<!doctype html public «-//w3c//dtd html 4.0 transitional//en»> http-equiv=content-type> The notion of nihilism assumes a prominent place in Nietzsche’s thinking during the 1880s. Yet he had already condemned nihilistic Western culture in The Birth of Tragedy; in order to overcome nihilism, life must be aesthetically vindicated. The author analyzes the cultural and anthropological foundations of Nietzsche’s concept of nihilism. The book concludes with a discussion of the contemporary crisis of meaning.