# The Gay Science prints the madman’s ‘God is dead’ as a public slogan

Date: 1882

## The fact

In 1882 Die fröhliche Wissenschaft printed the madman who announces that God is dead and that the churches are tombs.

It is one event.

## Context

A slogan can free and can strip a shared canopy. Split the same book’s life-affirmation as access.

[Friedrich Nietzsche](/people/friedrich-nietzsche)’s documented role is bounded by other offices and collaborators named in the sources below. Sharing a field with them is not a reason to drop a documented act, and it is not a reason to assign later consequences done in the name after death.

Named person as heading of the dated public instrument. Later editors, museums, printers, or offices share publication. Complex where later carriers date the row.

## Evidence and sources

eKGWB Gay Science and Stanford independently treat §125 as a central public formulation.

Official or archival record: Nietzsche Source — Digital Critical Edition (eKGWB) (https://doc.nietzschesource.org/en/ekgwb; Nietzsche Source / Paolo D’Iorio).

## Significance

A printed death-of-God slogan is a documented shared-meaning cost, not a lab result.

An aphorism is not the 1889 Turin collapse.

A printed death-of-God slogan is a documented shared-meaning cost, not a lab result.

## What is established and what is not

Established: 1882 public printing of the madman aphorism. Not established: a unique church-attendance series caused by Chemnitz type.

What would change the picture: a contradictory original with a different date or name, or a measured series that can be argued, with lag and alternatives, as a consequence of this instrument rather than of later institutions.

The date is the date of this instrument, not a licence to back-date every later harm or benefit.

Established here: a sourced, dated public instrument with a named contribution by Friedrich Nietzsche.

What would change the picture: a contradictory original with a different date, signatory, or non-occurrence; a demonstrated forgery; or a measured series that can be argued, with lag and alternatives, as a consequence of this instrument rather than of other causes.

Contribution type is direct. They are not a public rating.

## People

- Friedrich Nietzsche: https://factrail.ai/people/friedrich-nietzsche

## Drivers

- Social Cohesion: https://factrail.ai/drivers/social-cohesion

## Sources

- https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/nietzsche/
- https://doc.nietzschesource.org/en/ekgwb

## Methodology

https://factrail.ai/methodology

Canonical: https://factrail.ai/facts/nie-god-dead-1882