This love, which forsees pain and violence,yet still concurs with life; this love, which looks
Profoundly into horror as it is,And joy, to redeem them as they are;
This love is THE WISDOM OF TRAGEDY
The God Apollo called Dionysian.
[Seb Barker,'The Dream of Intelligence' Ch.4:10 (1992)]

Nietzsche's radical, tragic and agonistic philosophical perspective derived from his unique insight into the ancient Greeks; particularly the Greeks of the archaic period, - the Presocratic Age of the Greeks.
This remained so throughout his career, but was particularly noticeable in his early period, - that which I shall call his Wagner Period. Up to the break with Wagner, Nietzsche had written the Birth of Tragedy, as well as important essays on the Greek State, the Presocratics and the Greek conception of the Philosopher as a 'physician of the soul'.All in all, philosophy was seen to be a sublimation of Contest;"The Greek genius emanated from War, it sang War, it had War for its comrade. ' it is the people of the tragic mysteries ', wrote Friedrich Nietzsche, ' who strike the great of the Persian battles; in return, the people who have maintained these Wars need the salutary beverage of tragedy. ' ".
[Halevy, 'The Life of Friedrich Nietzsche']

Not only was War the 'father of all', it was essential for the maintainance of culture;"War is necessary to the state, as the slave is to society".
[Nietzsche,'The Greek State'].

Now, the point is, that in his Wagner Period, Nietzsche associated the struggles of the ancient Greeks with the cultural struggles of his own time which he "found fresh and unimpaired in all its early Germanic vigour, within the ranks of our Army. This was a beautiful and unexpected discovery for me; upon this we can build, and this justifies us in entertaining the hope that our GERMAN MISSION has not yet been fulfilled".
[Nietzsche, letter to Gersdorff early 1870s]

That Nietzsche meant action as much as words is undeniable;"We believe that the Germans will only appear worthy of respect and be able to exercise a salutary influence upon other Nations when they have shown how formiddable they can be".[Nietzsche, 'An Appeal to the German Nation', 1873]

Nietzsche was then nothing other than what would be called today, 'an extreme nationalist';"We have no right to live today, if we are not militants, militants who prepare a 'saeculum' to come".[Nietzsche, letter to Gersdorff November 1871]

Halevy's early biography of Nietzsche captures the flavour of this era when he writes;"How glorious this Germany would be, with Bismarck as its Leader, Moltke as its Warrior, Wagner as its Poet, and Nietzsche as its Philosopher".