"Karl Ludwig Nietzsche, Friedrich's father, was born on October 10, 1813, at Eilenburg near Leipzig, as son of the Superindendent, Doctor of Divinity, Friedrich August Ludwig Nietzsche (1756-1826) and of his mother, Erdmuthe Dorothea Krause (1778-1856); in her first marriage, the latter had been married to the Court Advocate Krüger of Weimar and, as did Goethe, experienced the occupation of Weimar by the French, and it is very likely that she knew him. Karl Ludwig, himself, had also studied theology and first worked as the educator of the Princesses at Altenburg at the Ducal Court. In 1842, on the "most high command" by the Prussian King Friedrich Wilhelm IV, he received the position of Pastor in the village of Röcken near Lützen in the Province Saxony, and with his mother and both of his sisters, he set up his household there.

On October 10, 1843, on his 30th birthday, he married the daughter of his colleague David Ernst Oehler from the nearby village of Pobles. The then-17-year-old Franziska Ernestine Rosaura Oehler was born at Pobles on February 2, 1826, as the sixth (of eleven) children of Pastor David Ernst Oehler (1787 - 1859) and her mother Johanna Elisabeth Wilhelmine Hahn (1794-1876).

Nietzsche's father is described as very talented and conscientious, and he was also ver mystical and played the piano excellently, particularly when improvising freely; his son has obviously inherited this talent from him; it is reported that he heard his father playing the piano when he was just a year old, a memory that would remain with him for the rest of his life. His mother Franziska who might just have stopped playing with her dolls shortly before she met her future husband, is reported as having been a tomboy and as having been very pretty--thus she immediately attracted to her the already somewhat stayed and formal Karl Ludwig Niezsche who was already tied to family duties and to his profession. On October 15, 1844, the birthday of King Friedrich Wilhelm, their son was born and named after this monarch. Nietzsche's father had met the Prussian King once, and there existed even hopes that he might have a chance of becoming Court Pastor" (Quoted from: "http://www.virtusens.de/walther/djn_e.htm" - cited on:  March 14, 2005; those of you who wnat to read more about this topic can do so via this direct link to the  Nietzsche-Site of Helmut Walther in Nürnberg.