Rüdiger Schmidt-Grépály (born 13 July 1952 in
Bad Oldesloe
Bad Oldesloe () is a town located in the northern German state of Schleswig-Holstein. It is the capital of the district of Stormarn.
The area has been inhabited since Mesolithic times. The flint tools found here from that era (6000–4500 BC) ar ...
,
Schleswig-Holstein
Schleswig-Holstein (; ; ; ; ; occasionally in English ''Sleswick-Holsatia'') is the Northern Germany, northernmost of the 16 states of Germany, comprising most of the historical Duchy of Holstein and the southern part of the former Duchy of S ...
) is a German cultural manager and Director of the
Kolleg Friedrich Nietzsche at the
Klassik Stiftung Weimar.
Research and academic career
After leaving school in 1972, he studied
philosophy
Philosophy ('love of wisdom' in Ancient Greek) is a systematic study of general and fundamental questions concerning topics like existence, reason, knowledge, Value (ethics and social sciences), value, mind, and language. It is a rational an ...
,
politics
Politics () is the set of activities that are associated with decision-making, making decisions in social group, groups, or other forms of power (social and political), power relations among individuals, such as the distribution of Social sta ...
and
literature
Literature is any collection of Writing, written work, but it is also used more narrowly for writings specifically considered to be an art form, especially novels, Play (theatre), plays, and poetry, poems. It includes both print and Electroni ...
in
Kiel
Kiel ( ; ) is the capital and most populous city in the northern Germany, German state of Schleswig-Holstein. With a population of around 250,000, it is Germany's largest city on the Baltic Sea. It is located on the Kieler Förde inlet of the Ba ...
,
Freiburg im Breisgau
Freiburg im Breisgau or simply Freiburg is the List of cities in Baden-Württemberg by population, fourth-largest city of the German state of Baden-Württemberg after Stuttgart, Mannheim and Karlsruhe. Its built-up area has a population of abou ...
and
Marburg
Marburg (; ) is a college town, university town in the States of Germany, German federal state () of Hesse, capital of the Marburg-Biedenkopf Districts of Germany, district (). The town area spreads along the valley of the river Lahn and has ...
until 1980. In 1980, he successfully completed a doctorate on the early work of
Friedrich Nietzsche
Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche (15 October 1844 – 25 August 1900) was a German philosopher. He began his career as a classical philology, classical philologist, turning to philosophy early in his academic career. In 1869, aged 24, Nietzsche bec ...
under the direction of
Hans Heinz Holz,
Gert Mattenklott and Katharina Kanthack. From 1983 to 1985, holding grants from the
German Academic Exchange Service
The German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD; ), founded in 1925, is a joint organization of German universities and student bodies to foster their international relations. Since 1 January 2020, the president has been Joybrato Mukherjee.
Organisa ...
and the Italian foreign ministry, he worked in
Florence
Florence ( ; ) is the capital city of the Italy, Italian region of Tuscany. It is also the most populated city in Tuscany, with 362,353 inhabitants, and 989,460 in Metropolitan City of Florence, its metropolitan province as of 2025.
Florence ...
with
Mazzino Montinari, who was editing the first
Nietzsche edition free of falsifications, based on the studies he had been carrying out in Weimar since the 1960s.
Until 1997, Schmidt-Grépály lectured in philosophy at the
Universities of Florence,
Kiel
Kiel ( ; ) is the capital and most populous city in the northern Germany, German state of Schleswig-Holstein. With a population of around 250,000, it is Germany's largest city on the Baltic Sea. It is located on the Kieler Förde inlet of the Ba ...
,
Oldenburg Oldenburg may also refer to:
Places
* Mount Oldenburg, Ellsworth Land, Antarctica
*Oldenburg (city), an independent city in Lower Saxony, Germany
**Oldenburg (district), a district historically in Oldenburg Free State and now in Lower Saxony
* Ol ...
and
Bremen
Bremen (Low German also: ''Breem'' or ''Bräm''), officially the City Municipality of Bremen (, ), is the capital of the States of Germany, German state of the Bremen (state), Free Hanseatic City of Bremen (), a two-city-state consisting of the c ...
, then from 1998 at
Jena
Jena (; ) is a List of cities and towns in Germany, city in Germany and the second largest city in Thuringia. Together with the nearby cities of Erfurt and Weimar, it forms the central metropolitan area of Thuringia with approximately 500,000 in ...
and the
Bauhaus University, Weimar
The Bauhaus-Universität Weimar is a university located in Weimar, Germany, and specializes in the artistic and technical fields. Established in 1860 as the Great Ducal Saxon Art School, it gained collegiate status on 3 June 1910. In 1919 the s ...
. From 1989 to 1995 he was the Philosophical Director of the "Karl Jaspers Vorlesungen zu Fragen der Zeit" at the University of Oldenburg under
Rudolf zur Lippe. In 1994 Schmidt-Grépály worked at
Theater Bremen
Theater Bremen (Bremen Theatre) is a state theatre in Bremen, Germany, with four divisions for opera, straight theater, dance, and student programs. Its venues are located in a city block, connected in architecture and seating up to 1,426 spectato ...
together with the pioneer of German dance theatre, Johannes Kresnik. He occasionally presented the radio programme "Doppelkopf" on hr2 for
Hessischer Rundfunk
(; "Hesse Broadcasting"), shortened to HR (; stylized as hr), is the German state of Hesse's public broadcasting corporation. Headquartered in Frankfurt, it is a member of the national consortium of German public broadcasting corporations, A ...
in conversation with guests such as
Nike Wagner, Almos Csongár and
Ágnes Heller
Ágnes Heller (12 May 1929 – 19 July 2019) was a Hungarian philosopher and lecturer. She was a core member of the Budapest School philosophical forum in the 1960s and later taught political theory for 25 years at the New School for Social Rese ...
. In 1999 Schmidt-Grépály organised a Nietzsche evening in Brussels with the title "Ich bin kein Mensch, ich bin Dynamit" (Friedrich Nietzsche) as one of the official contributions by the
State of Thuringia to celebrating the German Presidency of the
European Union
The European Union (EU) is a supranational union, supranational political union, political and economic union of Member state of the European Union, member states that are Geography of the European Union, located primarily in Europe. The u ...
. Involved in the Nietzsche event were the actors Silvia Fink and Harald Schwaiger of the
Deutsches Nationaltheater Weimar
The (DNT), or German National Theater and Weimar State Orchestra, is the most significant arts organization in Weimar. The institution unites the (German National Theater) with the (Weimar State Orchestra). It plays on a total of six stages ...
, and Luise Härtwig, alumna of the Musikgymnasium Weimar. The play was subsequently performed in Weimar, Naumburg, Munich, Lyon and elsewhere.
Founding of the Kolleg Friedrich Nietzsche
In 1992, with the idea of turning the Villa Silberblick, the legendary former
Nietzsche Archive, into a venue for free spirits in Nietzsche's sense, Schmidt-Grépály came to
Weimar
Weimar is a city in the state (Germany), German state of Thuringia, in Central Germany (cultural area), Central Germany between Erfurt to the west and Jena to the east, southwest of Leipzig, north of Nuremberg and west of Dresden. Together w ...
. After working for the
Stiftung Weimarer Klassik from 1993 to 1999 first as a freelance collaborator, in October 1999 Schmidt-Grépály was appointed Director of the
Kolleg Friedrich Nietzsche. For his initiative in founding and building up the Kolleg he was awarded the "Premio Internazionale Federico Nietzsche" by the "Associazione Internazionale di Studi e Ricerche Federico Nietzsche" (
Palermo
Palermo ( ; ; , locally also or ) is a city in southern Italy, the capital (political), capital of both the autonomous area, autonomous region of Sicily and the Metropolitan City of Palermo, the city's surrounding metropolitan province. The ...
, Italy) in 2002. Shortly after celebrating its 10th anniversary, the Kolleg was nominated Weimar's first "Ort der Vielfalt" (Place of Diversity) in January 2012.
''Kolleg Friedrich Nietzsche: Weimars erster Ort der Vielfalt 2010.''
at: ''stadt.weimar.de'' 21 January 2010.
Bibliography
* ''Nietzsches Nietzsche. Werke letzter Hand.'' Ed. Rüdiger Schmidt-Grépály. L.S.D., Göttingen 2013. ''(announced)''
* ''Nietzsche für Anfänger: Also sprach Zarathustra.'' Eine Lese-Einführung von Rüdiger Schmidt und Cord Spreckelsen. 8th edn. dtv, Munich 2010, (trans. into Italian and Korean)
* ''Auf Nietzsches Balkon. Philosophische Beiträge aus der Villa Silberblick.'' Ed. Rüdiger Schmidt-Grépály. Bauhaus-Universität, Weimar 2009, . (Series: ''Schriften aus dem Kolleg Friedrich Nietzsche'')
* Introduction (with Cord Spreckelsen) to the audiobook ''Nietzsche für Anfänger: Also sprach Zarathustra'' read by Martin Umbach. Komplett Media Verlag, Grünwald 2008.
* ''Friedrich Nietzsche: Schreibmaschinentexte.'' Complete edition. Facsimiles and critical commentary. Edited from the Nachlass by Stephan Günzel and Rüdiger Schmidt-Grépály. Verlag der Bauhaus Universität, Weimar 2002, .
* ''Nietzsche im Christentum. Theologische Perspektiven nach Nietzsches Proklamation des Todes Gottes.'' Ed. Daniel Mourkojannis and Rüdiger Schmidt-Grépály. Schwabe, Basel 2004, . (Series: ''Beiträge zu Friedrich Nietzsche'')
* ''Nietzsche im Exil. Übergänge in gegenwärtiges Denken.'' Ed. Steffen Dietzsch and Rüdiger Schmidt-Grépály. Hermann Böhlaus Nachfolger, Weimar 2001, .
* ''Nietzsches Labyrinthe. Leitmotive seines Denkens.'' (with Éva Grépály). In: Gerhard Schweppenhäuser and Jörg H. Gleiter (eds.): ''Nietzsches Labyrinthe. Perspektiven zur Ästhetik, Ethik und Kulturphilosophie.'' Philosophische Diskurse 4. Verlag der Bauhaus-Universität, Weimar 2001.
* ''Die verratenen Gedanken / Wie Nietzsche erst gefälscht und dann rekonstruiert wurde.'' In: ''Süddeutsche Zeitung.'' 24 November 2001.
* ''Ein Text ohne Ende für den Denkenden. Studien zu Nietzsche.'' 2nd, expanded edition. In: ''Athenäums Monografien / Philosophie.'' Vol. 260. Athenäum Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 1989, .
* ''Nietzsche für Anfänger: Ecce homo.'' A Primer by Rüdiger Schmidt and Cord Spreckelsen. dtv, Munich 2000, .
* ''Nietzsche. Text - Kontext.'' Ed. Djavid Salehi and Rüdiger Schmidt-Grépály. Verlag der Bauhaus-Universität, Weimar 2000, .
* ''Zum 100. Todestag von Friedrich Nietzsche.'' In: ''Thüringer Museumshefte.'' Ed. Museumsverband Thüringen v.V., 9/2, 2000, pp. 93ff.
* ''Nietzsche denken.'' In: ''Weimarer Kulturjournal.'' 9/10, Weimar 2000, p. 2.
* ''Philosophischer Taschenkalender - Jahrbuch zum Streit der Fakultäten.'' 2 vols. Ed. Rüdiger Schmidt and Bettina Wahrig-Schmidt. Luciferlag, Lübeck 1992.
* ''Zarathustras Wege.'' Text accompanying Friedrich Nietzsche: ''Also sprach Zarathustra.'' Read by Peter Wapenski. Der Hörverlag, Munich 2000.
Further reading
* ''Die Neugier des Glücklichen. Eine Festschrift für den Gründer des Kollegs Friedrich Nietzsche.'' With contributions by Ágnes Heller, Gianni Vattimo, Peter Sloterdijk et al. Ed. Bert-Christoph Streckhardt. Verlag der Bauhaus Universität, Weimar 2012. .
* ''»Die Glücklichen sind neugierig« – Zehn Jahre Kolleg Friedrich Nietzsche.'' Ed. Julia Wagner and Stefan Wilke. Verlag der Bauhaus Universität, Weimar 2009. .
References
External links
* SF Kultur , Sternstunde Philosophie
''Wer hat Angst vor Nietzsche? Das Kolleg Friedrich Nietzsche zu Weimar''
(Video)
* hr2-kultur
Doppel-Kopf mit Ágnes Heller
(Podcast
{{DEFAULTSORT:Schmidt-Grepaly, Rudiger
1952 births
People from Bad Oldesloe
Nietzsche scholars
21st-century German philosophers
Living people