Friedrich Nietzsche was a very well known philosopher who covered a diverse collection of subjects. He had a lot of thoughts on a lot of stuff. Because he had so many thoughts, we'll talk about him as a person, and then do a breakdown of some of the individual issues he discussed in his work. This will always be incomplete.
Friedrich Nietzsche was born in Prussia in 1844 and died in Weimar in 1900. He was a philosopher and cultural critic who focused mainly on deconstructing the origins of "traditional" western philosophy, religion, and morality. He was an athiest. You may have seen his views used to justify things like fascism or a form of pessimistic nihilism, but in his life, Nietzsche was an active opponent of anti-semitism and nationalism.
"God is Dead"
“God is dead. God remains dead. And we have killed him. How shall we comfort ourselves, the murderers of all murderers? What was holiest and mightiest of all that the world has yet owned has bled to death under our knives: who will wipe this blood off us? What water is there for us to clean ourselves? What festivals of atonement, what sacred games shall we have to invent? Is not the greatness of this deed too great for us? Must we ourselves not become gods simply to appear worthy of it?”
~ Friedrich Nietzsche
So what did he mean by this? Well, Nietzsche, though growing up in a Lutherian household, became an athiest and stayed one for most of his adult life. So, when he says "and we have killed him," he doesn't actually mean we killed god, because in his opinion, god isn't real. But that doesn't mean most of the world agreed with him.
Nietzsche said that, because most of "the west" was Christian before it had society, Western society had been built on Christian moral systems. It was what was keeping their governments functioning and what kept the people from killing each other. However, in the past ~200 years, Europe had entered its Enlightenment era. During this period, the general christian fevor died down and more people started taking a rational apporach to the world and its workings. As scientific theories that differed from Christian ideals like Darwinism and Heliocentrism began to be proven right, Nietzsche feared that belief in God would decay. Quickly. Specifically, "the belief in the Christian God has become unbelievable" (The Gay Science). We, he says, as members of Western society, are all complicit in the death of God, because we let him die and become less popular through the growth of atheism.
So, if Western society is based on Christian morality, and Christianity among the population is decreasing because of new scientific ideas... that didn't sound good. Nietzsche asked, how will Western society stand if it no longer has a God to base its morality off of? It essentially leaves a moral power vaccuum in Europe.
I'd like to stop here for some clarification. Nietszsche did not like "Judeo-Christian" moral values (though I contest how much "Judeo" is in there). In his book, "On the Geneaology of Morality," he argues that these Christian moral values are weak— again, Nietzsche was the "übermensch" guy. And by weak, he means its a slave morality blah blah blah... Read more on it in another section. He simply thought that pulling the moral, authoratative rug out from under Western society was extremely dangerous and could destabilize the continent.
Anyway. He continues in the quote, saying: "How shall we comfort ourselves, the murderers of all murderers?" Because of this "power vaccum," or rather authority vacuum, morality in Europe was a big question mark. Now that we no longer have the final, infinite authority of God, how do we continue? Where do we go from here?
Nihilism
After the "Death of God," Nietzsche worried Western society would fall to Nihilism. So first, to get it out of the way:
1) When most people think of Nihilism, they think of pessimistic nihilism. 2) Nietzsche is often associated with nihilist philosophy. 3) Nietzsche was not a pessimistic nihilist.
FAQ
Again, to clarify, Nietzsche did not support the nazism or the anti-semitism of the Nazi party. Unfortunately, his younger sister, Elisabeth Förster-Nietzsche, was a nazi. So now, backstory on her.
Nietzsche and Elisabeth were close as children and as young adults until Elisabeth married her husband (her former high school teacher!!!!) in 1885. This husband, Bernhard Förster, was a prominent anti-semite, and Elisabeth picked up his beliefs. Nietzsche did not attend her wedding. In 1887, she traveled with her husband to Paraguay to start a "pure aryan settlement," which was unsuccessful. Bernhard killed himself in 1889 in Paraguay, and Elisabeth returned to Germany in 1903. She returned to find that her brother had died, his works beginning to be published and read across Europe.
She then started the Nietzsche Archive. What is not disputed is that Elisabeth published some of his works under the title "The Will to Power." She did, in fact, edit some of his work. What is disputed is why she did this. The former theory was that she edited his work to better fit nazi ideology by selectively editing it, but more recent theories argue that she was trying to protect him from criticism or having his books burned.
That's a more difficult one. Fun fact: In researching this, I found that there is an entire incel wiki that has an article on him. Needless to say, I did not use that as a source.
The direct answer is no... in the sense that we know today. He never had a successful romantic relationship with a woman (there is no evidence that he was gay either). He was a very sickly man, and seems to have died a virgin. No judgment, though.
For more detail: It seems Nietzsche’s views on women specifically are a topic of debate. His personal life was one thing. According to Ida von Miaskowski, a close friend of his, he was not a misogynist, despite the words of his work. He was reportedly kind and sensitive towards women. Indeed, Miaskowski could “not regard Nietzsche as a despiser of women.”Additionally, he hung out with his friends Lou Andreas-Salomé and Paul Rée in Rome in 1882. Both men were in love with Salomé, and tried to propose to her at separate times, but were both rejected. He seems to have continued their academic endeavors together, and when they had to separate, Nietzsche continued to write her letters. He blamed his romantic failure in this situation on his sister. Which, to be fair, his sister did think that Salomé was a licentious lady, and tried to sabotage Nietzsche’s romantic prospects. But, he seemed to have treated Salomé well in their time together.
His works are more inconsistent. At times he seems to think that women are pretty cool. At other times he says, like many men did, that women are fickle, emotional, unpredictable, egotistical, and incomprehensible. In a lot of his works, he says they are vain, incapable of friendship, and compares them to birds or “at best cows” (Thus Spoke Zarathsutra). He does compliment them in saying that they are cunning, which, yes, is pretty misogynistic, but Nietzsche was impressed by this. In my opinion, I don’t think his misogyny was remarkable for the time period, but it is something to consider when learning about his life and work.
Now. One thing we do know for certain is this: Nietzsche was undoubtedly an anti-feminist. He did not believe in women’s right to vote or in equality between men and women. He thought that women were weak and changed with the wind, that they only succeeded by bringing the strong down. Essentially, elevating women means elevating their feminine traits (turbulence, irrationality, nurturing), whereas Nietzsche favored the masculine traits (rationality, seriousness, and order). In his worldview, giving women the permission to interact and participate in the male world was actively a bad thing because it interfered with the balance of power.
So. Was he an incel? No. He probably would think modern-day incels were, to coin my own term, "slave morality-pilled," and weak for blaming society and women for their personal romantic failures. Did he treat women well in his personal life? Allegedly, yes. Did he hate women? Inconclusive, but evidence points towards a belief that women were fundametntally different in a negative way from men. Was he sexist? Absolutely. Was he against the feminist movement? Yes, also.
