Goetheforschung (also ''Goethe-Forschung'', literally "Goethe-research") is a German term originating in the 19th century for the ''Goethe Movement'', centering on both amateur and academic study of the life of

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (28 August 1749 – 22 March 1832) was a German poet, playwright, novelist, scientist, statesman, theatre director, and critic. His works include plays, poetry, literature, and aesthetic criticism, as well as trea ...

. Study and research is often done privately and facilitated through Goethe societies such as 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 ...

. Such societies are dedicated to preserving the memory of Goethe in the public consciousness. The name of no other German poet resonates in the public mind as much as Goethe's, and he is held in an esteem approaching that accorded to

Shakespeare William Shakespeare ( 26 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's nation ...

in the realm of literature,

Michelangelo Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni (; 6 March 1475 – 18 February 1564), known as Michelangelo (), was an Italian sculptor, painter, architect, and poet of the High Renaissance. Born in the Republic of Florence, his work was insp ...

, in sculpture, or

Beethoven Ludwig van Beethoven (baptised 17 December 177026 March 1827) was a German composer and pianist. Beethoven remains one of the most admired composers in the history of Western music; his works rank amongst the most performed of the classical ...

in musical composition. In the 19th century, Goetheforschung was associated with non-academic enthusiasts and collectors such as

Woldemar von Biedermann Gustav Woldemar Freiherr von Biedermann (5 March 1817, Marienberg – 6 February 1903, Dresden) was a jurist, literary historian, and Goethe researcher. Life and work The son of the jurist and politician Gustav Heinrich Freiherr von Biederman, Wol ...

who sought personal betterment and enrichment through immersion in Goethe's life and works. In communist

East Germany East Germany, officially the German Democratic Republic (GDR; german: Deutsche Demokratische Republik, , DDR, ), was a country that existed from its creation on 7 October 1949 until its dissolution on 3 October 1990. In these years the state ...

, Goetheforschung was upheld as part of the regime's conservative cultural policy (German: ') promoting

Weimar classicism Weimar Classicism (german: Weimarer Klassik) was a German literary and cultural movement, whose practitioners established a new humanism from the synthesis of ideas from Romanticism, Classicism, and the Age of Enlightenment. It was named after t ...

as the foundation of Germany's cultural heritage. In modern Germany and elsewhere, Goethe is often far better known than read. Researchers have even paid intense attention to even Goethe's non-literary and incidental works, such as his scientific writings and everyday correspondence, as exemplified in the critical commentary to the 1950s

Leopoldina Leopoldina may refer to: * Colônia Leopoldina, a Brazilian municipality in the state of Alagoa * Leopoldina, Minas Gerais, a Brazilian municipality in the state of Minas Gerais * Maria Leopoldina of Austria (1797-1826), consort of emperor Pedro I ...

complete edition of Goethe's works.Goethe: Die Schriften zur Naturwissenschaft. (Im Auftrage der Deutschen Akademie der Naturforscher Leopoldina begründet von und

Wilhelm Troll Julius Georg Hubertus Wilhelm Troll (3 November 1897, Munich – 28 December 1978, Mainz) was a German botanist, known for his studies in the field of plant morphology. He advocated a morphological biology that was rooted in the nature philos ...

.) Vollständige, mit Erläuterungen versehene Ausgabe von ,

Wolf von Engelhardt Wolf Jürgen Baron von Engelhardt (9 February 1910, Tartu – 4 December 2008, Tübingen) was a German geologist and mineralogist. Baron von Engelhardt was a descendant of a Baltic Germans, Baltic German noble family Engelhardt family, Engelhar ...

u. Irmgard Müller. Böhlau-Verlag, Weimar 1947ff.,
URL
{{Webarchive, url=https://web.archive.org/web/20010219155114/http://www.leopoldina-halle.de/goethe/goethe.htm , date=2001-02-19

Notable Figures

(1817–1903), jurist and literary historian. *

Rudolf Steiner Rudolf Joseph Lorenz Steiner (27 or 25 February 1861 – 30 March 1925) was an Austrian occultist, social reformer, architect, esotericist, and claimed clairvoyant. Steiner gained initial recognition at the end of the nineteenth century as a ...

(1861–1925),

esoteric Western esotericism, also known as esotericism, esoterism, and sometimes the Western mystery tradition, is a term scholars use to categorise a wide range of loosely related ideas and movements that developed within Western society. These ideas a ...

philosopher. * Hans Gerhard Gräf (1864–1942), an editor of the authoritative Weimar complete edition of Goethe's work. * Hans Sachse (1906–1985), member of the Weimar Goethe-Gesellschaft. * Naoji Kimura (born 1934), lecturer at the

Sophia University Sophia University (Japanese: 上智大学, ''Jōchi Daigaku''; Latin: ''Universitas Sedis Sapientiae'') is a private research university in Japan. Sophia is one of the three ''Sōkeijōchi'' (早慶上智) private universities, a group of the to ...

, Tokyo.

References

German words and phrases Johann Wolfgang von Goethe