Goethe's Faust and Friedrich Nietzsche: several historical and philosophical parallels

The study examines the main worldview, historical and philosophical parallels between Goethe and Nietzsche’s works. Although their paths of life are completely different, many basic intentions of Nietzsche’s philosophical writings are rooted in the poetic and philosophical heritage of Goethe, primarily in “Faust”. For Nietzsche, Goethe emerges as the completion and embodiment of an idea of a person because he demonstrates the true unity of life and creativity. Nietzsche’s superman is Goethe himself, who has been guided by the idea of the productivity of the creative spirit, which in many respects has been proved to be more effective than abstractions of “pure reason”. Through the images of Faust and Zarathustra in the immortal works, Goethe and Nietzsche tried to warn people against the danger of the lack of spirituality which had become a truly universal problem at the turn of the 20th and 21st centuries. The study findings can be used during the general courses on the history of philosophy and the special courses on German philosophy and culture.