Recently, A Chronicle of Nietzsche: Self-Accounts, Letters and Contemporary Testimonies, translated by Professor Mo Guanghua from the German Department, has been published by East China Normal University Press. The book is part of the annotated complete works of Nietzsche series, edited by Professors Liu Xiaofeng and He Fangying.

The compiler Friedrich Wilhelm Adolf Würzbach (1886–1961) was a co-founder and the first president of German Nietzsche Studies. Based on Nietzsche’s letters, notebooks, manuscripts and accounts by his contemporaries, he sought to present the philosopher’s life and intellectual trajectory through Nietzsche’s own voice. The book combines Nietzsche’s outward life journey and inner ideological evolution. It traces his life vicissitudes from a gifted youth to his mental breakdown, while depicting his spiritual exploration as an “intellectual adventurer”. The selected parts in the book cover his family, teachers, friends, the Wagner couple, Lou Salomé and other figures. These selections are of great documentary value. Würzbach weaves all source materials together with concise in-text notes and commentaries, showing a vivid biography, a road map charting the development of Nietzsche’s philosophy, and a chronological record of his spiritual life.

This publication marks another achievement of the Translation Studio of German Department after years of dedicated efforts. Over the past decade, translators of the studio have upheld meticulous translation standards and produced dozens of translated works spanning literature, philosophy, history, sociology and popular readings. The release of A Chronicle of Nietzsche not only provides vital documentary resources for domestic Nietzsche research, but also represents a solid new achievement in the construction of a national first-class undergraduate program and academic translation for the university’s German major.