Heinrich Köselitz
Heinrich Köselitz | |
---|---|
Born | Johann Heinrich Köselitz 10 January 1854 |
Died | 15 August 1918 Annaberg, Kingdom of Saxony | (aged 64)
Other names | Peter Gast |
Occupation | Composer |
Parent(s) | Gustav Hermann Köselitz, Caroline Köselitz |
Johann Heinrich Köselitz (10 January 1854 – 15 August 1918) was a German author and composer. He is known for his longtime friendship with Friedrich Nietzsche, who gave him the pseudonym Peter Gast.
Life
Köselitz was born in Annaberg, Saxony to Gustav Hermann Köselitz (1822–1910), the vice mayor (Vizebürgermeister), and his wife Caroline (1819–1900), a native of Vienna. His younger brother was the painter Rudolf Köselitz.
From 1872, Köselitz studied music with
In Basel, a friendship developed between Köselitz and Nietzsche. Köselitz read for Nietzsche during the latter's intermittent spells of near blindness, and also took dictation. Köselitz was instrumental in the preparation of all of Nietzsche's works after 1876, reviewing the printer's manuscript and sometimes intervening to finalize the text formatting. Nietzsche's break with Wagner and his search for a 'southern' aesthetic with which he could immunize himself from the gloomy German north led him to over-appreciate Köselitz as a musician: 'I should not know how to get along without Rossini; even less, without my own south in music, the music of my Venetian maëstro Pietro Gast.[1] As an amanuensis, however, Köselitz really was invaluable; writing apropos Human, All Too Human, Nietzsche claimed that Gast 'wrote and also corrected: fundamentally, he was really the writer whereas I was merely the author'.[2] All the while, Köselitz worshipped his teacher, assisting him to the point of self-denial.
In the spring of 1881, while staying together in
Köselitz was financed by his father, and also intermittently supported by Nietzsche's friend Paul Rée. In addition to being a musician and the editor of Nietzsche's writings and letters, he worked as a writer under various pseudonyms, including: Ludwig Mürner, Peter Schlemihl, Petrus Eremitus. He sent articles to many newspapers, and also wrote several short stories and fables.
Notes
References
- Friedrich Götz. Peter Gast – der Mensch, der Künstler, der Gelehrte. Ein Lebensbild in Quellen. Annaberg, 1934. (in German)