Projects of the Klassik Stiftung Weimar are funded by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) and the Free State of Thuringia, represented by the State Chancellery of Thuringia, Department of Culture and the Arts.
Friedrich Nietzsche’s writing ball
A story about the first serially manufactured writing device and how it helped Nietzsche continue to write legibly.
The writing ball from the estate of Friedrich Nietzsche is a technical device of especially unique and almost otherworldly beauty. Its name comes from its concentrically arranged keys on top which create its spherical shape. To write with this machine, one would fix a piece of paper onto the curved frame in the lower part of the device. In contrast to the typewriters of the 20th century, the writing ball has no outer cover so that one can admire the mechanisms of brass and steel inside. Developed by the Danish inventor Malling-Hansen in 1865 and patented in 1870, the writing ball was the first serially manufactured writing device. Around 180 pieces were produced of which only 30 still exist today. Malling-Hansen worked as a full-time instructor at a school for the deaf and mute in Copenhagen. He noticed while working with his students that they were able to phonetically spell with their fingers faster than someone could normally write by hand. This is how he came up with the idea of the “scrivekugle”, or the “writing ball”. With his machine one could achieve optimal speed using all ten fingers.
For Nietzsche, the writing device was particularly helpful; because his eyesight was so poor, he could barely read his own handwriting. After he mentioned the expensive invention in his letters, his sister Elisabeth purchased him one. The writing ball arrived at Nietzsche’s winter residence in Genoa in February 1882. He was ecstatic to have received it and eagerly began using it. Fascinated by the new technology, he even dedicated a poem to the complicated and sensitive apparatus:
„SCHREIBKUGEL IST EIN DING GLEICH MIR : VON EISEN
UND DOCH LEICHT ZU VERDREHN ZUMAL AUF REISEN.
GEDULD UND TAKT MUSS REICHLICH MAN BESITZEN
UND FEINE FINGERCHEN, UNS ZU BENUETZEN.
Writing Ball is a thing like me: made of iron
Yet twisted easily – especially on journeys.
Patience and tact must be had in abundance
As well as fine fingers to use us.“Friedrich Nietzsche
The writing ball contained no lower-case letters – a symbol of strength (“made of iron”) and yet, due to its constructive flaws, also an expression of Nietzsche’s sensitivity especially with respect to his aversion to changing location. The texts Nietzsche wrote with this device are characterised by a certain cheerfulness, and it is remarkable how he readily he assumed an intimate relationship with it. There were some who posited that Nietzsche’s writing ball marked the transition from a “metaphysics of handwriting” to the machine age of communication. One’s writing style, after all, was said to be influenced by the writing instruments one used. As Nietzsche himself put it: “Our writing utensils also help shape our thoughts.”
Nietzsche’s enthusiastic writing attempts were soon followed by disillusionment. He had difficulty finding the right keys without looking and had to constantly erase or correct mistakes with pencil or ink. The delicate machine – as he alluded to in his short poem – was damaged during transport and various attempts to repair it caused new problems. Not surprisingly, Nietzsche quickly gave up on his experiment with the writing device: after six weeks and almost sixty typed pages, he laid the skrivekugle aside.
Rasmus Malling-Hansen (1835–1890): Skrivekugle (writing ball) from the estate of Friedrich Nietzsche, after 1878
Dimensions: 22 x 25.3 x 20.8 cm
Brass, steel, celluloid
Cat. no.: NKg/00329
Provenance: Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900)
Collections: Art and crafts collection of the museums of the Klassik Stiftung Weimar (writing ball); Friedrich Nietzsche estate at the Goethe- and Schiller-Archiv (GSA) Weimar (typescript)