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His Beginnings
Born in Frankfurt on
August 28, 1748. His
father, Johann, was a
lawyer and his mother,
Katherine Elisabeth, was
the mayors daughter.
His grandmother gave him a puppet show to encourage
his love of theatre. His mother encouraged his
imagination and often told him stories and plays.
One can say that anyone born ten years earlier or later
would have become a completely different person.
Early Years
Goethe described his childhood as chaotic and thought
of himself as a combination of his fathers northern
rigorous intellect and morality and his mothers southern
casual style, a combination of two Germanies.
During his childhood the French occupied Frankfurt
during the Seven Years War, a conflict over colonial
possessions and Joseph II was crowned.
These events began his tendency toward rebellion, a
sentiment which was rarely discussed openly.
Goethe was known as a jokester and a playboy,
constantly in and out of love. Many of his affairs
became the basis for his stories and poems.
Girls we love for what they are; young men for what
they promise to be.
Leipzig
Goethes father personally
supervised his education from
home until he was 16 when he
was sent to study law at the
University in Leipzig.
Although he was obviously
intelligent, he didnt take his
studies too seriously. He
began writing and studying
the social scene more than
the books.
Strasbourg
Invitation To
Weimer
In 1775 at the age of 26 Duke Karl August invited
Goethe to join him in Weimer. Goethe had met the
duke briefly and was impressed by him.
Young princes often invited famous or talented men
to their towns and it was expected that the invitation
would be accepted gladly. Goethe said he would
come but wouldnt guarantee hed stay.
He had disliked the legal profession and was skeptical
of the political aristocratic world he was being asked
to join.
Weimer
At that time Weimer was insignificant although it has been
in existence since 945. The Holy Roman Empire was still
technically in control of most of Europe.
Weimer was a small principality in the loosely defined
Germany.
By the time of Goethes death, Weimer would become a
center of European literature and culture.
Once there, Goethe found it exhilarating to be in the middle
of the social scene, interacting with all kinds of people. He
invited many of his friends to live and work.
Es bildet ein Talent sich in der Stille, Sich ein Charakter in dem Strom der
Welt. [Talent develops in quiet places, character in the full current of human
life.]
Immediate Sensation
Goethe decided to arrive in Weimer dressed as his
character Werther. He wore a bright blue and yellow
suit causing people to whisper in the streets as he
passed.
Weimer society was suspicious of him and resented him
from the beginning. They were shocked at a member of
the middle class from another town serving in their
government.
Goethe enjoyed ruffling peoples feathers and making
them confront their social traditions. He acted without
regard to his reputation, something they were not used
to.
Some would call him crazy, some would call him
immoral, but all were fascinated by him.
Charlotte von
Stein was a well
respected
member of
Weimar society.
Schiller
Conversation
Goethe loved conversation even more than the
written word. In Weimer he had the opportunity to
mingle with the Dukes frequent guests of state and
society.
If he was alone he was known to simply imagine
guests were present and carry on a conversation,
guessing their responses.
He began dictating his work and found it a liberating
process. He saw this method as a sign of his
transition from the Sturm und Drang style to what
was termed Weimer Classicism.
The deepest concerns of the mind and heart, our most
important observations and reflections, should only be
discussed by word of mouth.
Italy
In an attempt at intellectual self liberation from the
uptight and proper court life in Weimer, he traveled
to Italy in 1786 to gain a new perspective.
He settled in Rome and studied ancient history, art
and literature.
His writing began to stress a calmness and dignity
reflecting a classical style.
This new direction ushered in another phase of
German literature, the Classical period.
In Rome I have found myself for the first time.
Scientific Discoveries
Goethe, like many of his characters, loved nature.
He viewed nature as a separate personality, as a
living, breathing entity.
His research in morphology is seen as the foundation
for Darwins theory of evolution.
He also published The Theory of Color which stated
that the visual was not concrete, but rather a
subjective interpretation by the individual. His ideas
on these matters were sometimes compared to the
ideas of Kant.
Nature! We are surrounded and embraced by her:
powerless to separate ourselves from her, and powerless to penetrate beyond her
Without asking, or warning, she snatches us up into her circling dance, and whirls us
on until we are tired, and drop from her arms."
Christiane Vulpius
Goethe met Christiane
in 1787 and invited
her to live with him in
1788. This caused a
scandal in Weimer
society. Not only was
he living with a
woman he wasnt
married to, but she
worked at the paper
factory and was seen
as an unsuitable
companion for
someone of his
position.
He lived with
her for 18
years until he
married her in
1806. They
would only
have ten more
years. She
died in 1816
leaving only
one surviving
child, August.
Love is an ideal thing, marriage a real thing; a confusion of the real with the
ideal never goes unpunished.
Political Beliefs
He didnt become particularly interested in participating in or following
politics until after the French Revolution. Before that he said he would
leave the thinking on these matters to men like Schiller and Kant.
He felt that mass democracy was impossible. In 1832 he said,
Legislators and revolutionaries who promote equality and liberty at the
same time are either psychopaths or mountebanks.
He was strongly against political centralization and many think he would
be appalled at the state of the world and Europe in particular today. He
felt that states and cities had to have their own authority, traditions and
unique sense or culture would be lost.
He believed that a country should be united by things like patriotism,
transportation, common money and language among other things, not
by a central authority.
Faust
Faust was Goethes crowning achievement, his greatest work.
It took him 57 years to complete. He was 81 when he finished.
The legend of Faust dates back to early Christianity. Before
Goethe its most famous version was a play by Christopher
Marlowe.
Goethes version, which in many ways is a reflection of his own
life and ideas, ends with Faust escaping his doomed fate as his
soul is taken to heaven. While Marlowes version was a
statement about the punishment of sin, Goethes was about
redemption.
Themes of Faust
The possibility of contentment
Fausts unquenchable thirst for knowledge and the lengths he goes to get
it are a reflection of the constant struggle we are in to both exist and
become.
Superficial Blindness
Faust had acted greedily, taking from the poor and weak to further his
wealth. Even with all his wealth and power he did not have any joy. Only
after Faust has lost his sight at the end of life does he truly see what is
really important and he returned all that he taken.
His Death
He spent the few days before his death fully dressed and in
his chair having conversations. As he became worse, he
often was heard mumbling Schillers name.
Goethe died on March 22, 1832, holding his daughter in
laws hand, at the age of 83 of pneumonia. His dying
words were more light.
By the end of his life he had managed to revolutionize the
literary world more than once, and his lifetime would come
to be known as the age of Goethe.
He is buried in the grand ducal vault along side Schiller in
Weimar.
Sources
http://freemasonry.bcy.ca/biography/goethe_j/goethe_j.html
http://www.bartleby.com/19/3/1001.html
http://www.tyska.lu.se/one/kurser/tys035humrel/intro/Intro.htm
http://www.quotationspage.com/quotes/Johann_Wolfgang_von_Goethe/11
http://lettersfromthedustbowl.com/Page33.html#Goethe
http://www.cartage.org.lb/en/themes/Biographies/MainBiographies/G/goethejohannwolfgang/1.html
http://fajardo-acosta.com/worldlit/goethe/
http://www.odysseetheater.com/goethe/goethe_05.htm
http://www.uni-leipzig.de/~jura/info/geschichte.html
http://www.seminarlehrer.de/hilfen/prometh/prometh.htm
Unseld, Siegfried Goethe and His Publishers. Translated by Kenneth J. Northcott. x, 372 p.
1996
Johann Wolfgang Goethe Liselotte Dieckmann 1974
From Goethe to Hauptmann Camillo von Klenze 1926
Conversations and Encounters