Morgensterns Cento: Eine Analyse des Essays „Nietzsche als Erzieher“ (1896)

In 1896, Christian Morgenstern is 25 years old. He is a soon-to-be poet and, in his own words, a “Zarathustra’s lark”, a devoted admirer of Friedrich Nietzsche. This year, he publishes his most interesting homage to him: the essay, “Nietzsche as Educator”. The article shows a high intertextual complexity, thus reminding a Cento, according to R. Furness. Although Furness drops the suggestion soon, the Cento genre offers an enriching approach both to the text and to its context: Morgenstern’s early Nietzscheism and his fervent hope for a Renaissance of ancient, Germanic myths. Though, it is even more interesting to point out the fact that “Nietzsche as Educator” is not as serious as it pretends to be. On the contrary, Morgenstern’s Cento is another way of expressing his (most distressing) talent for Grotesque.