, p. 84; June 1, 2002, H. James Birx, review of Zarathustra's Secret, p. 155.

New York Times Book Review, January 24, 1999, "The Will to Madness," review of Nietzsche and Wagner, p. 9.

Observer (London, England), December 31, 1989, review of Zarathustra's Secret, p. 37.

Publishers Weekly, March 11, 2002, review of Zarathustra's Secret, p. 58.

Review of Politcs, spring, 2000, Joshua Foa Dienstag, "Nietzsche's Friends and Enemies," review of Nietzsche and Wagner, p. 351.

Southern Humanities Review, summer, 2000, review of Nietzsche and Wagner, pp. 278-283.

Spectator, June 1, 2002, Michael Tanner, "Argumentum ad Hominem," review of Zarathustra's Secret, pp. 33-32.

Telegraph (London, England), April 28, 2002, Noel Malcolm, review of Zarathustra's Secret.

Times Literary Supplement, October 18, 2002, Brian Leiter, "Fate of Genius," review of Zarathustra's Secret, pp. 12-13.*