Lou Andreas-Salome German writer Date of Birth: 12.02.1861 Country: Germany

1. Biography of Lou Andreas-Salomé
2. Relationships with Friedrich Nietzsche and Rainer Rilke
3. Work and Contributions

Biography of Lou Andreas-Salomé

Lou Andreas-Salomé (Louise Gustave von Salomé) was born on February 12, 1861, in St. Petersburg, Russia, into a family of General Gustav von Salomé. She had five brothers. Her family background included French Huguenots and Germans, but later fascists labeled her as a "Finnish Jew." In search of education, the 17-year-old Salomé convinced the Dutch preacher Hendrik Gillot, who was 25 years older than her, to teach her theology, philosophy, French and German literature, and world religions. Gillot was so impressed by the young girl that he even planned to divorce his wife and marry Salomé. However, it did not work out. Salomé arrived in Zurich, Switzerland, with her mother, planning to pursue higher education and regain her strength. During that time, Salomé suffered from recurrent hemoptysis. She arrived in Rome, Italy at the age of 21, where she met the positivist philosopher Paul Rée. She proposed that they live together in an academic community, and on May 13, 1882, the duo became a trio when Friedrich Nietzsche joined them. The friendly trio faced a rift. Salomé and Rée separated from Nietzsche after a quarrel between her and Nietzsche, whom she considered madly in love with her. In 1884, Salomé met Helene von Druskowitz, the second woman to receive a doctorate in philosophy in Zurich. Salomé and Rée moved to Berlin, where they lived for several years until a linguist named Friedrich Carl Andreas entered the picture. Friedrich was not deterred by Salomé's vow of celibacy, as she practiced open relationships with other men. To prove his love, Andreas stabbed himself in the chest in front of her. Salomé surrendered and agreed to marry him, but on the condition of no intimate relationship. She was married from 1887 until 1930, when she became widowed. Disappointed and gloomy, Rée disappeared from her life. He died in 1901 during a mountain climb.

Relationships with Friedrich Nietzsche and Rainer Rilke

Salomé had a particularly close relationship with the modernist poet Rainer Rilke, who was 15 years younger than her. Their acquaintance began when he was 21 years old. They were lovers for a while, but they continued their correspondence until Rilke's death. Salomé took him with her on both trips to Russia in 1899 and 1900 and taught him the Russian language so that he could read Tolstoy and Pushkin in the original. Salomé introduced Rilke to art patrons and other individuals interested in promoting young talents. She remained his advisor, confidante, and muse for a long time. Following her advice, Rilke even changed his "feminine" name René to the variant Rainer. Their relationship transitioned from physical to friendly after four years. The reason was Salomé's unwillingness to file for divorce, which Rilke pushed for.

Work and Contributions

Salomé retired from her work as a psychoanalyst at the age of 74. Due to heart problems, she was hospitalized multiple times. Despite his own frailty, her devoted elderly husband visited her every day. After forty years of marriage, marked by the illnesses of both spouses and long periods of mutual communication breakdown, Friedrich and Lou grew closer to each other. Friedrich died of cancer in 1930. On the evening of February 5, 1937, Lou died in her sleep in Göttingen from kidney failure. A few days before her death, the Gestapo confiscated her library. According to other sources, it was a Nazi stormtrooper unit that burned the library immediately after her death. The reason for the confiscation was Salomé's association with Freud, practicing "Jewish science" and having a collection of books by Jewish authors.

Salomé was a prolific writer and authored several lesser-known works, plays, and essays. Her poem "Hymn to Life" impressed Nietzsche so much that he wrote music for it. Salomé was one of the first female psychoanalysts and one of the first women to conduct psychoanalytic research on female sexuality. Her book "Die Erotik" (The Erotic) was reprinted five times in Europe. Interestingly, in her reflections, Salomé believed that "fearful adaptability" and the desire to conform to each other were the main distortions of love. According to her understanding, the more deeply and openly lovers reveal themselves, the sadder the consequences for both of them. Once one person becomes "grafted" onto the other, parasitism begins instead of developing a wonderful variant where each person would put down roots in their own world, which could become a world for the partner as well.

Salomé wrote more than ten novels, including "Im Kampf um Gott" (In the Battle for God), "Ruth," and "Fenitschka - eine Ausschweifung" (Fenitschka - an Extravagance). She also wrote popular scientific studies such as "Henrik Ibsens Frauengestalten." Additionally, she wrote books about her friends, "Friedrich Nietzsche in seinen Werke" (Friedrich Nietzsche in his Works), "Rainer Maria Rilke," and "Mein Dank an Freud" (My Thanks to Freud), among others.

A fictional account of Salomé's relationship with Nietzsche is described in Irvin Yalom's novel "When Nietzsche Wept," Lance Olsen's postmodern novel "Nietzsche's Kisses," and Beatriz Rivas' Mexican novel "La hora sin diosas" (The Hour Without Goddesses).

Salomé did not allow anyone to analyze her and did not seek to pour out her soul to anyone. She was not afraid to reveal some of her secrets, simply believing without appeal that over the years of self-discovery, she had accumulated significant experience and did not need advice from others.