Goethe

Goethe is a renowned German writer and statesman. His works include: four novels; epic and lyric poetry written in diverse meter; prose and verse dramas; memoirs; an autobiography; literary and aesthetic criticism; and treatises on botany, anatomy, and color. He is considered the greatest German literary figure of the modern era.

Life and Work

Goethe was born in 1749 in Frankfurt am Main, Germany. He studied law at Leipzig University from 1765 to 1768. He also attended the University of Strasbourg in 1770, and was admitted to the bar in 1772. However, he soon turned his attention to literature.

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 appointed managing director of the theatre at Weimar, and in 1794 he began a friendship with the dramatist, historian, and philosopher Friedrich Schiller, whose plays he premiered until Schiller's death in 1805.

Works

Goethe's most famous work is his two-part dramatic poem, Faust, which he started around the age of 23 and didn't finish till shortly before his death 60 years later. He completed the first part in 1808. The second part was only finished in its entirety after his death. The first part was published in his lifetime, while the second part was published posthumously.

Legacy

Goethe's influence spread across Europe, and for the next century his works were a major source of inspiration in music, drama, poetry and philosophy. Goethe is considered by many to be the most important writer in the German language and one of the most important thinkers in Western culture.

See also

• German literature
• Romanticism
• Sturm und Drang
• Weimar Classicism

External links

• Goethe-Institut
• Goethe-Institut USA

Goethe Resources
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