Professor at Basel (1869–1879)[edit]

Left to right: Erwin Rohde, Karl von Gersdorff and Nietzsche,

October 1871
In 1869, with Ritschl's support, Nietzsche received an offer to become a professor of classical philology at
the University of Basel in Switzerland. He was only 24 years old and had neither completed his doctorate
nor received a teaching certificate ("habilitation"). He was awarded an honorary doctorate by Leipzig
University in March 1869, again with Ritschl's support.[36]
Despite his offer coming at a time when he was considering giving up philology for science, he accepted.
[37]
 To this day, Nietzsche is still among the youngest of the tenured Classics professors on record. [38]
Nietzsche's 1870 projected doctoral thesis, "Contribution toward the Study and the Critique of the
Sources of Diogenes Laertius" ("Beiträge zur Quellenkunde und Kritik des Laertius Diogenes"), examined
the origins of the ideas of Diogenes Laërtius.[39] Though never submitted, it was later published as
a Gratulationsschrift ('congratulatory publication') in Basel.[40][i]
Before moving to Basel, Nietzsche renounced his Prussian citizenship: for the rest of his life he remained
officially stateless.[41][42]
Nevertheless, Nietzsche served in the Prussian forces during the Franco-Prussian War (1870–1871) as a
medical orderly. In his short time in the military, he experienced much and witnessed the traumatic effects
of battle. He also contracted diphtheria and dysentery.[43] Walter Kaufmann speculates that he also
contracted syphilis at a brothel along with his other infections at this time. [44][45] On returning to Basel in
1870, Nietzsche observed the establishment of the German Empire and Otto von Bismarck's subsequent
policies as an outsider and with a degree of scepticism regarding their genuineness. His inaugural lecture
at the university was "Homer and Classical Philology". Nietzsche also met Franz Overbeck, a professor of
theology who remained his friend throughout his life. Afrikan Spir, a little-known Russian philosopher
responsible for the 1873 Thought and Reality and Nietzsche's colleague, the famed historian Jacob
Burckhardt, whose lectures Nietzsche frequently attended, began to exercise significant influence on him.
[46]