Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (28 August 1749 – 22 March 1832) was a
German poet,
playwright
A playwright or dramatist is a person who writes plays.
Etymology
The word "play" is from Middle English pleye, from Old English plæġ, pleġa, plæġa ("play, exercise; sport, game; drama, applause"). The word "wright" is an archaic English ...
,
novelist,
scientist,
statesman
A statesman or stateswoman typically is a politician who has had a long and respected political career at the national or international level.
Statesman or Statesmen may also refer to:
Newspapers United States
* ''The Statesman'' (Oregon), a n ...
,
theatre director, and
critic
A critic is a person who communicates an assessment and an opinion of various forms of creative works such as art, literature, music, cinema, theater, fashion, architecture, and food. Critics may also take as their subject social or governmen ...
.
His works include plays, poetry, literature, and
aesthetic criticism, as well as
treatises on
botany,
anatomy, and
colour. He is widely regarded as the greatest and most influential writer in the
German language
German ( ) is a West Germanic languages, West Germanic language mainly spoken in Central Europe. It is the most widely spoken and Official language, official or co-official language in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Liechtenstein, and the Ita ...
, his work having a profound and wide-ranging influence on
Western literary,
political, and
philosophical thought from the late 18th century to the present day.
[.]
Goethe took up residence in
Weimar in November 1775 following the success of his first novel, ''
The Sorrows of Young Werther'' (1774). He was
ennobled by the Duke of
Saxe-Weimar
Saxe-Weimar (german: Sachsen-Weimar) was one of the Saxon duchies held by the Ernestine branch of the Wettin dynasty in present-day Thuringia. The chief town and capital was Weimar. The Weimar branch was the most genealogically senior extant bra ...
,
Karl August, in 1782. Goethe was an early participant in the ''
Sturm und Drang'' literary movement. During his first ten years in Weimar, Goethe became a member of the Duke's
privy council
A privy council is a body that advises the head of state of a state, typically, but not always, in the context of a monarchic government. The word "privy" means "private" or "secret"; thus, a privy council was originally a committee of the mon ...
(1776–1785), sat on the war and highway commissions, oversaw the reopening of silver mines in nearby
Ilmenau
Ilmenau () is a town in Thuringia, central Germany. It is the largest town within the Ilm district with a population of 38,600, while the district capital is Arnstadt. Ilmenau is located approximately south of Erfurt and north of Nuremberg w ...
, and implemented a series of administrative reforms at the
University of Jena. He also contributed to the planning of Weimar's botanical park and the rebuilding of its
Ducal Palace Several palaces are named Ducal Palace (Italian: ''Palazzo Ducale'' ) because it was the seat or residence of a duke.
Notable palaces with the name include:
France
*Palace of the Dukes of Burgundy, Dijon
*Palace of the Dukes of Lorraine, Nancy
*Pa ...
.
[
Goethe's first major scientific work, the '' Metamorphosis of Plants'', was published after he returned from a 1788 tour of Italy. In 1791 he was made managing director of the theatre at Weimar, and in 1794 he began a friendship with the dramatist, historian, and philosopher ]Friedrich Schiller
Johann Christoph Friedrich von Schiller (, short: ; 10 November 17599 May 1805) was a German playwright, poet, and philosopher. During the last seventeen years of his life (1788–1805), Schiller developed a productive, if complicated, friends ...
, whose plays he premiered until Schiller's death in 1805. During this period Goethe published his second novel, '' Wilhelm Meister's Apprenticeship''; the verse epic '' Hermann and Dorothea'', and, in 1808, the first part of his most celebrated drama, '' Faust''. His conversations and various shared undertakings throughout the 1790s with Schiller, Johann Gottlieb Fichte
Johann Gottlieb Fichte (; ; 19 May 1762 – 29 January 1814) was a German philosopher who became a founding figure of the philosophical movement known as German idealism, which developed from the theoretical and ethical writings of Immanuel Kan ...
, Johann Gottfried Herder
Johann Gottfried von Herder ( , ; 25 August 174418 December 1803) was a German philosopher, theologian, poet, and literary critic. He is associated with the Enlightenment, ''Sturm und Drang'', and Weimar Classicism.
Biography
Born in Mohrun ...
, Alexander von Humboldt, Wilhelm von Humboldt, and August and Friedrich Schlegel have come to be collectively termed Weimar Classicism.
The German philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer
Arthur Schopenhauer ( , ; 22 February 1788 – 21 September 1860) was a German philosopher. He is best known for his 1818 work ''The World as Will and Representation'' (expanded in 1844), which characterizes the phenomenal world as the prod ...
named ''Wilhelm Meister's Apprenticeship'' one of the four greatest novels ever written, while the American philosopher and essayist Ralph Waldo Emerson selected Goethe as one of six "representative men" in his work of the same name (along with Plato, Emanuel Swedenborg, Montaigne
Michel Eyquem, Sieur de Montaigne ( ; ; 28 February 1533 – 13 September 1592), also known as the Lord of Montaigne, was one of the most significant philosophers of the French Renaissance. He is known for popularizing the essay as a liter ...
, Napoleon
Napoleon Bonaparte ; it, Napoleone Bonaparte, ; co, Napulione Buonaparte. (born Napoleone Buonaparte; 15 August 1769 – 5 May 1821), later known by his regnal name Napoleon I, was a French military commander and political leader who ...
, and Shakespeare). Goethe's comments and observations form the basis of several biographical works, notably Johann Peter Eckermann
Johann Peter Eckermann (21 September 1792 – 3 December 1854), German poet and author, is best known for his work '' Conversations with Goethe'', the fruit of his association with Johann Wolfgang von Goethe during the last years of Goethe's life ...
's ''Conversations with Goethe
Conversation is interactive communication between two or more people. The development of conversational skills and etiquette is an important part of socialization. The development of conversational skills in a new language is a frequent focus ...
'' (1836). His poems were set to music by many composers including Mozart
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (27 January 17565 December 1791), baptised as Joannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart, was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical period (music), Classical period. Despite his short life, his ra ...
, Beethoven, Schubert, Berlioz, Liszt, Wagner, and Mahler.
Life
Early life
Goethe's father, Johann Caspar Goethe, lived with his family in a large house (today the Goethe House) in Frankfurt, then a free imperial city of the Holy Roman Empire. Though he had studied law in Leipzig and had been appointed Imperial Councillor, Johann Caspar Goethe was not involved in the city's official affairs.Herman Grimm
Herman Grimm (6 January 1828 in Kassel16 June 1901 in Berlin) was a German academic and writer. Family and education
Grimm's father was Wilhelm Grimm (1786–1859), and his uncle Jakob Grimm (1785–1863), the philologist compilers of indigenous ...
: ''Goethe. Vorlesungen gehalten an der Königlichen Universität zu Berlin.'' Vol. 1. J.G. Cotta'sche Buchhandlung Nachfolger, Stuttgart / Berlin 1923, p. 36 Johann Caspar married Goethe's mother, Catharina Elisabeth Textor, in Frankfurt on 20 August 1748, when he was 38 and she was 17. All their children, with the exception of Johann Wolfgang and his sister Cornelia Friederica Christiana (born in 1750), died at early ages.
His father and private tutors gave the young Goethe lessons in common subjects of their time, especially languages ( Latin, Greek, Biblical Hebrew
Biblical Hebrew (, or , ), also called Classical Hebrew, is an archaic form of the Hebrew language, a language in the Canaanite branch of Semitic languages spoken by the Israelites in the area known as the Land of Israel, roughly west of ...
(briefly), French, Italian, and English). Goethe also received lessons in dancing, riding, and fencing. Johann Caspar, feeling frustrated in his own ambitions, was determined that his children should have all those advantages that he had not.
Although Goethe's great passion was drawing
Drawing is a form of visual art in which an artist uses instruments to mark paper or other two-dimensional surface. Drawing instruments include graphite pencils, pen and ink, various kinds of paints, inked brushes, colored pencils, crayons, ...
, he quickly became interested in literature; Friedrich Gottlieb Klopstock (1724–1803) and Homer were among his early favorites. He had a devotion to theater as well, and was greatly fascinated by puppet
A puppet is an object, often resembling a human, animal or Legendary creature, mythical figure, that is animated or manipulated by a person called a puppeteer. The puppeteer uses movements of their hands, arms, or control devices such as rods ...
shows that were annually arranged in his home; this became a recurrent theme in his literary work '' Wilhelm Meister's Apprenticeship''.
He also took great pleasure in reading works on history and religion. He writes about this period:
Goethe also became acquainted with Frankfurt actors. In early literary attempts he showed an infatuation with ''Gretchen'', who would later reappear in his ''Faust'', and the adventures with whom he would concisely describe in '' Dichtung und Wahrheit''. He adored Caritas Meixner (1750–1773), a wealthy Worms trader's daughter and friend of his sister, who would later marry the merchant G. F. Schuler.
Legal career
Goethe studied law at Leipzig University from 1765 to 1768. He detested learning age-old judicial rules by heart, preferring instead to attend the lessons of the poet and university's professor Christian Fürchtegott Gellert. In Leipzig, Goethe fell in love with craftsman and innkeeper's daughter Anna Katharina Schönkopf
Anna Katharina Schönkopf (; 22 August 1746 – 20 May 1810) was the daughter of the pewterer and wine merchant Christian Gottlieb Schönkopf (; 1716-1791) Karl Robert Mandelkow and others: Goethes Briefe. 2. edition. Vol. 1: Briefe der J ...
and wrote cheerful verses about her in the Rococo genre. In 1770, he anonymously released ''Annette'', his first collection of poems. His uncritical admiration for many contemporary poets vanished as he became interested in Gotthold Ephraim Lessing
Gotthold Ephraim Lessing (, ; 22 January 1729 – 15 February 1781) was a philosopher, dramatist, publicist and art critic, and a representative of the Enlightenment era. His plays and theoretical writings substantially influenced the developmen ...
and Christoph Martin Wieland
Christoph Martin Wieland (; 5 September 1733 – 20 January 1813) was a German poet and writer. He is best-remembered for having written the first ''Bildungsroman'' (''Geschichte des Agathon''), as well as the epic ''Oberon'', which formed the ba ...
. By this time, Goethe had already written a great deal, but he discarded nearly all of these works except for the comedy ''Die Mitschuldigen''. The restaurant Auerbachs Keller and its legend of Faust's 1525 barrel ride impressed him so much that Auerbachs Keller became the only real place in his closet drama ''Faust Part One
''Faust: A Tragedy'' (german: Faust. Eine Tragödie, links=no, , or aust. The tragedy's first part is the first part of the tragic play ''Faust'' by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, and is considered by many as the greatest work of German literature ...
''. As his studies did not progress, Goethe was forced to return to Frankfurt at the close of August 1768.
Goethe became severely ill in Frankfurt. During the year and a half that followed, because of several relapses, the relationship with his father worsened. During convalescence, Goethe was nursed by his mother and sister. In April 1770, Goethe left Frankfurt in order to finish his studies at the University of Strasbourg.
In Alsace, Goethe blossomed. No other landscape has he described as affectionately as the warm, wide Rhine area. In Strasbourg, Goethe met Johann Gottfried Herder
Johann Gottfried von Herder ( , ; 25 August 174418 December 1803) was a German philosopher, theologian, poet, and literary critic. He is associated with the Enlightenment, ''Sturm und Drang'', and Weimar Classicism.
Biography
Born in Mohrun ...
. The two became close friends, and crucially to Goethe's intellectual development, Herder kindled his interest in Shakespeare, Ossian
Ossian (; Irish Gaelic/Scottish Gaelic: ''Oisean'') is the narrator and purported author of a cycle of epic poems published by the Scottish poet James Macpherson, originally as ''Fingal'' (1761) and ''Temora'' (1763), and later combined under t ...
and in the notion of ''Volkspoesie'' (folk poetry). On 14 October 1772 Goethe held a gathering in his parental home in honour of the first German "Shakespeare Day". His first acquaintance with Shakespeare's works is described as his personal awakening in literature.
On a trip to the village Sessenheim, Goethe fell in love with Friederike Brion, in October 1770, but terminated the relationship in August 1771. Several of his poems, like "", "" and "", originate from this time.
At the end of August 1771, Goethe acquired the academic degree of the Licentiate of Law from Strasbourg and established a small legal practice in Frankfurt. Although in his academic work he had expressed the ambition to make jurisprudence progressively more humane, his inexperience led him to proceed too vigorously in his first cases, and he was reprimanded and lost further ones. This prematurely terminated his career as a lawyer after only a few months. At this time, Goethe was acquainted with the court of Darmstadt
Darmstadt () is a city in the States of Germany, state of Hesse in Germany, located in the southern part of the Frankfurt Rhine Main Area, Rhine-Main-Area (Frankfurt Metropolitan Region). Darmstadt has around 160,000 inhabitants, making it th ...
, where his inventiveness was praised. From this milieu came Johann Georg Schlosser (who later became Goethe's brother-in-law) and Johann Heinrich Merck. Goethe also pursued literary plans again; this time, his father did not have anything against it, and even helped. Goethe obtained a copy of the biography of a noble highwayman
A highwayman was a robber who stole from travellers. This type of thief usually travelled and robbed by horse as compared to a footpad who travelled and robbed on foot; mounted highwaymen were widely considered to be socially superior to footp ...
from the German Peasants' War
The German Peasants' War, Great Peasants' War or Great Peasants' Revolt (german: Deutscher Bauernkrieg) was a widespread popular revolt in some German-speaking areas in Central Europe from 1524 to 1525. It failed because of intense oppositio ...
. In a couple of weeks the biography was reworked into a colourful drama. Entitled '' Götz von Berlichingen'', the work went directly to the heart of Goethe's contemporaries.
Goethe could not subsist on being one of the editors of a literary periodical (published by Schlosser and Merck). In May 1772 he once more began the practice of law at Wetzlar. In 1774 he wrote the book which would bring him worldwide fame, '' The Sorrows of Young Werther''. The outer shape of the work's plot is widely taken over from what Goethe experienced during his Wetzlar time with Charlotte Buff (1753–1828)[Mandelkow, Karl Robert (1962). ''Goethes Briefe''. Vol. 1: ''Briefe der Jahre 1764–1786''. Christian Wegner Verlag. p. 589] and her fiancé, Johann Christian Kestner (1741–1800), as well as from the suicide of the author's friend Karl Wilhelm Jerusalem
Karl Wilhelm Jerusalem (21 March 174730 October 1772) was a German lawyer. His suicide in Wetzlar became the model for that of ''The Sorrows of Young Werther'' by Goethe.
Life
He was born in Wolfenbüttel to the Lutheran natural theologian J ...
(1747–1772); in it, Goethe made a desperate passion of what was in reality a hearty and relaxed friendship. Despite the immense success of ''Werther'', it did not bring Goethe much financial gain because copyright laws at the time were essentially nonexistent. (In later years Goethe would bypass this problem by periodically authorizing "new, revised" editions of his ''Complete Works''.)
Early years in Weimar
In 1775, Goethe was invited, on the strength of his fame as the author of ''The Sorrows of Young Werther'', to the court of Karl August, Duke of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach, who would become Grand Duke
Grand duke (feminine: grand duchess) is a European hereditary title, used either by certain monarchs or by members of certain monarchs' families. In status, a grand duke traditionally ranks in order of precedence below an emperor, as an approxi ...
in 1815. (Karl August at the time was 18 years of age, to Goethe's 26.) Goethe thus went to live in Weimar, where he remained for the rest of his life and where, over the course of many years, he held a succession of offices, including superintendent of the ducal library, and was the Duke's friend and chief adviser.
In 1776, Goethe formed a close relationship with Charlotte von Stein, an older, married woman. The intimate bond with her lasted for ten years, after which Goethe abruptly left for Italy without giving his companion any notice. She was emotionally distraught at the time, but they were eventually reconciled.
Goethe, aside from official duties, was also a friend and confidant to Duke Karl August and participated in the activities of the court. For Goethe, his first ten years at Weimar could well be described as a garnering of a degree and range of experiences which perhaps could have been achieved in no other way. In 1779, Goethe took on the War Commission of the Grand Duchy of Saxe-Weimar
Saxe-Weimar (german: Sachsen-Weimar) was one of the Saxon duchies held by the Ernestine branch of the Wettin dynasty in present-day Thuringia. The chief town and capital was Weimar. The Weimar branch was the most genealogically senior extant bra ...
, in addition to the Mines and Highways commissions. In 1782, when the chancellor of the Duchy's Exchequer left his office, Goethe agreed to act in his place and did so for two and a half years; this post virtually made him prime minister and the principal representative of the Duchy. Goethe was ennobled in 1782 (this being indicated by the " von" in his name). In that same year, Goethe moved into what would be his primary residence in Weimar for the next 50 years.
As head of the Saxe-Weimar War Commission, Goethe participated in the recruitment of mercenaries into the Prussian and British military during the American Revolution. The author claims that Goethe engaged in negotiating the forced sale of vagabonds, criminals, and political dissidents as part of these activities.
Italy
Goethe's journey to the Italian peninsula and Sicily from 1786 to 1788 was of great significance in his aesthetic and philosophical development. His father had made a similar journey, and his example was a major motivating factor for Goethe to make the trip. More importantly, however, the work of Johann Joachim Winckelmann had provoked a general renewed interest in the classical art of ancient Greece
Ancient Greek art stands out among that of other ancient cultures for its development of naturalistic but idealized depictions of the human body, in which largely nude male figures were generally the focus of innovation. The rate of stylistic d ...
and Rome. Thus Goethe's journey had something of the nature of a pilgrimage to it. During the course of his trip Goethe met and befriended the artists Angelica Kauffman
Maria Anna Angelika Kauffmann ( ; 30 October 1741 – 5 November 1807), usually known in English as Angelica Kauffman, was a Swiss Neoclassical painter who had a successful career in London and Rome. Remembered primarily as a history painter, K ...
and Johann Heinrich Wilhelm Tischbein, as well as encountering such notable characters as Lady Hamilton and Alessandro Cagliostro (see Affair of the Diamond Necklace).
He also journeyed to Sicily during this time, and wrote that "To have seen Italy without having seen Sicily is to not have seen Italy at all, for Sicily is the clue to everything." While in Southern Italy and Sicily, Goethe encountered, for the first time genuine Greek (as opposed to Roman) architecture, and was quite startled by its relative simplicity. Winckelmann had not recognized the distinctness of the two styles.
Goethe's diaries of this period form the basis of the non-fiction '' Italian Journey''. ''Italian Journey'' only covers the first year of Goethe's visit. The remaining year is largely undocumented, aside from the fact that he spent much of it in Venice
Venice ( ; it, Venezia ; vec, Venesia or ) is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto Regions of Italy, region. It is built on a group of 118 small islands that are separated by canals and linked by over 400 ...
. This "gap in the record" has been the source of much speculation over the years.
In the decades which immediately followed its publication in 1816, ''Italian Journey'' inspired countless German youths to follow Goethe's example. This is pictured, somewhat satirically, in George Eliot's '' Middlemarch''.
Weimar
In late 1792, Goethe took part in the Battle of Valmy
The Battle of Valmy, also known as the Cannonade of Valmy, was the first major victory by the army of France during the Revolutionary Wars that followed the French Revolution. The battle took place on 20 September 1792 as Prussian troops comm ...
against revolutionary France, assisting Duke Karl August of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach during the failed invasion of France. Again during the Siege of Mainz, he assisted Carl August as a military observer. His written account of these events can be found within his ''Complete Works''.
In 1794, Friedrich Schiller
Johann Christoph Friedrich von Schiller (, short: ; 10 November 17599 May 1805) was a German playwright, poet, and philosopher. During the last seventeen years of his life (1788–1805), Schiller developed a productive, if complicated, friends ...
wrote to Goethe offering friendship; they had previously had only a mutually wary relationship ever since first becoming acquainted in 1788. This collaborative friendship lasted until Schiller's death in 1805.
In 1806, Goethe was living in Weimar with his mistress Christiane Vulpius
Johanna Christiana Sophie Vulpius von Goethe (1 June 1765 – 6 June 1816) was the longtime lover and later wife of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe.
Biography
Vulpius spent her childhood in ''Luthergasse'', one of the oldest parts of Weimar. Her pat ...
, the sister of Christian A. Vulpius, and their son August von Goethe. On 13 October, Napoleon
Napoleon Bonaparte ; it, Napoleone Bonaparte, ; co, Napulione Buonaparte. (born Napoleone Buonaparte; 15 August 1769 – 5 May 1821), later known by his regnal name Napoleon I, was a French military commander and political leader who ...
's army invaded the town. The French "spoon guards", the least disciplined soldiers, occupied Goethe's house:
Days afterward, on 19 October 1806, Goethe legitimized their 18-year relationship by marrying Christiane in a quiet marriage service at the . They had already had several children together by this time, including their son, Julius August Walter von Goethe (1789–1830), whose wife, Ottilie von Pogwisch (1796–1872), cared for the elder Goethe until his death in 1832. August and Ottilie had three children: Walther, Freiherr von Goethe (1818–1885), (1820–1883) and (1827–1844). Christiane von Goethe died in 1816. Johann reflected, "There is nothing more charming to see than a mother with her child in her arms, and there is nothing more venerable than a mother among a number of her children."
Later life
After 1793, Goethe devoted his endeavours primarily to literature. By 1820, Goethe was on amiable terms with Kaspar Maria von Sternberg.
In 1821, having recovered from a near fatal heart illness, the 72-year-old Goethe fell in love with Ulrike von Levetzow
Theodore Ulrike Sophie von Levetzow, known as Baroness Ulrike von Levetzow (4 February 1804 in Leipzig – 13 November 1899 in Třebívlice) was a friend and the last love of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe.
Life
She was born in Leipzig in Saxony ...
, 17 at the time. In 1823, he wanted to marry her, but because of the opposition of her mother, he never proposed. Their last meeting in Carlsbad
Carlsbad may refer to:
*Carlsbad, California, United States
*Carlsbad, New Mexico, United States
*Carlsbad, Texas, United States
*Karlovy Vary
Karlovy Vary (; german: Karlsbad, formerly also spelled ''Carlsbad'' in English) is a spa town, spa ...
on 5 September 1823 inspired his poem "Marienbad Elegy The "Marienbad Elegy" is a poem by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. It is named after the spa town of Marienbad (now Mariánské Lázně) where Goethe, 73 years old, spent the summer of 1821. There he fell in love with the 17-year-old Ulrike von Levetz ...
" which he considered one of his finest works. During that time he also developed a deep emotional bond with the Polish pianist Maria Szymanowska, 33 at the time and separated from her husband.
In 1821 Goethe's friend Carl Friedrich Zelter introduced him to the 12-year-old Felix Mendelssohn
Jakob Ludwig Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy (3 February 18094 November 1847), born and widely known as Felix Mendelssohn, was a German composer, pianist, organist and conductor of the early Romantic period. Mendelssohn's compositions include sy ...
. Goethe, now in his seventies, was greatly impressed by the child, leading to perhaps the earliest confirmed comparison with Mozart
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (27 January 17565 December 1791), baptised as Joannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart, was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical period (music), Classical period. Despite his short life, his ra ...
in the following conversation between Goethe and Zelter:
Mendelssohn was invited to meet Goethe on several later occasions, and set a number of Goethe's poems to music. His other compositions inspired by Goethe include the overture '' Calm Sea and Prosperous Voyage'' (Op. 27, 1828), and the cantata ''Die erste Walpurgisnacht
''Die erste Walpurgisnacht'' (''The First Walpurgis Night'') is a poem by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, telling of the attempts of Druids in the Harz mountains to practice their pagan rituals in the face of new and dominating Christian forces.
It wa ...
'' (''The First Walpurgis Night'', Op. 60, 1832).
Death
In 1832, Goethe died in Weimar of apparent heart failure. His last words, according to his doctor , were, ' (More light!), but this is disputed as Vogel was not in the room at the moment Goethe died. He is buried in the Ducal Vault at Weimar's Historical Cemetery.
Eckermann closes his famous work, ''Conversations with Goethe
Conversation is interactive communication between two or more people. The development of conversational skills and etiquette is an important part of socialization. The development of conversational skills in a new language is a frequent focus ...
'', with this passage:
The first production of Richard Wagner
Wilhelm Richard Wagner ( ; ; 22 May 181313 February 1883) was a German composer, theatre director, polemicist, and conductor who is chiefly known for his operas (or, as some of his mature works were later known, "music dramas"). Unlike most op ...
's opera '' Lohengrin'' took place in Weimar in 1850. The conductor was Franz Liszt
Franz Liszt, in modern usage ''Liszt Ferenc'' . Liszt's Hungarian passport spelled his given name as "Ferencz". An orthographic reform of the Hungarian language in 1922 (which was 36 years after Liszt's death) changed the letter "cz" to simpl ...
, who chose the date 28 August in honour of Goethe, who was born on 28 August 1749.
Descendants
Goethe married his long-time lover Christiane Vulpius
Johanna Christiana Sophie Vulpius von Goethe (1 June 1765 – 6 June 1816) was the longtime lover and later wife of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe.
Biography
Vulpius spent her childhood in ''Luthergasse'', one of the oldest parts of Weimar. Her pat ...
in 1806. They had 5 children, of whom only their eldest son August von Goethe managed to survive into adulthood. One was stillborn, while the others died early. August had 3 children with Ottilie von Goethe: Walther von Goethe
{{Infobox noble, type
, name = Walther Wolfgang von Goethe
, title = Freiherr
, image = File:Walther Wolfgang Goethe Litho.jpg
, caption =
, alt =
, CoA =
, more ...
, Wolfgang and Alma. Alma died of Typhoid fever during the outbreak in Vienna, the month before her 17th birthday. Walther and Wolfgang neither married nor had any children. Walther's gravestone states: "With him ends Goethe's dynasty, the name will last forever.", marking the end of Goethe's personal bloodline. While he has no direct descendants, his siblings have.
Literary work
Overview
The most important of Goethe's works produced before he went to Weimar were '' Götz von Berlichingen'' (1773), a tragedy that was the first work to bring him recognition, and the novel '' The Sorrows of Young Werther'' (German: ) (1774), which gained him enormous fame as a writer in the '' Sturm und Drang'' period which marked the early phase of Romanticism. Indeed, ''Werther'' is often considered to be the "spark" which ignited the movement, and can arguably be called the world's first " best-seller". During the years at Weimar before he met Schiller
Johann Christoph Friedrich von Schiller (, short: ; 10 November 17599 May 1805) was a German playwright, poet, and philosopher. During the last seventeen years of his life (1788–1805), Schiller developed a productive, if complicated, friendsh ...
in 1794, he began '' Wilhelm Meister's Apprenticeship'' and wrote the dramas ''Iphigenie auf Tauris
''Iphigenia in Tauris'' (german: Iphigenie auf Tauris, links=no) is a reworking by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe of the ancient Greek tragedy Ἰφιγένεια ἐν Ταύροις ('' Iphigeneia en Taurois'') by Euripides. Euripides' title means ...
'' (''Iphigenia in Tauris''), ''Egmont Egmont may refer to:
* Egmont Group, a media corporation founded and rooted in Copenhagen, Denmark
* Egmond family (often spelled "Egmont"), an influential Dutch family, lords of the town of Egmond
** Lamoral, Count of Egmont (1522–1568), the bes ...
'', and '' Torquato Tasso'' and the fable '' Reineke Fuchs''.
To the period of his friendship with Schiller belong the conception of '' Wilhelm Meister's Journeyman Years'' (the continuation of ''Wilhelm Meister's Apprenticeship''), the idyll
An idyll (, ; from Greek , ''eidullion'', "short poem"; occasionally spelt ''idyl'' in American English) is a short poem, descriptive of rustic life, written in the style of Theocritus' short pastoral poems, the ''Idylls'' (Εἰδύλλια).
U ...
of '' Hermann and Dorothea'', the ''Roman Elegies
The ''Roman Elegies'' (originally published under the title ''Erotica Romana'' in Germany, later ''Römische Elegien'') is a cycle of twenty-four poems by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe.
They reflect Goethe's Italian Journey from 1786 to 1788 and cel ...
'' and the verse drama ''The Natural Daughter
''The Natural Daughter'' is the last of Goethe's three verse dramas in the classical style, after ''Iphigenia'' and ''Torquato Tasso''. Drawing on the real story of a young woman caught up in the French Revolution, it explores the impact of unco ...
''.[See, generally Schiller, F. (1877). ''Correspondence between Schiller and Goethe, from 1794 to 1805'' (Vol. 1). G. Bell.] In the last period, between Schiller's death, in 1805, and his own, appeared ''Faust Part One
''Faust: A Tragedy'' (german: Faust. Eine Tragödie, links=no, , or aust. The tragedy's first part is the first part of the tragic play ''Faust'' by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, and is considered by many as the greatest work of German literature ...
'' (1808), '' Elective Affinities'' (1809), the '' West-Eastern Diwan'' (an 1819 collection of poems in the Persian style, influenced by the work of Hafez), his autobiographical '' Aus meinem Leben: Dichtung und Wahrheit'' (''From My Life: Poetry and Truth'', published between 1811 and 1833) which covers his early life and ends with his departure for Weimar, his '' Italian Journey'' (1816–17), and a series of treatises on art. '' Faust, Part Two'' was completed before his 1832 death and published posthumously later that year. His writings were immediately influential in literary and artistic circles.
Goethe was fascinated by Kalidasa
Kālidāsa (''fl.'' 4th–5th century CE) was a Classical Sanskrit author who is often considered ancient India's greatest poet and playwright. His plays and poetry are primarily based on the Vedas, the Rāmāyaṇa, the Mahābhārata and ...
's '' Abhijñānaśākuntalam'', which was one of the first works of Sanskrit literature
Sanskrit literature broadly comprises all literature in the Sanskrit language. This includes texts composed in the earliest attested descendant of the Proto-Indo-Aryan language known as Vedic Sanskrit, texts in Classical Sanskrit as well as s ...
that became known in Europe, after being translated from English to German.
Details of selected works
The short epistolary novel ''Die Leiden des jungen Werthers'', or '' The Sorrows of Young Werther'', published in 1774, recounts an unhappy romantic infatuation that ends in suicide. Goethe admitted that he "shot his hero to save himself": a reference to Goethe's own near-suicidal with a young woman during this period, an obsession he quelled through the writing process. The novel remains in print in dozens of languages and its influence is undeniable; its central hero, an obsessive figure driven to despair and destruction by his unrequited love for the young Lotte, has become a pervasive literary archetype. The fact that ''Werther'' ends with the protagonist's suicide and funeral—a funeral which "no clergyman attended"—made the book deeply controversial upon its (anonymous) publication, for on the face of it, it appeared to condone and glorify suicide. Suicide is considered sinful by Christian doctrine: suicides were denied Christian burial
A Christian burial is the burial of a deceased person with specifically Christian rites; typically, in consecrated ground. Until recent times Christians generally objected to cremation because it interfered with the concept of the resurrection of ...
with the bodies often mistreated and dishonoured in various ways; in corollary, the deceased's property and possessions were often confiscated by the Church. However, Goethe explained his use of ''Werther'' in his autobiography. He said he "turned reality into poetry but his friends thought poetry should be turned into reality and the poem imitated". He was against this reading of poetry. Epistolary novels were common during this time, letter-writing being a primary mode of communication. What set Goethe's book apart from other such novels was its expression of unbridled longing for a joy beyond possibility, its sense of defiant rebellion against authority, and of principal importance, its total subjectivity: qualities that trailblazed the Romantic movement.
The next work, his epic closet drama '' Faust'', was completed in stages. The first part was published in 1808 and created a sensation. Goethe finished ''Faust Part Two
''Faust: The Second Part of the Tragedy'' (german: Faust. Der Tragödie zweiter Teil in fünf Akten.) is the second part of the tragic play ''Faust'' by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. It was published in 1832, the year of Goethe's death.
Only part o ...
'' in the year of his death, and the work was published posthumously. Goethe's original draft of a Faust play, which probably dates from 1773–74, and is now known as the ''Urfaust'', was also published after his death.
The first operatic version of Goethe's ''Faust'', by Louis Spohr, appeared in 1814. The work subsequently inspired operas and oratorios by Schumann, Berlioz, Gounod, Boito, Busoni and Schnittke
Alfred Garrievich Schnittke (russian: Альфре́д Га́рриевич Шни́тке, link=no, Alfred Garriyevich Shnitke; 24 November 1934 – 3 August 1998) was a Russian composer of Jewish-German descent. Among the most performed and re ...
, as well as symphonic works by Liszt, Wagner and Mahler. Faust became the ur-myth of many figures in the 19th century. Later, a facet of its plot, i.e., of selling one's soul to the devil for power over the physical world, took on increasing literary importance and became a view of the victory of technology and of industrialism, along with its dubious human expenses. In 1919, the world premiere complete production of ''Faust'' was staged at the Goetheanum.
Goethe's poetic work served as a model for an entire movement in German poetry termed ''Innerlichkeit'' ("introversion") and represented by, for example, Heine
Heine is both a surname and a given name of German origin. People with that name include:
People with the surname
* Albert Heine (1867–1949), German actor
* Alice Heine (1858–1925), American-born princess of Monaco
* Armand Heine (1818–1883) ...
. Goethe's words inspired a number of compositions by, among others, Mozart
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (27 January 17565 December 1791), baptised as Joannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart, was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical period (music), Classical period. Despite his short life, his ra ...
, Beethoven (who idolised Goethe), Schubert, Berlioz and Wolf. Perhaps the single most influential piece is "Mignon's Song" which opens with one of the most famous lines in German poetry, an allusion to Italy: "'?" ("Do you know the land where the lemon trees bloom?").
He is also widely quoted. Epigrams such as "Against criticism a man can neither protest nor defend himself; he must act in spite of it, and then it will gradually yield to him", " Divide and rule, a sound motto; unite and lead, a better one", and "Enjoy when you can, and endure when you must", are still in usage or are often paraphrased. Lines from ''Faust'', such as "", "", or "" have entered everyday German usage.
Some well-known quotations are often incorrectly attributed to Goethe. These include Hippocrates' "Art is long, life is short", which is echoed in Goethe's ''Faust'' and ''Wilhelm Meister's Apprenticeship''.
Scientific work
Although his literary work has attracted the most interest, Goethe was also keenly involved in studies of natural science. He wrote several works on morphology and colour theory. In the 1790s, he undertook Galvanic experiments and studied anatomical issues together with Alexander von Humboldt. He also had the largest private collection of minerals in all of Europe. By the time of his death, in order to gain a comprehensive view in geology, he had collected 17,800 rock samples.
His focus on morphology and what was later called homology
Homology may refer to:
Sciences
Biology
*Homology (biology), any characteristic of biological organisms that is derived from a common ancestor
* Sequence homology, biological homology between DNA, RNA, or protein sequences
*Homologous chrom ...
influenced 19th-century naturalists, although his ideas of transformation were about the continuous metamorphosis of living things and did not relate to contemporary ideas of "transformisme" or transmutation of species. Homology, or as Étienne Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire called it "analogie", was used by Charles Darwin as strong evidence of common descent
Common descent is a concept in evolutionary biology applicable when one species is the ancestor of two or more species later in time. All living beings are in fact descendants of a unique ancestor commonly referred to as the last universal comm ...
and of laws of variation. Goethe's studies (notably with an elephant's skull lent to him by Samuel Thomas von Soemmerring) led him to independently discover the human intermaxillary bone
The premaxilla (or praemaxilla) is one of a pair of small cranial bones at the very tip of the upper jaw of many animals, usually, but not always, bearing teeth. In humans, they are fused with the maxilla. The "premaxilla" of therian mammal h ...
, also known as "Goethe's bone", in 1784, which Broussonet
Pierre Marie Auguste Broussonet (28 February 1761 – 17 January 1807) was a French naturalist who contributed primarily to botany. He was born in Montpellier, where he was educated, and travelled to Morocco, Spain, the Canary Islands, and Souther ...
(1779) and Vicq d'Azyr (1780) had (using different methods) identified several years earlier. While not the only one in his time to question the prevailing view that this bone did not exist in humans, Goethe, who believed ancient anatomists had known about this bone, was the first to prove its existence in all mammals. The elephant's skull that led Goethe to this discovery, and was subsequently named the Goethe Elephant, still exists and is displayed in the Ottoneum in Kassel
Kassel (; in Germany, spelled Cassel until 1926) is a city on the Fulda River in northern Hesse, Germany. It is the administrative seat of the Regierungsbezirk Kassel and the district of the same name and had 201,048 inhabitants in December 2020 ...
, Germany.
During his Italian journey, Goethe formulated a theory of plant metamorphosis in which the archetypal form of the plant is to be found in the ''leaf'' – he writes, "from top to bottom a plant is all leaf, united so inseparably with the future bud that one cannot be imagined without the other". In 1790, he published his '' Metamorphosis of Plants''. As one of the many precursors in the history of evolutionary thought, Goethe wrote in ''Story of My Botanical Studies'' (1831):
Goethe's botanical theories were partly based on his gardening in Weimar.
Goethe also popularized the Goethe barometer
A barometer is a scientific instrument that is used to measure air pressure in a certain environment. Pressure tendency can forecast short term changes in the weather. Many measurements of air pressure are used within surface weather analysis ...
using a principle established by Torricelli. According to Hegel, "Goethe has occupied himself a good deal with meteorology; barometer readings interested him particularly... What he says is important: the main thing is that he gives a comparative table of barometric readings during the whole month of December 1822, at Weimar, Jena, London, Boston, Vienna, Töpel... He claims to deduce from it that the barometric level varies in the same proportion not only in each zone but that it has the same variation, too, at different altitudes above sea-level".
In 1810, Goethe published his '' Theory of Colours'', which he considered his most important work. In it, he contentiously characterized colour as arising from the dynamic interplay of light and darkness through the mediation of a turbid medium. In 1816, Schopenhauer went on to develop his own theory in ''On Vision and Colours
''On Vision and Colors'' (originally translated as ''On Vision and Colours''; german: Ueber das Sehn und die Farben) is a treatise by Arthur Schopenhauer that was published in May 1816 when the author was 28 years old. Schopenhauer had extensive ...
'' based on the observations supplied in Goethe's book. After being translated into English by Charles Eastlake
Charles Locke Eastlake (11 March 1836 – 20 November 1906) was a British architect and furniture designer.
His uncle, Sir Charles Lock Eastlake PRA (born in 1793), was a Keeper of the National Gallery, from 1843 to 1847, and from 1855 its fi ...
in 1840, his theory became widely adopted by the art world, most notably J. M. W. Turner. Goethe's work also inspired the philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein, to write his '' Remarks on Colour''. Goethe was vehemently opposed to Newton
Newton most commonly refers to:
* Isaac Newton (1642–1726/1727), English scientist
* Newton (unit), SI unit of force named after Isaac Newton
Newton may also refer to:
Arts and entertainment
* ''Newton'' (film), a 2017 Indian film
* Newton ( ...
's analytic treatment of colour, engaging instead in compiling a comprehensive ''rational description'' of a wide variety of colour phenomena. Although the accuracy of Goethe's observations does not admit a great deal of criticism, his aesthetic approach did not lend itself to the demands of analytic and mathematical analysis used ubiquitously in modern Science. Goethe was, however, the first to systematically study the physiological effects of colour, and his observations on the effect of opposed colours led him to a symmetric arrangement of his colour wheel, "for the colours diametrically opposed to each other ... are those which reciprocally evoke each other in the eye." In this, he anticipated Ewald Hering's opponent colour theory (1872).
Goethe outlines his method in the essay ''The experiment as mediator between subject and object'' (1772). In the Kurschner edition of Goethe's works, the science editor, Rudolf Steiner, presents Goethe's approach to science as phenomenological
Phenomenology may refer to:
Art
* Phenomenology (architecture), based on the experience of building materials and their sensory properties
Philosophy
* Phenomenology (philosophy), a branch of philosophy which studies subjective experiences and a ...
. Steiner elaborated on that in the books ''The Theory of Knowledge Implicit in Goethe's World-Conception'' and ''Goethe's World View'', in which he characterizes intuition as the instrument by which one grasps Goethe's biological archetype—''The Typus''.
Novalis, himself a geologist and mining engineer, expressed the opinion that Goethe was the first physicist of his time and "epoch-making in the history of physics", writing that Goethe's studies of light, of the metamorphosis of plants and of insects were indications and proofs "that the perfect educational lecture belongs in the artist's sphere of work"; and that Goethe would be surpassed "but only in the way in which the ancients can be surpassed, in inner content and force, in variety and depth—as an artist actually not, or only very little, for his rightness and intensity are perhaps already more exemplary than it would seem".
Eroticism
Many of Goethe's works, especially '' Faust'', the ''Roman Elegies
The ''Roman Elegies'' (originally published under the title ''Erotica Romana'' in Germany, later ''Römische Elegien'') is a cycle of twenty-four poems by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe.
They reflect Goethe's Italian Journey from 1786 to 1788 and cel ...
'', and the ''Venetian Epigrams'', depict erotic passions and acts. For instance, in ''Faust'', the first use of Faust's power after signing a contract with the Devil is to seduce a teenage girl. Some of the ''Venetian Epigrams'' were held back from publication due to their sexual content. Goethe clearly saw human sexuality as a topic worthy of poetic and artistic depiction, an idea that was uncommon in a time when the private nature of sexuality was rigorously normative.
In a conversation on 7 April 1830 Goethe stated that pederasty is an "aberration" that easily leads to "animal, roughly material" behavior. He continued, "Pederasty is as old as humanity itself, and one can therefore say, that it resides in nature, even if it proceeds against nature....What culture has won from nature will not be surrendered or given up at any price." On another occasion he wrote: "I like boys a lot, but the girls are even nicer. If I tire of her as a girl, she'll play the boy for me as well".
Religion and politics
Goethe was a freethinker who believed that one could be inwardly Christian without following any of the Christian churches, many of whose central teachings he firmly opposed, sharply distinguishing between Christ and the tenets of Christian theology, and criticizing its history as a "hodgepodge of mistakes and violence". His own descriptions of his relationship to the Christian faith and even to the Church varied widely and have been interpreted even more widely, so that while Goethe's secretary Eckermann portrayed him as enthusiastic about Christianity, Jesus, Martin Luther, and the Protestant Reformation, even calling Christianity the "ultimate religion", on one occasion Goethe described himself as "not anti-Christian, nor un-Christian, but most decidedly non-Christian," and in his Venetian Epigram 66, Goethe listed the symbol of the cross among the four things that he most disliked. According to Nietzsche, Goethe had "a kind of almost ''joyous'' and ''trusting fatalism''" that has "faith that only in the totality everything redeems itself and appears good and justified."
Born into a Lutheran family, Goethe's early faith was shaken by news of such events as the 1755 Lisbon earthquake
The 1755 Lisbon earthquake, also known as the Great Lisbon earthquake, impacted Portugal, the Iberian Peninsula, and Northwest Africa on the morning of Saturday, 1 November, Feast of All Saints, at around 09:40 local time. In combination with ...
and the Seven Years' War. A year before his death, in a letter to Sulpiz Boisserée
Sulpiz Boiserée (2 August 1783 - 2 May 1854) was a German art collector and art historian. With his brother Melchior he formed a collection that ultimately formed the basis of that of the Alte Pinakothek. He played a key role in the completion of ...
, Goethe wrote that he had the feeling that all his life he had been aspiring to qualify as one of the Hypsistarians, an ancient sect of the Black Sea region who, in his understanding, sought to reverence, as being close to the Godhead, what came to their knowledge of the best and most perfect. Goethe's unorthodox religious beliefs led him to be called "the great heathen" and provoked distrust among the authorities of his time, who opposed the creation of a Goethe monument on account of his offensive religious creed. August Wilhelm Schlegel considered Goethe "a heathen who converted to Islam."
Goethe's interest in Islam stretches back to his academic years, where he was first introduced to it by Johann Gottfried Herder, who advised Goethe to read the Quran.
At age 23, Goethe wrote a poem about a river, originally part of a dramatic dialogue, but which he published as a separate work called ''Mahomets Gesang'' ("Muhammad's Song"), a title that "seems redundant".
Regarding the Quran, Goethe wrote that "Closer designations of what is commanded and forbidden, legends from the Jewish and Christian religions, elaborations of all kinds, numberless tautologies and repetitions form the body of this holy book, which, whenever I approach it, repels me always anew, but then attracts me, astonishes me, and in the end elicits my admiration." He continues "The main purpose of the Qur'an seems to have been to unite the adherents of the three different religions that were prominent in the populous Arabia of that time... to unite these groups in the recognition of the one eternal and invisible God, through whose omnipotence all things are created."
Goethe would read the Quran several times throughout his life, and even wrote chapters of it in Arabic, collecting them in his 'Koran-Auszüge' (“Summary of the Quran”), in which he appears to have studied at least two-thirds of the Quran, and is currently held in the Goethe Museum in Düsseldorf. When the Duke asked Goethe to translate Voltaire's satirical play mocking the Prophet Muhammad, he replied that “My prince's desire forced me to translate Voltaire's drama ‘Mahomet,' which would be very strange to some. I owe him a lot”, and he had written the draft of a drama praising Prophet Muhammad, called “Mahomet”, in a rebuttal to Voltaire.
In 1819, he publicly declared that he was considering celebrating the night of Quranic revelation to Prophet Muhammad, and along with announcing the publication of his ''West–östlicher Divan'', did not "reject the suspicion that he may himself be a Muslim", although Dallmayr points out that this phrase might "of course, contain poetic licence".
As a result of his genius, his poetry and reasoning, some Muslims have proclaimed Goethe to be "a true Muslim"; at the same time he has enjoyed a similar reputation among Christians, being regarded as "a true Christian", for example, by Mommsen. Karic suggests, however, that attempts to claim Goethe for any religion "is a pointless, Sysiphean task".
Politically, Goethe described himself as a "moderate liberal". He was critical of the radicalism of Bentham and expressed sympathy for the prudent liberalism of François Guizot
François Pierre Guillaume Guizot (; 4 October 1787 – 12 September 1874) was a French historian, orator, and statesman. Guizot was a dominant figure in French politics prior to the Revolution of 1848.
A conservative liberal who opposed the a ...
. At the time of the French Revolution, he thought the enthusiasm of the students and professors to be a perversion of their energy and remained skeptical of the ability of the masses to govern.[McCabe, Joseph. 'Goethe: The Man and His Character'. p. 343] Goethe sympathized with the American Revolution and later wrote a poem in which he declared "America, you're better off than our continent, the old." He did not join in the anti-Napoleonic mood of 1812, and he distrusted the strident nationalism which started to be expressed. The medievalism of the Heidelberg Romantics was also repellent to Goethe's eighteenth-century ideal of a supra-national culture.
Goethe was a Freemason
Freemasonry or Masonry refers to fraternal organisations that trace their origins to the local guilds of stonemasons that, from the end of the 13th century, regulated the qualifications of stonemasons and their interaction with authorities ...
, joining the lodge Amalia in Weimar in 1780, and frequently alluded to Masonic themes of universal brotherhood in his work. He was also attracted to the Bavarian Illuminati, a secret society founded on 1 May 1776. Although often requested to write poems arousing nationalist passions, Goethe would always decline. In old age, he explained why this was so to Eckermann:
Influence
Goethe had a great effect on the nineteenth century. In many respects, he was the originator of many ideas which later became widespread. He produced volumes of poetry, essays, criticism, a theory of colours and early work on evolution and linguistics. He was fascinated by mineralogy
Mineralogy is a subject of geology specializing in the scientific study of the chemistry, crystal structure, and physical (including optical) properties of minerals and mineralized artifacts. Specific studies within mineralogy include the proces ...
, and the mineral goethite (iron oxide
Iron oxides are chemical compounds composed of iron and oxygen. Several iron oxides are recognized. All are black magnetic solids. Often they are non-stoichiometric. Oxyhydroxides are a related class of compounds, perhaps the best known of whic ...
) is named after him. His non-fiction writings, most of which are philosophic and aphoristic in nature, spurred the development of many thinkers, including Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, Arthur Schopenhauer
Arthur Schopenhauer ( , ; 22 February 1788 – 21 September 1860) was a German philosopher. He is best known for his 1818 work ''The World as Will and Representation'' (expanded in 1844), which characterizes the phenomenal world as the prod ...
, Søren Kierkegaard
Søren Aabye Kierkegaard ( , , ; 5 May 1813 – 11 November 1855) was a Danish theologian, philosopher, poet, social critic, and religious author who is widely considered to be the first existentialist philosopher. He wrote critical texts on ...
, Friedrich Nietzsche, Ernst Cassirer, and Carl Jung. Along with Schiller
Johann Christoph Friedrich von Schiller (, short: ; 10 November 17599 May 1805) was a German playwright, poet, and philosopher. During the last seventeen years of his life (1788–1805), Schiller developed a productive, if complicated, friendsh ...
, he was one of the leading figures of Weimar Classicism. Schopenhauer cited Goethe's novel ''Wilhelm Meister's Apprenticeship'' as one of the four greatest novels ever written, along with '' Tristram Shandy'', ''La Nouvelle Héloïse
''Julie; or, The New Heloise'' (french: Julie, ou la nouvelle Héloïse), originally entitled ''Lettres de Deux Amans, Habitans d'une petite Ville au pied des Alpes'' ("Letters from two lovers, living in a small town at the foot of the Alps"), is ...
'' and '' Don Quixote''. Nietzsche wrote, "Four pairs it was that did not deny themselves to my sacrifice: Epicurus
Epicurus (; grc-gre, Ἐπίκουρος ; 341–270 BC) was an ancient Greek philosopher and sage who founded Epicureanism, a highly influential school of philosophy. He was born on the Greek island of Samos to Athenian parents. Influenced ...
and Montaigne
Michel Eyquem, Sieur de Montaigne ( ; ; 28 February 1533 – 13 September 1592), also known as the Lord of Montaigne, was one of the most significant philosophers of the French Renaissance. He is known for popularizing the essay as a liter ...
, Goethe and Spinoza, Plato and Rousseau, Pascal
Pascal, Pascal's or PASCAL may refer to:
People and fictional characters
* Pascal (given name), including a list of people with the name
* Pascal (surname), including a list of people and fictional characters with the name
** Blaise Pascal, Fren ...
and Schopenhauer. With these I must come to terms when I have long wandered alone; they may call me right and wrong; to them will I listen when in the process they call each other right and wrong."
Goethe embodied many of the contending strands in art over the next century: his work could be lushly emotional, and rigorously formal, brief and epigram
An epigram is a brief, interesting, memorable, and sometimes surprising or satirical statement. The word is derived from the Greek "inscription" from "to write on, to inscribe", and the literary device has been employed for over two mille ...
matic, and epic. He would argue that Classicism was the means of controlling art, and that Romanticism was a sickness, even as he penned poetry rich in memorable images, and rewrote the formal rules of German poetry. His poetry was set to music by almost every major Austrian and German composer from Mozart
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (27 January 17565 December 1791), baptised as Joannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart, was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical period (music), Classical period. Despite his short life, his ra ...
to Mahler, and his influence would spread to French drama and opera as well. Beethoven declared that a "Faust" Symphony would be the greatest thing for art. Liszt and Mahler both created symphonies in whole or in large part inspired by this seminal
Seminal, ultimately from Latin ''semen'', "seed", may refer to:
*Relating to seeds
*Relating to semen
*(Of a work, event, or person) Having much social influence
Social influence comprises the ways in which individuals adjust their behavior to me ...
work, which would give the 19th century one of its most paradigmatic figures: Doctor Faustus.
The ''Faust'' tragedy/drama, often called ' (the drama of the Germans), written in two parts published decades apart, would stand as his most characteristic and famous artistic creation. Followers of the twentieth-century esotericist Rudolf Steiner built a theatre named the Goetheanum after him—where festival performances of '' Faust'' are still performed.
Goethe was also a cultural force. During his first meeting with Napoleon
Napoleon Bonaparte ; it, Napoleone Bonaparte, ; co, Napulione Buonaparte. (born Napoleone Buonaparte; 15 August 1769 – 5 May 1821), later known by his regnal name Napoleon I, was a French military commander and political leader who ...
in 1808, the latter famously remarked: " (You are a man)!" The two discussed politics, the writings of Voltaire, and Goethe's ''Sorrows of Young Werther'', which Napoleon had read seven times and ranked among his favorites. Goethe came away from the meeting deeply impressed with Napoleon's enlightened intellect and his efforts to build an alternative to the corrupt old regime. Goethe always spoke of Napoleon with the greatest respect, confessing that "nothing higher and more pleasing could have happened to me in all my life" than to have met Napoleon in person.
Germaine de Staël, in ''De l'Allemagne
''On Germany'' (french: De l'Allemagne), also known in English as ''Germany'', is a book about German culture and in particular German Romanticism, written by the French writer Germaine de Staël. It promotes Romantic literature, introducing th ...
'' (1813), presented German Classicism and Romanticism as a potential source of spiritual authority for Europe, and identified Goethe as a living classic. She praised Goethe as possessing "the chief characteristics of the German genius" and uniting "all that distinguishes the German mind." Staël's portrayal helped elevate Goethe over his more famous German contemporaries and transformed him into a European cultural hero. Goethe met with her and her partner Benjamin Constant, with whom he shared a mutual admiration.
In Victorian England, Goethe's great disciple was Thomas Carlyle, who wrote the essays "Faustus" (1822), "Goethe's Helena" (1828), "Goethe" (1828), "Goethe's Works" (1832), "Goethe's Portrait" (1832), and "Death of Goethe" (1832) which introduced Goethe to English readers; translated ''Wilhelm Meister's Apprenticeship'' (1824) and ''Travels'' (1826), "Faust's Curse" (1830), "The Tale" (1832), "Novelle" (1832) and "Symbolum" at a time when few read German; and with whom Goethe corresponded. Goethe exerted a profound influence on George Eliot, whose partner George Henry Lewes wrote a ''Life of Goethe'' (dedicated to Carlyle). Eliot presented Goethe as "eminently the man who helps us to rise to a lofty point of observation" and praised his "large tolerance", which "quietly follows the stream of fact and of life" without passing moral judgments. Matthew Arnold found in Goethe the "Physician of the Iron Age" and "the clearest, the largest, the most helpful thinker of modern times" with a "large, liberal view of life".
It was to a considerable degree due to Goethe's reputation that the city of Weimar was chosen in 1919 as the venue for the national assembly, convened to draft a new constitution for what would become known as Germany's Weimar Republic. Goethe became a key reference for Thomas Mann in his speeches and essays defending the republic. He emphasized Goethe's "cultural and self-developing individualism", humanism, and cosmopolitanism.
The Federal Republic of Germany's cultural institution, the Goethe-Institut
The Goethe-Institut (, GI, en, Goethe Institute) is a non-profit German cultural association operational worldwide with 159 institutes, promoting the study of the German language abroad and encouraging international cultural exchange and ...
, is named after him, and promotes the study of German abroad and fosters knowledge about Germany by providing information on its culture, society and politics.
The literary estate of Goethe in the Goethe and Schiller Archives was inscribed on UNESCO's Memory of the World Register in 2001 in recognition of its historical significance.
Goethe's influence was dramatic because he understood that there was a transition in European sensibilities, an increasing focus on sense, the indescribable, and the emotional. This is not to say that he was emotionalistic or excessive; on the contrary, he lauded personal restraint and felt that excess was a disease: "There is nothing worse than imagination without taste". Goethe praised Francis Bacon for his advocacy of science based on experiment and his forceful revolution in thought as one of the greatest strides forward in modern science. However, he was critical of Bacon's inductive method and approach based on pure classification. He said in ''Scientific Studies'':
Goethe's scientific and aesthetic ideas have much in common with Denis Diderot, whose work he translated and studied. Both Diderot and Goethe exhibited a repugnance towards the mathematical interpretation of nature; both perceived the universe as dynamic and in constant flux; both saw "art and science as compatible disciplines linked by common imaginative processes"; and both grasped "the unconscious impulses underlying mental creation in all forms." Goethe's ''Naturanschauer'' is in many ways a sequel to Diderot's ''interprète de la nature''.
His views make him, along with Adam Smith
Adam Smith (baptized 1723 – 17 July 1790) was a Scottish economist and philosopher who was a pioneer in the thinking of political economy and key figure during the Scottish Enlightenment. Seen by some as "The Father of Economics"——— ...
, Thomas Jefferson, and Ludwig van Beethoven, a figure in two worlds: on the one hand, devoted to the sense of taste, order, and finely crafted detail, which is the hallmark of the artistic sense of the Age of Reason
The Age of reason, or the Enlightenment, was an intellectual and philosophical movement that dominated the world of ideas in Europe during the 17th to 19th centuries.
Age of reason or Age of Reason may also refer to:
* Age of reason (canon law), ...
and the neo-classical period of architecture; on the other, seeking a personal, intuitive, and personalized form of expression and society, firmly supporting the idea of self-regulating and organic systems. George Henry Lewes celebrated Goethe's revolutionary understanding of the organism.
Thinkers such as Ralph Waldo Emerson would take up many similar ideas in the 1800s. Goethe's ideas on evolution would frame the question that Darwin
Darwin may refer to:
Common meanings
* Charles Darwin (1809–1882), English naturalist and writer, best known as the originator of the theory of biological evolution by natural selection
* Darwin, Northern Territory, a territorial capital city i ...
and Wallace
Wallace may refer to:
People
* Clan Wallace in Scotland
* Wallace (given name)
* Wallace (surname)
* Wallace (footballer, born 1986), full name Wallace Fernando Pereira, Brazilian football left-back
* Wallace (footballer, born 1987), full name ...
would approach within the scientific paradigm. The Serbian inventor and electrical engineer Nikola Tesla was heavily influenced by Goethe's ''Faust'', his favorite poem, and had actually memorized the entire text. It was while reciting a certain verse that he was struck with the epiphany that would lead to the idea of the rotating magnetic field and ultimately, alternating current.[Seifer, Marc J. (1998]
"Wizard: The Life and Times of Nikola Tesla: Biography of a Genius"
Citadel Press, pp. 22, 308
Books related to Goethe
* ''The Life of Goethe'' by George Henry Lewes
* ''Goethe: The History of a Man'' by Emil Ludwig
* ''Goethe'' by Georg Brandes. Authorized translation from the Danish (2nd ed. 1916) by Allen W. Porterfield, New York, Crown publishers, 1936. "Crown edition, 1936." Title ''Wolfgang Goethe''
* ''Goethe: His Life and Times'' by
* '' Lotte in Weimar: The Beloved Returns'' by Thomas Mann
* ''Conversations with Goethe
Conversation is interactive communication between two or more people. The development of conversational skills and etiquette is an important part of socialization. The development of conversational skills in a new language is a frequent focus ...
'' by Johann Peter Eckermann
Johann Peter Eckermann (21 September 1792 – 3 December 1854), German poet and author, is best known for his work '' Conversations with Goethe'', the fruit of his association with Johann Wolfgang von Goethe during the last years of Goethe's life ...
* ''Goethe's World: as seen in letters and memoirs'' ed. by Berthold Biermann
* ''Goethe: Four Studies'' by Albert Schweitzer
* ''Goethe Poet and Thinker'' by E.M. Wilkinson and L.A. Willoughby Leonard Ashley Willoughby (1885–1977) was a British scholar of German literature, and recipient of the Goethe Institute's Goethe Medal.
Career
Willoughby was Professor of German at University College London from 1931 to 1950.
In 1936 together wi ...
* ''Goethe and his Publishers'' by
* ''Goethe'' by T.J. Reed
Terence James Reed, FBA (born 1937), known professionally as Jim Reed, is a scholar of German literature. He was Taylor Professor of the German Language and Literature at the University of Oxford from 1989 to 2004.
Born in 1937, Reed completed ...
* ''Goethe. A Psychoanalytic Study'', by Kurt R. Eissler
* ''The Life of Goethe. A Critical Biography'' by John Williams
* ''Goethe: The Poet and the Age'' (2 Vols.), by Nicholas Boyle
Nicholas Boyle FBA (born 18 June 1946) is an English literary critic. He is the emeritus Schröder Professor of German at the University of Cambridge and a fellow of Magdalene College, Cambridge. He has written widely on German literature, i ...
* ''Goethe's Concept of the Daemonic: After the Ancients'', by Angus Nicholls
* ''Goethe and Rousseau: Resonances of their Mind'', by Carl Hammer, Jr.
* ''Doctor Faustus of the popular legend, Marlowe, the Puppet-Play, Goethe, and Lenau, treated historically and critically. – A parallel between Goethe and Schiller. – An historic outline of German Literature '', by Louis Pagel
* ''Goethe and Schiller, Essays on German Literature'', by Hjalmar Hjorth Boyesen
* ''Goethe-Wörterbuch'' (Goethe Dictionary, abbreviated GWb). Herausgegeben von der Berlin-Brandenburgischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, der Akademie der Wissenschaften in Göttingen und der Heidelberger Akademie der Wissenschaften. Stuttgart. Kohlhammer Verlag;
*''West-Eastern Divan: Complete, annotated new translation, including Goethe's 'Notes and Essays' & the unpublished poems'', translated by Eric Ormsby, 2019. Gingko,
*''Goethe's Path to Creativity: A Psycho-Biography of the Eminent Politician, Scientist and Poet'', translated by Deanna Stewart, New York, NY, Routledge, 2019.
See also
* '' Young Goethe in Love'' (2010)
* Dora Stock – her encounters with the 16-year-old Goethe.
* Goethe Basin
Goethe Basin is an impact basin at 81.4° N, 54.3° W on Mercury approximately 317 kilometers in diameter. It is named after German poet Johann Wolfgang von Goethe.
Description
Goethe was not listed as an impact basin by Wood and Head becaus ...
, a large crater on the planet Mercury
* Johann-Wolfgang-von-Goethe-Gymnasium
* W. H. Murray
William Hutchison Murray (18 March 1913 – 19 March 1996) was a Scottish mountaineer and writer, one of a group of active mountain climbers, mainly from Clydeside, before and just after World War II.
Life
Murray was born in Liverpool, the so ...
– author of misattributed quotation "Until one is committed ..."
* " Nature", essay often mis-attributed to Goethe
Awards named after him
* Goethe Awards
* Goethe Prize
* Hanseatic Goethe Prize
The Hanseatic Goethe Prize (German: ''Hansischer Goethe-Preis'') was a German literary and artistic award, given biennially from 1949 to 2005 to a figure of European stature. The prize money was €25,000. On the occasion of Goethe's 200th birthda ...
Works
* Johann Wolfgang von Goethe bibliography
Johann, typically a male given name, is the German form of ''Iohannes'', which is the Latin form of the Greek name ''Iōánnēs'' (), itself derived from Hebrew name ''Yochanan'' () in turn from its extended form (), meaning "Yahweh is Gracious" ...
Notes
References
Citations
Sources
*
*
*
Further reading
*Bell Matthew. 1994. ''Goethe's Naturalistic Anthropology : Man and Other Plants.'' Oxford: Clarendon Press.
*
* Calder, Angus (1983), ''Scott
Scott may refer to:
Places Canada
* Scott, Quebec, municipality in the Nouvelle-Beauce regional municipality in Quebec
* Scott, Saskatchewan, a town in the Rural Municipality of Tramping Lake No. 380
* Rural Municipality of Scott No. 98, Saska ...
& Goethe: Romantiscism and Classicism'', in Hearn, Sheila G. (ed.), '' Cencrastus'' No. 13, Summer 1983, pp. 25–28,
* Von Gronicka, André. 1968. ''The Russian Image of Goethe. Volume 1 Goethe in Russian Literature of the First Half of the Nineteenth Century.'' Philadelphia Pa: University of Pennsylvania Press.
*Von Gronicka, Andrè. 1985 ''The Russian Image of Goethe. Volume 2 Goethe in Russian Literature of the Second Half of the Nineteenth Century.'' Philadelphia Pa: University of Pennsylvania Press.
*Hatfield Henry Caraway. 1963. ''Goethe: A Critical Introduction.'' Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
*Jane K. n.d. ''Goethe's Allegories of Identity.'' Philadelphia Pa: University of Pennsylvania Press.
*Maertz Gregory. 2017. ''Literature and the Cult of Personality: Essays on Goethe and His Influence.'' New York, NY:Columbia University Press.
*
*Robertson, Ritchie. 2016. ''Goethe : A Very Short Introduction.'' Oxford: Oxford University Press.
*
*Viëtor Karl and Bayard Quincy Morgan. 1950. ''Goethe the Thinker.'' Cambridge Mass: Harvard University Press.
External links
*
*
*
*
*
*
"Goethe and the Science of the Enlightenment"
''In Our Time'', BBC Radio 4 discussion with Nicholas Boyle
Nicholas Boyle FBA (born 18 June 1946) is an English literary critic. He is the emeritus Schröder Professor of German at the University of Cambridge and a fellow of Magdalene College, Cambridge. He has written widely on German literature, i ...
and Simon Schaffer (10 February 2000).
*
* At the Linda Hall Library, Goethe's:
** (1810
''Zur Farbenlehre'' (Atlas)
** (1840
''Goethe's Theory of Colours; translated from the German: with notes by Charles Lock Eastlake''
Works by and about Johann Wolfgang von Goethe in University Library JCS Frankfurt am Main: Digital Collections Judaica
*
Goethe in English
at ''Poems Found in Translation''
lieder.net
Goethe Quotes: New English translations and German originals
{{DEFAULTSORT:Goethe, Johann Wolfgang von
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