The Portable Nietzsche (82 page)

1.
Werke, Grossoktavausgabe,
and ed. 20 vols. Leipzig: Kröner, 1901–1913 and 1926 (vol. XX, containing indices for vols. I—XVI). Vols. I—VIII, works; vols. IX—XVI,
Nachlass
(i.e., notes, fragments, and other manuscript material not published by Nietzsche himself and for the most part not intended for publication); vols. XVII—XIX,
Philologica
(i.e., lecture notes and related materials belonging to the period when Nietzsche was a classical philologist).

2.
Gesammelte Werke, Musarionausgabe
. 23 vols. Munich: Musarion Verlag, 1920–1929. Books,
Nachlass,
and
Philologica
are arranged in a single chronological sequence; vol. I contains previously unpublished
juvenilia
; half of vol. XXI contains an index of names, which, like the index of subjects (all of vols. XXII-XXIII ), covers the
Philologica
too. In most ways this edition is obviously preferable to the
Grossoktacausgabe;
but the earlier edition contains an appendix of interesting editorial notes on
The Will to Power
(vol. XVI ) which is not to be found anywhere else.

3.
Werke und Briefe: Historisch-Kritische Gesamtausgabe
.
9 vols. Munich: Beck, 1933–1942. Discontinued after 5 vols. of
Werke
and 4 vols. of
Briefe
had appeared. The arrangement is chronological, and the “works” do not include any of Nietzsche's books but cover only the period from 1854, when Nietzsche was ten, to 1869. But H. J. Mette's discussion of the MSS in
Werke
, I, xxxi—cxxvi, includes the MSS of Nietzsche's later works.

4.
Werke in drei Bänden.
Ed. Karl Schlechta. 3 vols. Munich: Carl Hanser, 1954–1956. Vols. I-II contain all Nietzsche's books as well as some of his late poems; vol. III contains a selection from the
Nachlass,
278 letters, a chronology (pp. 1359—82), and a long Philological Postscript (pp. 1383–1432). In 1965 a 4
^th
vol. was added:
Nietzsche-Index.
Some minor errors mar vols. I-II; vol. III is most open to objections. On the positive side, it contains a few previously unpublished letters, and the Philological Postscript details the forgeries perpetrated by Nietzsche's sister, but these forgeries concern letters only and are of no philosophical interest. On the negative side, the selections from the
Nachlass
of the 1880s are confined exclusively to the notes previously known as
The Will to Power
; these notes have been edited very badly, and all late notes that the editors of the more comprehensive editions had not included in
The Will
to
Power
have been omitted, though in entries 1 and 2 above they fill many volumes. The editorial arrangement is neither systematic nor, as claimed by the editor, faithful to the manuscripts; the text departs from the manuscripts wherever entries 1 and 2 do and disregards the interesting notes in vol. XVI of 1 which indicate departures from the manuscripts. For more detailed discussion, see the Kaufmann translations (C. II below).

5.
Kröners Taschenausgabe.
Vols. 70–77 contain Nietzsche's books as well as selections from the
Nachlass
of his Basel period; 78 contains The
Will
to
Power;
82–83 a selection from the late
Nachlass material;
170 an index for all these volumes. These handy volumes can be bought separately. The postscripts by Alfred Bäumler, who was a Nazi, are objectionable, and volumes 82–83 are inadequate; but vols. 70–78 are adequate for most purposes.

6.
Werke
:
Kritische Ausgabe sämtlicher Schriften und nachgelassenen Fragmente
. Ed. Giorgio Colli. 30 vols. Berlin: de Gruyter, 1967ff. Instead of continuing edition 3, above, plans have been made for yet another monumental collected edition.