Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (28 August 1749 – 22 March 1832) was a German <a href="/facts/Polymath/eqIfjQRu">polymath</a> who is widely regarded as the greatest and most influential writer in the German language. His work has had a wide-ranging influence on <a href="/facts/Western_literature/Ko4LJC6H">literary</a>, <a href="/facts/Political_philosophy/JuLBNdAX">political</a>, and <a href="/facts/Western_philosophy/4m6EnYCI">philosophical</a> thought in the <a href="/facts/Western_world/UQl4e7du">Western world</a> from the late 18th century to the present. A poet, playwright, novelist, scientist, statesman, theatre-director, and critic, <a href="/facts/Johann_Wolfgang_von_Goethe_bibliography/utH8UGUM">his works</a> include plays, poetry and <a href="/facts/Aesthetic_criticism/8yQ0c8kG">aesthetic criticism</a>, as well as <a href="/facts/Treatise/ED3heHjb">treatises</a> on <a href="/facts/Botany/PaIRoxnb">botany</a>, <a href="/facts/Anatomy/p8TCWJuV">anatomy</a>, and colour.
Goethe took up residence in <a href="/facts/Weimar/b18pDg1Q">Weimar</a> in 1775 following the success of his first novel, <a href="/facts/The_Sorrows_of_Young_Werther/qvb1krTV">The Sorrows of Young Werther</a> (1774), and joined a thriving intellectual and cultural environment under the patronage of <a href="/facts/Duchess_Anna_Amalia_of_Brunswick-Wolfenb%C3%BCttel/y0PU0bf7">Duchess Anna Amalia</a> that formed the basis of <a href="/facts/Weimar_Classicism/K3dE7DL2">Weimar Classicism</a>. He was <a href="/facts/Ennobled/WLPIA8GT">ennobled</a> by <a href="/facts/Karl_August,_Grand_Duke_of_Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach/psqofkCv">Karl August, Duke of Saxe-Weimar</a>, in 1782. Goethe was an early participant in the <a href="/facts/Sturm_und_Drang/z9FTvKA4">Sturm und Drang</a> literary movement. During his first ten years in Weimar, Goethe became a member of the Duke's <a href="/facts/Privy_council/9c0ajVQE">privy council</a> (1776–1785), sat on the war and highway commissions, oversaw the reopening of silver mines in nearby <a href="/facts/Ilmenau/TsgFhRyt">Ilmenau</a>, and implemented a series of administrative reforms at the <a href="/facts/University_of_Jena/Kv3JXbEL">University of Jena</a>. He also contributed to the planning of Weimar's botanical park and the rebuilding of its <a href="/facts/Schloss_Weimar/cC5fmhYg">Ducal Palace</a>.
Goethe's first major scientific work, the <a href="/facts/Metamorphosis_of_Plants/u5w7vVjf">Metamorphosis of Plants</a>, was published after he returned from a 1788 tour of Italy. In 1791 he was made managing director of the <a href="/facts/Deutsches_Nationaltheater_und_Staatskapelle_Weimar/wEt17ygW">theatre at Weimar</a>, and in 1794 he began a friendship with the <a href="/facts/Playwright/Mdtsordb">dramatist</a>, historian, and philosopher <a href="/facts/Friedrich_Schiller/HsE8cdHw">Friedrich Schiller</a>, whose plays he premiered until Schiller's death in 1805. During this period Goethe published his second novel, <a href="/facts/Wilhelm_Meister%27s_Apprenticeship/1txN8NBv">Wilhelm Meister's Apprenticeship</a>; the verse epic <a href="/facts/Hermann_and_Dorothea/E4wjnXWp">Hermann and Dorothea</a>, and, in 1808, the first part of his most celebrated drama, <a href="/facts/Goethe%27s_Faust/zCqtADGP">Faust</a>. His conversations and various shared undertakings throughout the 1790s with Schiller, <a href="/facts/Johann_Gottlieb_Fichte/s44rX8qD">Johann Gottlieb Fichte</a>, <a href="/facts/Johann_Gottfried_Herder/IapNWJJI">Johann Gottfried Herder</a>, <a href="/facts/Alexander_von_Humboldt/5AuxyDbh">Alexander von Humboldt</a>, <a href="/facts/Wilhelm_von_Humboldt/7tYkJbXT">Wilhelm von Humboldt</a>, and <a href="/facts/August_Schlegel/PT6Cbldw">August</a> and <a href="/facts/Friedrich_Schlegel/3kaE2myu">Friedrich Schlegel</a> have come to be collectively termed <a href="/facts/Weimar_Classicism/K3dE7DL2">Weimar Classicism</a>.
The German philosopher <a href="/facts/Arthur_Schopenhauer/pYt2cRmc">Arthur Schopenhauer</a> named Wilhelm Meister's Apprenticeship one of the four greatest novels ever written, while the American philosopher and essayist <a href="/facts/Ralph_Waldo_Emerson/PmnMgwd5">Ralph Waldo Emerson</a> selected Goethe as one of six "representative men" in his <a href="/facts/Representative_Men/kH8TupqF">work of the same name</a> (along with <a href="/facts/Plato/jGtT1UD5">Plato</a>, <a href="/facts/Emanuel_Swedenborg/QE3Pcl8U">Emanuel Swedenborg</a>, <a href="/facts/Michel_de_Montaigne/DRFb5JNK">Michel de Montaigne</a>, <a href="/facts/Napoleon/8TKBIjPM">Napoleon</a>, and <a href="/facts/William_Shakespeare/ohI96JTv">William Shakespeare</a>). Goethe's comments and observations form the basis of several biographical works, notably <a href="/facts/Johann_Peter_Eckermann/PxtT9I7I">Johann Peter Eckermann</a>'s <a href="/facts/Conversations_with_Goethe/2Uurxe47">Conversations with Goethe</a> (1836). His poems were set to music by many composers, including <a href="/facts/Wolfgang_Amadeus_Mozart/2X5fm67T">Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart</a>, <a href="/facts/Ludwig_van_Beethoven/eusBgBkA">Ludwig van Beethoven</a>, <a href="/facts/Franz_Schubert/M5UAjUp7">Franz Schubert</a>, <a href="/facts/Hector_Berlioz/Sv3c5tX5">Hector Berlioz</a>, <a href="/facts/Franz_Liszt/Ihep88h9">Franz Liszt</a>, <a href="/facts/Richard_Wagner/XoFH4v69">Richard Wagner</a>, and <a href="/facts/Gustav_Mahler/yYTMSJb6">Gustav Mahler</a>.

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Johann Wolfgang von Goethe