Despite being one of the greatest philosophers of the last millennium, Friedrich Wilhem Nietzsche may also be the most misunderstood. He has become a walking paradox. Today he is considered one of the most important thinkers, yet during his lifetime he could hardly have given away his books. Sigmund Freud revered him as one of the great minds in the history of psychoanalysis, yet Nietzsche went mad at the age of 44. He publicly detested German culture, yet German soldiers received copies of his book, Thus Spoke Zarathustra in the First World War. Nietzsche also detested nationalism, but Adolf Hitler misinterpreted his work, using it as an influence for Mein Kampf and a building block for the Nazi eugenics movement, which created a tremendous amount of notoriety for Nietzsche. Regardless, Friedrich Nietzsche's works remain some of the most influential additions to modern philosophy, many of which are still widespread today. Friedrich Nietzsche was born on October 15, 1844 in Röcken, a small agricultural village in Prussia. Nietzsche's father, Carl Ludwig Nietzsche was a Lutheran pastor while his mother, Franziska Oehler, was a former school teacher. Nietzsche's paternal side had a strong history in Lutheran studies dating back two generations. However, his personal experiences with religion were limited after his father died of a brain aneurysm when Nietzsche was five years old. After his father's death, Nietzsche's family moved to Naumburg an der Saale. Starting in 1858, Nietzsche attended Schulpforta, a renowned boarding school a few kilometers from his home in Naumburg. Schulpforta had a strong emphasis on religion, ironically; this is where Nietzsche began to question the state of religion after reading works including David S...... middle of paper ......and, Friedrich W. The Birth of Tragedy. Print.Nietzsche, Friedrich W. and Walter A. Kaufmann. Beyond good and evil. New York: Vintage, 1989. Print.Nietzsche, Friedrich W. and Walter A. Kaufmann. Gay science. New York: Vintage, 1974. Print.Nietzsche, Friedrich W. Human, All Too Human. Lincoln: University of Nebraska, 1984. Print.Nietzsche, Friedrich W. "Nietzche's Letters: 1887." Nietzche's Letters: 1887. Web. 01 May 2012. .Nietzsche, Friedrich W., Walter A. Kaufmann, and R. J. Hollingdale. The will to power. New York: Random House, 1967. Print.Schaberg, William H. The Nietzsche Canon: A History and Bibliography of Publications. Chicago: University of Chicago, 1995. Print.Wicks, Robert, “Friedrich Nietzsche,” The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Summer 2011 Edition), Edward N. Zalta (ed..),.