JOHANN WOLFGANG VON GOETHE: BIOGRAPHY AND WORKS - HISTORY - 2025

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832) was a German writer and scientific researcher, considered the most important man of letters in his native country and one of the most important on the European continent. His writings include novels, lyric poems, plays and treatises on various topics.

He decisively influenced German literary Romanticism and the entire Sturm und Drang movement. The emblematic work of this cultural trend was Faust, a tragedy written by Goethe and published in two parts (1808 and 1832 respectively).

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. Source: Heinrich Christoph Kolbe

In this work the main character, Heinrich Faust, sells his soul to Mephistopheles in exchange for knowledge and unlimited favors during his life, obtaining in return great misadventures and spiritual poverty. It contains various allusions to historical figures and deals with philosophical issues.

The most relevant institution named after him is the Goethe Institute. This organization is dedicated to disseminating and promoting knowledge of the German language and culture around the world. It is currently based in more than 150 countries around the world.

Biography

Birth, education and youth

He was born in Frankfurt am Main (now known simply as Frankfurt), Hesse, Germany, on August 28, 1749. His parents, who belonged to the bourgeois patrician class, were the lawyer Johann Caspar Goethe and his wife Katharina Elisabeth Textor.

He was homeschooled by his father from a very young age, displaying an insatiable curiosity about various subjects. He studied drawing and letters, also geology, medicine and chemistry.

College entrance

In 1765 he enrolled in the Faculty of Law at the University of Leipzig. There he studied Greek art and culture, mainly through the texts of Johann Joachim Winckelmann.

Then he continued his training in various subjects. In 1768 he had to leave the university due to the ailments of an illness and returned to Frankfurt.

In 1770 he moved to the city of Strasbourg where he continued his studies. In those years he came into contact with the cultural environment of the city and met the philosopher and literary critic Johann Gottfried von Herder.

It was this man who instilled in her a love of German folk poetry, as well as discussing the works of Shakespeare, Homer and Ossian with him.

This influence was decisive in his literary work, as it prompted him to include in his works the characteristics of what would later be known as German Romanticism. Among these particularities, the cult of genius, the praise of the original German spirit and artistic creation linked to feeling and spontaneity stand out.

First works and foray into the

He completed his studies in 1771 and later moved to Wetzlar, where he practiced as a lawyer.

In 1772 he began, together with Herder, the writing of On German style and art, a text that praised the work of Shakespeare and Ossian and was considered the manifesto of the Sturm und Drang ("Storm and impetus"), a literary movement that started the Romanticism in Germany.

A year later, in 1773, his tragedy Götz von Berlichingen was published.

At Wetzlar he met and fell deeply in love with the young Charlotte Buff, fiancee of Johann Christian Kestner, Goethe's colleague and friend. This frustrated love was the inspiration for one of his most famous works and a classic of world literature: The sufferings of the young Werter, an epistolary novel published in 1774. That same year his play Clavijo was published.

The Werter, as it is known, became so popular that it is considered one of the first Best Sellers in the history of literature. It was an epistolary novel that recounted the love suffering of a young man who was not reciprocated in his feelings. He represented an ideal of youth for the time.

In 1773 he settled again in Frankfurt. There he became engaged to Lili Schönemann, also the daughter of a bourgeois family in the city. However, the engagement was broken in the fall of 1775 due to differences between the two families.

Life in the Weimar court and works of maturity

After the breakdown of their engagement, Goethe moved to Weimar as a guest at the court of the Duke of Saxony-Weimar-Eisenach, Charles Augustus. There he established his residence until his death and developed most of his life as a writer.

At the Weimar court he fulfilled various functions and was in contact with several of the most important German artists and intellectuals of his generation, such as Friedrich von Schiller, Friedrich Maximilian Klinger, Arthur Schopenhauer, Ludwig van Beethoven and Jakob Michael Reinhold Lenz.

Monument in honor of Goethe and Schiller. Source: Easchiff, from Wikimedia Commons

All these links were achieved thanks to Duchess Ana Amalia of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel insisting on creating a circle of intellectuals at court. Weimar became in those years the focus of German culture in the 18th and 19th centuries.

Charlotte von Stein and Goethe

He also became close friends with a court lady named Charlotte von Stein, with whom he corresponded until her death in 1827.

In total, more than 1700 letters between the two are preserved, in which their artistic and personal concerns are reflected. To von Stein, Goethe dedicated a series of poems in the 1780s.

Goethe, the secret advisor

In 1776 the writer was appointed secret councilor of the legation and the direction of the ducal Library was entrusted to him. Today this institution is known as the Duchess Ana Amalia Library. It is one of the largest and most important in Germany. Its building was declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1998.

During this period, his interest in scientific disciplines began, particularly in optics, chemistry, geology and anatomy, specifically in osteology. In the field of optics he developed a Theory of Colors, which was published in 1810.

Goethe, the osteologist

In his osteological studies, he discovered the intermaxillary bone and published his findings in 1784. He did so briefly after the French anatomist Vicq d'Azyr made the same discovery. This finding was fundamental to support the theory of evolution.

Shortly before, in 1782, Duke Charles Augustus ordered that the particle von be added to Goethe's surname, to give him a rank comparable to the Weimar nobility. On February 11, 1783 he entered Masonry at the Amalia Lodge.

Life in Weimar and travel

During his life in Weimar he received various commissions that led him to make long trips to other European cities. Between 1786 and 1788 he remained in Italy, specifically in Venice and Rome.

There he expanded his knowledge of Greco-Latin antiquity and wrote Venetian Epigrams and Roman Elegies, which were published in 1795 in the newspaper Las Horas, directed by Schiller.

These trips influenced his later work, more oriented to classicism than to the demonstration of the feeling typical of his first great writings.

Marriage and appointments

After his return to Weimar he had a son named Julius August Walther von Goethe, with Christiane Vulpius. He did not get to marry this young woman until 1808. However, he legally recognized his son much earlier, in 1800.

In 1791 he was appointed director of the Ducal Theater, a position he held for more than two decades. There he deepened his friendship with Schiller and in the newspaper he ran, several works of Goethe's production were published during the 1790s.

A fruitful time

Among the works of Goethe published in said newspaper stand out: Wilhelm Meister's learning years in 1796, one of his most famous novels, and Hermann and Dorothea in 1798.

During these years he began the writing of his most important work, Faust, the first part of which was published in 1808. Faust, as well as Götz von Berlichingen illustrated, years later, Eugene Delacroix.

That same year he met with Napoleon Bonaparte. It did so during the French army's occupation of the city of Erfurt in the framework of the Napoleonic wars.

Return to Weimar

The following years he was mainly in Weimar, focused on cultural activities and writing. The natural daughter, a tragedy for the theater, was published in 1799 and The Elective Affinities, his great maturity novel, came out in 1809.

Later, in 1816, a diary of his travels through Italy was published entitled Italian Travels and in 1819 the poetry book Diván de Oriente y Occidente was published.

Between 1811 and 1833, Poetry and Truth, an autobiography, was published, thanks to which many details of his life are known. In 1821 she published Wilhelm Meister's Pilgrimage Years, the second novel by her well-known character. He also continued drawing, an activity that had given him great pleasure since he was a child.

Goethe's death

Goethe died in Weimar on March 22, 1832, at the age of 82. He had a long and prolific life, during which he enjoyed a great reputation and the recognition of intellectuals throughout Europe.

His remains are in the crypt of the ducal dynasty in the Weimar Historical Cemetery, where those of his great friend Friedrich Schiller also rest.

Plays

His works can be classified into novels, plays, poetry, and treatises. He also wrote an autobiography entitled Poetry and Truth (1811 - 1833), a travel journal called Italian Travels (1816), and many letters for his friends that still survive.

-Novels

The Sufferings of Young Werter (1774)

The novels of his authorship are all of great fame, but this one was especially so. This manuscript was so widely circulated in Europe that a wave of suicides occurred, the fatal fate of the protagonist. In addition, theme parties were held with young people dressed in the manner of the characters in the story.

Wilhelm Meister's Learning Years (1796)

It was his second novel and fit into the genre of training novels (German Bildungsroman), in which the main character passes from youth to adult life. She was deeply admired by figures like Arthur Schopenhauer and Friedrich Schlegel.

Elective Affinities (1809)

It was another highly praised novel that tells the story of four characters. He reflects on moral issues, human passions, and questions the institution of marriage and its foundations.

-Theater plays

Among his works for theater are: The Whim of the Lover (1767), The accomplices (1768), Götz von Berlichingen (1773), Clavijo (1774), Stella (1775), Iphigenia in Tauride (1787), Egmont (1788), The black forest (1789), Torquato Tasso (1790), The Great Coptic (1792), The natural daughter (1799) and Faust (first part 1807, second part 1832).

The importance of Faust

Without a doubt, the latter is the most important work of the writer. Faust tells the story of Heinrich Faust, a passionate scholar who is also God's favorite.

This man, in his attempt to learn everything, used magic and made a pact with Mephistopheles, the devil, to give him everything he wants in life in exchange for giving him his soul after death.

Goethe's Faust. Source: Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Faust fell in love with a young woman named Gretchen and after a series of misfortunes his beloved dies in his arms, as the help of Mephistopheles was not enough to amend his progressive moral and spiritual deterioration.

In the second part of the work, a series of journeys of the protagonist through different eras are described, in which he meets different historical figures. In the end Faust dies and goes to heaven. It is a work rich in historical references and reflections on morality, life and death.

-Poetic work

His poetic work includes: Prometheus (1774), Roman Elegies (1795), The Bride of Corinth (1797), Hermann and Dorothea (1798), East and West Divan (1819) and Marienbad Elegy (1823).

-Treaties

As a scientific researcher, he ventured into the field of morphology by publishing The Metamorphosis of Plants (1790). In this text he studied mainly the leaves as structure.

In the field of optics, Goethe published Theory of Colors (1810). He studied the phenomena of refraction and achromatism. In this writing he refuted some of Isaac Newton's claims on matter, providing more general explanations of these phenomena. Goethe's theory was echoed by artists of the 19th century.

References

1. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. (S. f.). Spain: Wikipedia. Recovered from: es.wikipedia.org.
2. Johann Wolfgang Goethe. (S. f.). (N / a): Biographies and Lives, the online biographical encyclopedia. Recovered from: biografiasyvidas.com.
3. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. (S. f.). Spain: Circle of Fine Arts of Madrid. Europa House. Recovered from: circulobellasartes.com.
4. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. (S. f.). Argentina: National Library of Teachers. Recovered from: bnm.me.gov.ar.
5. Faust (Goethe). (S. f.). Spain: Wikipedia. Recovered: es.wikipedia.org.