Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche (1844 - 1900), Germanphilosopher and poet. He denounced all religion and promoted the "morals of masters," the doctrine of perfecting man through forcible selfassertion and glorification of the "superman," as expressed in his most famous work, Thus Spake Zarathustra. Nietzsche was a professor at the University of Basel in Switzerland from 1869 until 1879, when severe eye and brain trouble forced him to retire on a pension. He lived at various health resorts in Italy and Switzerland until 1889, when he became hopelessly insane. Nietzsche's theories are regarded as having influenced the German attitudes in World War I and the Naziregime. —PDC Volume 5 Approved Glossary