When Nietzsche was young he admired Wagner greatly, and they became friends. Wagner thought Nietzsche's philosophy would provide a grounding to his own project and his beliefs about his music. Wagner thought art and aesthetics was prior to and superior to moral life, and society should be run by the few superior individuals who were capable of creating such art. Eventually they split, in a large part due to Wagner's raging anti-semitism. Despite this, Nietzsche sometimes get linked to anti-semitism and German nationalism (largely due to the influence of his sister after his death), even though he thought nationalism in all forms was ridiculous, and despised the anti-semitism in the German culture at the time. Wagner also tried to get Nietzsche to break off his friendship with some of his Jewish friends, such as Paul Rée, which Nietzsche refused to do.

Nietzsche ended up turning away from Wagner's ideas entirely, and in fact wrote lengthy essays attacking him later in life, for various reasons.