The squiggle or the F

We are often asked what that squiggle is that can be seen everywhere. If the quill used by the young Nietzsche had taken up a drop more ink, the horizontal line in the centre would be visible. Then the squiggle would be easier to recognise as a capital F. But there was no more ink, which is why we have to puzzle a little longer.

During a visit to the Nietzsche House at Weingarten 18 in Naumburg, we discovered the original of a letter under glass that Fritz, as his family and friends often called him, wrote to his teachers and classmates when he left the Domgymnasium. He signed this letter with a sweeping F at the time. As I said, there was not enough ink to complete the last stroke of the capital letter. Nietzsche transferred from the Domgymnasium in 1858, after he had secured a free place, to the Pforta boarding school, where he also took his Abitur.

The handwriting naturally changed as he got older. The youthful vigour faded a little, everything became more serious. Basically, however, he retained the penmanship of the first letter of his first name. Six years later, the F can be found again:

This signature is well known because it is constantly displayed in a corresponding image search on the Internet. But the F still resembles the one from 1858: