American Nietzsche: A History of an Icon and His Ideas

by Jennifer Ratner-Rosenhagen

Cognizant that the war had justly soured the US perception of German political life, the economist Simon Nelson Patten sought to rescue the German welfare-state model, which he believed was still worthy of emulation. In contrast to the view of the German Übermensch as a disintegrative social force, Patten offered a countervision of a “super race,” as reflected in Germany’s mechanization, efficiency, and social morality.91 According to Patten, the Übermensch, properly understood, represented a bridge between the American conception of freedom and the German regard for social organization. He argued that whereas the Anglo-American mind conceived of liberty as political freedom from tyrants and exploitation, the German conception of liberty was cultural rather than political, referring to “the overthrow of religious dogmatism, of ancient superstition, of social arrogance, of effete traditions, and of conventional morality.” Whereas liberty to the Anglo-American mind was a political concept that has “no content but freedom from control,” the Germans balanced their regard for intellectual freedom with esteem for social progress.