Within his lifetime, prior to his mental breakdown in 1889, few of Nietzsche's books sold particularly well, and Human, All Too Human was no exception. The first installment was originally printed in 1,000 copies in 1878, selling only 120 at the time, and selling less than half by 1886, when it was resold as the complete two-volume set.[18] Though his friendship with Richard Wagner was nearly over, Wagner actually received a signed copy. Although he did not read it at first, saying Nietzsche would thank him for this one day,[19] Wagner would later quote and respond to it in a number of works.
Oehler and Nazism
Most notoriously, Human, All Too Human was used by archivist Max Oehler, a strong supporter of Hitler, as supposed evidence of Nietzsche's support for nationalism and anti-Semitism, both of which he writes against. Oehler wrote an entire book, Friedrich Nietzsche und die Deutsche Zukunft ('Friedrich Nietzsche and the German Future'), dealing with Nietzsche and his connection to nationalism (specifically National Socialism) and anti-Semitism, using quotes from Human, All Too Human, though out of context.[20] Nietzsche would speak against anti-Semitism in other works including Thus Spoke Zarathustra and, most strongly, in The Antichrist:[21] "An anti-Semite is certainly not any more decent because he lies as a matter of principle".[22] In Zarathustra, Nietzsche set Wagner up as a straw man, lampooning his anti-Semitism in the process.
Oehler also had control of Nietzsche's archive during the Nazis' rule, which he shared with Nietzsche's sister, Elisabeth Förster-Nietzsche, a Hitler supporter herself, until her death, when he took it over. It was not until much of Walter Kaufmann's work in the 1950s through the 1970s that Nietzsche was able to shed this connection with nationalism and anti-Semitism.
