Nietzsche maybe moved for mining...money over ?

[Annelie]

http://network.nationalpost.com/np/blog ... -mine.aspx

The remains of philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche will need to be moved if a German mining company gets the green light to build a massive brown coal mine on top of the thinker's final resting place in the eastern village of Röcken.

According to German press reports, Mitteldeutsche Braunkohlengesellschaft (Mibrag) has been collecting drill samples from locations around the town and is thinking about developing the mine to secure fuel for an electrical generating station.

Nietzsche was born in Röcken in 1844 and lived there for the first five years of his life. His body was returned to Röcken and buried there shortly after his death in 1900.

Mibrag has proposed moving the village of Röcken, which has about 170 residents and several historic locations, among them the philosopher's boyhood home, school — even the church where the famous atheist thinker was baptized as a child.

Many residents of Röcken are angered by the mine. Ralf Eichberg, head of the Nietzsche Society and opponent of the mining plan, told the German language wire service dpa that a rebuilt town would be nothing more than a "Disneyland". The Mibrag project, however, comes with the promise of much-needed jobs in a surrounding region where unemployment in some municipalities surpasses 20%.

Angelika Diesener, a spokeswoman for Mibrag, said it's too early assume a mine would spell curtains for Nietzsche's grave. "If it's possible to dig around it, we will," she said. "We're aware of the cultural and historical treasures here."

They'll be ample time to decide. Even if Mibrag decides to forge ahead with the project, it's not expecting to start mining until 2025.

Perhaps the last laugh goes to Nietzsche, whose famous declaration that "God is dead" suggests he really couldn't care less what happens to his remains.