Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche (15 October 1844 - 25 August 1900) was a German philosopher, cultural critic and philologist whose work has exerted a profound influence on modern intellectual history. He became the youngest person ever to hold the Chair of Classical Philology at the University of Basel in 1869 at the age of 24. Nietzsche's works include Thus Spoke Zarathustra, Beyond Good and Evil, Twilight of the Idols, The Antichrist, and his autobiography, Ecce Homo.