In 1874 Friedrich Nietzsche published Vom Nutzen und Nachteil der Historie für das Leben, On the Use and Disadvantage of History for Life. In the preface he writes daß wir alle an einem verzehrenden historischen Fieber leiden, that we all suffer from a consuming historical fever. He calls the historical sense of his time eine hypertrophische Tugend, an overgrown virtue.
Nur soweit die Historie dem Leben dient, wollen wir ihr dienen. We will serve history only as far as it serves life.
He expects most readers to object that his view is unworthy of the powerful historical trend of the age. That trend, he adds, had been noticeable seit zwei Menschenaltern unter den Deutschen namentlich, for two generations, especially among the Germans.