Superintendent of the ducal library and Chief Adviser of Saxe-Weimar(from 1775)
Commissioner of the War, Mines and Highways Commissions of Saxe-Weimar(from 1779)
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe[a] (28 August 1749 – 22 March 1832) was a Germanpolymath who is widely regarded as the most influential writer in the German language. His work has had a wide-ranging influence onliterary,political, andphilosophical thought in theWestern world from the late 18th century to the present.[3][4] A poet, playwright, novelist, scientist, statesman, theatre-director, and critic,[3] Goethe wrote a wide range ofworks, including plays, poetry andaesthetic criticism, as well astreatises onbotany,anatomy, and colour.
Goethe took up residence inWeimar in 1775 following the success of his first novel,The Sorrows of Young Werther (1774), and joined a thriving intellectual and cultural environment under the patronage ofDuchess Anna Amalia that formed the basis ofWeimar Classicism. He wasennobled byKarl August, Duke of Saxe-Weimar, in 1782. Goethe was an early participant in theSturm und Drang literary movement. During his first ten years in Weimar, Goethe became a member of the Duke'sprivy council (1776–1785), sat on the war and highway commissions, oversaw the reopening of silver mines in nearbyIlmenau, and implemented a series of administrativereforms at theUniversity of Jena. He also contributed to the planning of Weimar's botanical park and the rebuilding of itsDucal Palace.[5][b]
Through his maternal grandmother, Goethe descended from theSoldan family.[8][9][10][11] Bernt Engelmann has said that "the German poet prince [i.e. Goethe] with oriental ancestors is by no means a rare exception."[12]
Goethe's grandfather,Friedrich Georg Goethe [de], moved fromThuringia in 1687 and changed the spelling of his surname from Göthe to Goethe. In Frankfurt, he first worked as a tailor, then opened a tavern. His son and grandchildren subsequently lived on the fortune he earned. Friedrich Georg Goethe was married twice; his first marriage was to Anna Elisabeth Lutz, the daughter of a burgher Sebastian Lutz, with whom he had five children, including Hermann Jakob Goethe. After the death of his first wife in 1705 he married Cornelia Schellhorn, née Walther, widow of the innkeeper Johannes Schellhorn (died 1704), with whom he had four more children, including Johann Caspar Goethe, father of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe.
Goethe's father,Johann Caspar Goethe, lived with his family in a large house (today theGoethe House) inFrankfurt, then afree imperial city of theHoly Roman Empire. Though he had studiedlaw in Leipzig and had been appointed Imperial Councillor, Johann Caspar Goethe was not involved in the city's official affairs.[13] Johann Caspar married Goethe's mother,Catharina Elisabeth Textor, in Frankfurt on 20 August 1748, when he was 38 and she was 17.[14] All their children, with the exception of Johann Wolfgang and his sisterCornelia Friederica Christiana, died at an early age.
The young Goethe received from his father and private tutors lessons in subjects common at the time, especially languages (Latin,Greek,Biblical Hebrew (briefly),[15] French, Italian, and English). Goethe also received lessons in dancing,riding, andfencing. Johann Caspar, feeling frustrated in his own ambitions, was determined that his children should have every advantage he had missed.[13]
Although Goethe's great passion was drawing, he quickly became interested in literature;Friedrich Gottlieb Klopstock andHomer were among his early favorites.[16] He also had a devotion to the theater, and was greatly fascinated by thepuppet shows that were annually arranged by occupying French Soldiers at his home and which later became a recurrent theme in his literary workWilhelm Meister's Apprenticeship.
He also took great pleasure in reading works on history and religion. Of this period he wrote:
I had from childhood the singular habit of always learning by heart the beginnings of books, and the divisions of a work, first of thefive books of Moses, and then of theAeneid andOvid'sMetamorphoses. ... If an ever active imagination, of which that tale may bear witness, led me hither and thither, if the medley of fable and history, mythology and religion, threatened to bewilder me, I readily fled to those oriental regions, and plunged into the first books of Moses, and there, amid the scattered shepherd tribes, found myself at once in the greatest solitude and the greatest society.[17]
Goethe also became acquainted with Frankfurt actors. Valerian Tornius wrote:Goethe – Leben, Wirken und Schaffen.[18] In early literary attempts Goethe showed an infatuation withGretchen, who would later reappear in hisFaust, and the adventures with whom he would describe concisely inDichtung und Wahrheit.[19] He adored Caritas Meixner, a wealthyWorms merchant's daughter and friend of his sister, who later married the merchant G. F. Schuler.[20]
Goethe studied law atLeipzig University from 1765 to 1768. He detested learning judicial rules by heart, preferring instead to attend the lessons of the university professor and poetChristian Fürchtegott Gellert. In Leipzig, Goethe fell in love withAnna Katharina Schönkopf, the daughter of a craftsman and innkeeper, writing cheerful verses about her in theRococo genre. In 1770, he released anonymously his first collection of poems,Annette. His uncritical admiration for many contemporary poets evaporated as he developed an interest inGotthold Ephraim Lessing andChristoph Martin Wieland. By this time, Goethe had already written a great deal, but he discarded nearly all of these works except for the comedyDie Mitschuldigen. The innAuerbachs Keller and its legend ofJohann Georg Faust's 1525 barrel ride impressed him so much that Auerbachs Keller became the only real place in hiscloset dramaFaust Part One. Given that he was making little progress in his formal studies, Goethe was forced to return to Frankfurt at the end of August 1768.
Back in Frankfurt, Goethe became severely ill. During the year and a half that followed, marked by several relapses, relations with his father worsened. During convalescence, Goethe was nursed by his mother and sister. In April 1770, Goethe left Frankfurt to finish his studies, this time at theUniversity of Strasbourg.
InAlsace, Goethe blossomed. No other landscape was to be described by him as affectionately as the warm, wide Rhineland. In Strasbourg, Goethe metJohann Gottfried Herder. The two became close friends, and crucially to Goethe's intellectual development, Herder kindled his interest inWilliam Shakespeare,Ossian and in the notion ofVolkspoesie (folk poetry). On 14 October 1772 Goethe hosted a gathering in his parents home in honour of the first German "Shakespeare Day". His first acquaintance with Shakespeare's works is described as his personal awakening in the field of literature.[21]
On a trip to the village ofSessenheim in October 1770, Goethe fell in love withFriederike Brion,[22][23] but the tryst ended in August 1771.[24] Several of Goethe's poems, like "Willkommen und Abschied", "Sesenheimer Lieder" and "Heidenröslein", date to this period.
At the end of August 1771, Goethe acquired the academic degree of theLicentiate in Law from Strasbourg and was able to establish a small legal practice in Frankfurt. Although in his academic work he had given voice to an ambition to makejurisprudence progressively more humane, his inexperience led him to proceed too vigorously in his first cases, for which he was reprimanded and lost further clientele. Within a few months, this put an early end to his law career. Around this time, Goethe became acquainted with the court ofDarmstadt, where his inventiveness was praised. It was from that world that there came Johann Georg Schlosser (who later became Goethe's brother-in-law) andJohann Heinrich Merck. Goethe also pursued literary plans again; this time, his father did not object, and even helped. Goethe obtained a copy of the biography of anoblehighwayman from theGerman Peasants' War. In a couple of weeks the biography was reworked into a colourful drama titledGötz von Berlichingen, and the work struck a chord among Goethe's contemporaries.
Since Goethe could not subsist on his income as one of the editors of a literary periodical (published by Schlosser and Merck), in May 1772 he once more took up the practice of law, this time atWetzlar. In 1774 he wrote the book which would bring him worldwide fame,The Sorrows of Young Werther. The broad shape of the work's plot is largely based on what Goethe experienced during his time at Wetzlar withCharlotte Buff[25] and her fiancé,Johann Christian Kestner,[25] as well as the suicide of the Goethes' friendKarl Wilhelm Jerusalem. In the latter case, Goethe made a desperate passion of what was in reality a hearty and relaxed friendship.[26] Despite the immense success ofWerther, it did not bring Goethe much financial gain since the protection later afforded by copyright laws at that time virtually did not exist. In later years Goethe would counter this problem by periodically authorizing "new, revised" editions of hisComplete Works.[27]
In 1775, on the strength of his fame as the author ofThe Sorrows of Young Werther, Goethe was invited to the court ofKarl August, Duke of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach, who later becameGrand Duke in 1815. The Duke's mother,Duchess Anna Amalia, had been the long-time regent on behalf of her son until 1775 and was one of the most important patrons of the arts in her day, making her court into a centre of the arts. Her court had hosted the renownedtheatre company ofAbel Seyler until a 1774 fire had destroyedSchloss Weimar. Karl August came of age when he turned eighteen in 1775, although his mother continued to be a major presence at the court. So it was that Goethe took up residence inWeimar, where he remained for the rest of his life[28] and where, over the course of many years, he held a succession of offices, including superintendent of the ducal library.[29] He was, moreover, the Duke's friend and chiefadviser.[30][31]
In 1776, Goethe formed a close relationship withCharlotte von Stein, a married woman seven years older than him. The intimate bond with her lasted for ten years, after which Goethe abruptly left for Italy without giving his companion any notice. She was emotionally distraught at the time, but they were eventually reconciled.[32]
Aside from his official duties, Goethe was also a friend and confidant to Duke Karl August and participated in the activities of the court. For Goethe, his first ten years at Weimar could well be described as a garnering of a degree and range of experiences which perhaps could have been achieved in no other way. In 1779, Goethe took on the War Commission of the Grand Duchy ofSaxe-Weimar, in addition to the Mines and Highways commissions. In 1782, when the Duchy'schancellor of the Exchequer left his office, Goethe agreed to act in his place and did so for two and a half years; this post virtually made himprime minister and the principal representative of the Duchy.[3] Goethe wasennobled in 1782 (hence the particle "von" in his name). In that same year, Goethe moved into what would be hisprimary residence in Weimar for the next 50 years.[33]
As head of the Saxe-Weimar War Commission, Goethe participated in the recruitment of mercenaries into the Prussian and British military during the American Revolution. The author Daniel Wilson claims that Goethe engaged in negotiating the forced sale of vagabonds, criminals, and political dissidents as part of these activities.[34]
Goethe's journey to theItalian peninsula and Sicily from 1786 to 1788 was of great significance in his aesthetic and philosophical development. His father had made a similar journey, and his example was a major motivating factor for Goethe to make the trip. More importantly, however, the work ofJohann Joachim Winckelmann had provoked a general renewed interest in the classicalart of ancient Greece andRome. Thus Goethe's journey had something of the nature of apilgrimage to it. During the course of his trip Goethe met and befriended the artistsAngelica Kauffman andJohann Heinrich Wilhelm Tischbein, as well as encountering such notable characters asLady Hamilton andAlessandro Cagliostro.
He also journeyed to Sicily during this time, and wrote that "To have seen Italy without having seen Sicily is to not have seen Italy at all, for Sicily is the clue to everything."[35] While in Southern Italy and Sicily, Goethe encountered, for the first time genuine Greek (as opposed to Roman) architecture, and was quite startled by its relative simplicity. Winckelmann had not recognized the distinctness of the two styles.
Goethe's diaries of this period form the basis of the non-fictionItalian Journey.Italian Journey only covers the first year of Goethe's visit. The remaining year is largely undocumented, aside from the fact that he spent much of it inVenice. This "gap in the record" has been the source of much speculation over the years.
In the decades which immediately followed its publication in 1816,Italian Journey inspired countless German youths to follow Goethe's example. This is pictured, somewhat satirically, inGeorge Eliot'sMiddlemarch.[citation needed]
A Goethe watercolour depicting aliberty pole at the border to the short-livedRepublic of Mainz, created under influence of the French Revolution and destroyed in theSiege of Mainz in which Goethe participated
In late 1792, Goethe took part in theBattle of Valmy againstrevolutionary France, assisting DukeKarl August ofSaxe-Weimar-Eisenach during the failed invasion of France. Again during theSiege of Mainz, he assisted Karl August as a military observer. His written account of these events can be found within hisComplete Works.
In 1794,Friedrich Schiller wrote to Goethe offering friendship; they had previously had only a mutually wary relationship ever since first becoming acquainted in 1788. This collaborative friendship lasted until Schiller's death in 1805.
The 'spoon guards' had broken in, they had drunk wine, made a great uproar and called for the master of the house. Goethe's secretary Riemer reports: 'Although already undressed and wearing only his wide nightgown... he descended the stairs towards them and inquired what they wanted from him.... His dignified figure, commanding respect, and his spiritual mien seemed to impress even them.' But it was not to last long. Late at night they burst into his bedroom with drawn bayonets. Goethe was petrified, Christiane raised a lot of noise and even tangled with them, other people who had taken refuge in Goethe's house rushed in, and so the marauders eventually withdrew again. It was Christiane who commanded and organized the defense of the house on the Frauenplan. The barricading of the kitchen and the cellar against the wild pillaging soldiery was her work. Goethe noted in his diary: "Fires, rapine, a frightful night... Preservation of the house through steadfastness and luck." The luck was Goethe's, the steadfastness was displayed by Christiane.[36]
Days afterward, on 19 October 1806, Goethe legitimized their 18-year relationship by marrying Christiane in a quiet marriage service at the Jakobskirche in Weimar. They had already had several children together by this time, including their son, Julius August Walter von Goethe (1789–1830), whose wife,Ottilie von Pogwisch, cared for the elder Goethe until his death in 1832. August and Ottilie had three children:Walther, Freiherr von Goethe (1818–1885), Wolfgang, Freiherr von Goethe (1820–1883) and Alma von Goethe (1827–1844). Christiane von Goethe died in 1816. Johann reflected, "There is nothing more charming to see than a mother with her child in her arms, and there is nothing more venerable than a mother among a number of her children."[37]
After 1793, Goethe devoted his endeavours primarily to literature. In 1812, he travelled toTeplice andVienna both times meeting his admirerLudwig van Beethoven, who had set music toEgmont two years prior in 1810. By 1820, Goethe was on amiable terms withKaspar Maria von Sternberg.
Goethe and Ulrike, sculpture by Heinrich Drake in Marienbad
In 1821, having recovered from a near fatal heart illness, the 72-year-old Goethe fell in love withUlrike von Levetzow, 17 at the time.[38] In 1823, he wanted to marry her, but because of the opposition of her mother, he never proposed. Their last meeting inCarlsbad on 5 September 1823 inspired his poem "Marienbad Elegy" which he considered one of his finest works.[39][40] During that time he also developed a deep emotional bond with the Polish pianistMaria Szymanowska, 33 at the time, and she separated from her husband.[41]
In 1821 Goethe's friendCarl Friedrich Zelter introduced him to the 12-year-oldFelix Mendelssohn. Goethe, now in his seventies, was greatly impressed by the child, leading to perhaps the earliest confirmed comparison toMozart in the following conversation between Goethe and Zelter:
"Musical prodigies ... are probably no longer so rare; but what this little man can do in extemporizing and playing at sight borders the miraculous, and I could not have believed it possible at so early an age." "And yet you heard Mozart in his seventh year at Frankfurt?" said Zelter. "Yes", answered Goethe, "... but what your pupil already accomplishes, bears the same relation to the Mozart of that time that the cultivated talk of a grown-up person bears to the prattle of a child."[42]
Mendelssohn was invited to meet Goethe on several later occasions,[43] and set a number of Goethe's poems to music. His other compositions inspired by Goethe include the overtureCalm Sea and Prosperous Voyage (Op. 27, 1828), and the cantataDie erste Walpurgisnacht (The First Walpurgis Night, Op. 60, 1832).[44]
Heinrich Heine, on his hiking tour through Germany (the trip immortalised in his workDie Harzreise) was granted an audience with Goethe in 1824 in Weimar.[45] Heine had been a great admirer of Goethe's in his early youth, sending him some of his earlier works with praising cover notes.[46] The meeting is said to be of a strikingly unsuccessful nature, with Heine completely omitting the meeting in theHarzreise, and speaking flippantly of it in much later life.[47]
The last words of Goethe usually abridged asMehr Licht!, that is, "more light!", although the original claimed last words quote was longer.
The earliest known account was of Karl Wilhelm Müller's, which gives all of his last words:[48]"Macht doch den zweiten Fensterladen in der Stube auch auf, damit mehr Licht hereinkomme." ("Open the second shutter in the living room so that more light comes in.")
According to his doctorCarl Vogel [de], his last words were,Mehr Licht! (More light!), but this is disputed as Vogel was not in the room at the moment Goethe died, something he himself says in his account:[49] "[...] "More light" is said to have been the last words of the man, who always hated darkness in every respect, as I had left the dying room for a moment. [...]"
Thomas Carlyle, in his letter to John Carlyle (2 July 1832) records that he had learned the versionMacht die Fensterladen auf, damit ich mehr Licht bekomme! ("Open the shutters so I can get more light!") fromSarah Austin:[50] "[...] Mrs. Austin wrote lately that Goethe's last words were,Macht die Fensterladen auf, damit ich mehr Licht bekomme! Glorious man! Happy man! I never think of him but with reverence and pride. [...]"John Ruskin, in hisPræterita, narrates a memory of him from his diary record of 25 October 1874 that Carlyle "[...] had been quoting the last words of Goethe, 'Open the window, let us have more light' (this about an hour before painless death, his eyes failing him)."[51]
Even though the context was different, these words, especially the abridged version, which turned into a dictum, usually used as a mean to illustrate the pro-Enlightenment worldview of Goethe.
The first production ofRichard Wagner's operaLohengrin took place in Weimar in 1850. The conductor wasFranz Liszt, who chose the date 28 August in honour of Goethe, who was born on 28 August 1749.[52]
Goethe had five children with Christiane Vulpius. Only their eldest son, August, survived into adulthood. One child was stillborn, while the others died early. Through his son August and daughter-in-law Ottilie, Johann had three grandchildren: Walther, Wolfgang and Alma. Alma died oftyphoid fever during the outbreak in Vienna, at age 16. Walther and Wolfgang neither married nor had any children. Walther's gravestone states: "With him ends Goethe's dynasty, the name will last forever," marking the end of Goethe's personal bloodline. While he has no direct descendants, his siblings do.
To the period of his friendship with Schiller belong the conception ofWilhelm Meister's Journeyman Years (the continuation ofWilhelm Meister's Apprenticeship), theidyll ofHermann and Dorothea, theRoman Elegies and the verse dramaThe Natural Daughter.[58] In the last period, between Schiller's death, in 1805, and his own, appearedFaust Part One (1808),Elective Affinities (1809), theWest-Eastern Diwan (an 1819 collection of poems in the Persian style, influenced by the work ofHafez), his autobiographicalAus meinem Leben: Dichtung und Wahrheit (From My Life: Poetry and Truth, published between 1811 and 1833) which covers his early life and ends with his departure for Weimar, hisItalian Journey (1816–17), and a series of treatises on art.Faust, Part Two was completed before his 1832 death and published posthumously later that year. His writings were immediately influential in literary and artistic circles.[58]
The shortepistolary novelDie Leiden des jungen Werthers, orThe Sorrows of Young Werther, published in 1774, recounts an unhappy romantic infatuation that ends in suicide. Goethe admitted that he "shot his hero to save himself", a reference to Goethe's near-suicidal obsession for a young woman, a passion he quelled through writing. The novel remains in print in dozens of languages and its influence is undeniable; its central hero, an obsessive figure driven to despair and destruction by his unrequited love for the young Lotte, has become a pervasive literaryarchetype. The fact thatWerther ends with the protagonist's suicide and funeral—a funeral which "no clergyman attended"—made the book deeply controversial upon its (anonymous) publication, for it appeared to condone and glorify suicide. Suicide is considered sinful byChristian doctrine, suicides were deniedChristian burial with the bodies often mutilated. The suicide's property was often confiscated by the Church.[60]
Goethe explained his use ofWerther in his autobiography. He said he "turned reality into poetry but his friends thought poetry should be turned into reality and the poem imitated". He was against this reading of poetry.[61] Epistolary novels were common during this time, letter-writing being a primary mode of communication. What set Goethe's book apart from other such novels was its expression of unbridled longing for a joy beyond possibility, its sense of defiant rebellion against authority, and of principal importance, its total subjectivity: qualities that trailblazed the Romantic movement.
The next work, his epiccloset dramaFaust, was completed in stages. The first part was published in 1808 and created a sensation. Goethe finishedFaust Part Two in the year of his death, and the work was published posthumously. Goethe's original draft of a Faust play, which probably dates from 1773 to 1774, and is now known as theUrfaust, was also published after his death.[62]
The first operatic version of Goethe'sFaust, byLouis Spohr, appeared in 1814. The work subsequently inspired operas and oratorios bySchumann,Berlioz,Gounod,Boito,Busoni andSchnittke, as well as symphonic works byLiszt,Wagner andMahler. Faust became theur-myth of many figures in the 19th century. Later, a facet of its plot, i.e., of selling one's soul to the devil for power over the physical world, took on increasing literary importance and became a view of the victory of technology and of industrialism, along with its dubious human expenses. In 1919, theworld premiere complete production ofFaust was staged at theGoetheanum.
Goethe's poetic work served as a model for an entire movement in German poetry termedInnerlichkeit ("introversion") and represented by, for example,Heine. Goethe's words inspired a number of compositions by, among others,Mozart,Beethoven (who idolised Goethe),[63]Schubert, Berlioz andWolf. Perhaps the single most influential piece is "Mignon's Song" which opens with one of the most famous lines in German poetry, an allusion to Italy: "Kennst du das Land, wo die Zitronen blühn?" ("Do you know the land where the lemon trees bloom?").
He is also widely quoted. Epigrams such as "Against criticism a man can neither protest nor defend himself; he must act in spite of it, and then it will gradually yield to him", "Divide and rule, a sound motto; unite and lead, a better one", and "Enjoy when you can, and endure when you must", are still in usage or are often paraphrased. Lines fromFaust, such as "Das also war des Pudels Kern", "Das ist der Weisheit letzter Schluss", or "Grau ist alle Theorie" have entered everyday German usage.
Some well-known quotations are often incorrectly attributed to Goethe. These includeHippocrates' "Art is long, life is short", which is echoed in Goethe'sFaust andWilhelm Meister's Apprenticeship.
As to what I have done as a poet,... I take no pride in it... But that in my century I am the only person who knows the truth in the difficult science of colours—of that, I say, I am not a little proud, and here I have a consciousness of a superiority to many.
Although his literary work has attracted the most interest, Goethe was also keenly involved in studies of natural science.[64] He wrote several works onmorphology and colour theory. In the 1790s, he undertook Galvanic experiments and studied anatomical issues together with Alexander von Humboldt.[6] He also had the largest private collection of minerals in all of Europe. By the time of his death, to gain a comprehensive view in geology, he had collected 17,800 rock samples.
His focus on morphology and what was later calledhomology influenced 19th-centurynaturalists, although his ideas of transformation were about the continuous metamorphosis of living things and did not relate to contemporary ideas of "transformisme" ortransmutation of species. Homology, or asÉtienne Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire called it "analogie", was used byCharles Darwin as strong evidence ofcommon descent and oflaws of variation.[65] Goethe's studies (notably with an elephant's skull lent to him bySamuel Thomas von Soemmerring) led him to independently discover the humanintermaxillary bone, also known as "Goethe's bone", in 1784, whichBroussonet (1779) andVicq d'Azyr (1780) had (using different methods) identified several years earlier.[66] While not the only one in his time to question the prevailing view that this bone did not exist in humans, Goethe, who believed ancient anatomists had known about this bone, was the first to prove its existence in all mammals. The elephant's skull that led Goethe to this discovery, and was subsequently named the Goethean Elephant, is displayed in theOttoneum inKassel, Germany.
During his Italian journey, Goethe formulated a theory of plant metamorphosis in which the archetypal form of the plant is to be found in theleaf – he writes, "from top to bottom a plant is all leaf, united so inseparably with the future bud that one cannot be imagined without the other".[67] In 1790, he published hisMetamorphosis of Plants.[68][69] As one of the many precursors in the history of evolutionary thought, Goethe wrote inStory of My Botanical Studies (1831):
The ever-changing display of plant forms, which I have followed for so many years, awakens increasingly within me the notion: The plant forms which surround us were not all created at some given point in time and then locked into the given form, they have been given... a felicitous mobility and plasticity that allows them to grow and adapt themselves to many different conditions in many different places.[70]
Goethe's botanical theories were partly based on his gardening in Weimar.[71]
Goethe also popularized theGoethe barometer using a principle established byTorricelli. According to Hegel, "Goethe has occupied himself a good deal with meteorology; barometer readings interested him particularly... What he says is important: the main thing is that he gives a comparative table of barometric readings during the whole month of December 1822, at Weimar,Jena, London, Boston, Vienna,Töpel... He claims to deduce from it that the barometric level varies in the same proportion not only in each zone but that it has the same variation, too, at different altitudes above sea-level".[72]
Light spectrum, fromTheory of Colours. Goethe observed that with aprism, colour arises at light-dark edges, and the spectrum occurs where these coloured edges overlap.
In 1810, Goethe published hisTheory of Colours, which he considered his most important work. In it, he contentiously characterized colour as arising from the dynamic interplay of light and darkness through the mediation of a turbid medium.[73] In 1816,Schopenhauer went on to develop his own theory inOn Vision and Colours based on the observations supplied in Goethe's book. After being translated into English byCharles Eastlake in 1840, his theory became widely adopted by the art world, most notablyJ. M. W. Turner.[74] Goethe's work also inspired the philosopherLudwig Wittgenstein, to write hisRemarks on Colour. Goethe was vehemently opposed toNewton's analytic treatment of colour, engaging instead in compiling a comprehensiverational description of a wide variety of colour phenomena. Although Goethe's empirical observations were largely accurate, his aesthetic approach failed to meet the standards of analytic and mathematical analysis used ubiquitously in modern Science. Goethe was, however, the first to systematically study the physiological effects of colour, and his observations on the effect of opposed colours led him to a symmetric arrangement of his colour wheel, "for the colours diametrically opposed to each other ... are those which reciprocally evoke each other in the eye."[75] In this, he anticipatedEwald Hering'sopponent colour theory (1872).[76]
Goethe outlines his method in the essayThe experiment as mediator between subject and object (1772).[77] In the Kurschner edition of Goethe's works, the science editor,Rudolf Steiner, presents Goethe's approach to science asphenomenological. Steiner elaborated on that in the booksThe Theory of Knowledge Implicit in Goethe's World-Conception[78] andGoethe's World View,[79] in which he characterizes intuition as the instrument by which one grasps Goethe's biological archetype—The Typus.
Novalis, himself a geologist and mining engineer, expressed the opinion that Goethe was the first physicist of his time and "epoch-making in the history of physics", writing that Goethe's studies of light, of the metamorphosis of plants and of insects were indications and proofs "that the perfect educational lecture belongs in the artist's sphere of work"; and that Goethe would be surpassed "but only in the way in which the ancients can be surpassed, in inner content and force, in variety and depth—as an artist actually not, or only very little, for his rightness and intensity are perhaps already more exemplary than it would seem".[80]
Many of Goethe's works, especiallyFaust, theRoman Elegies, and theVenetian Epigrams, depict erotic passions and acts. For instance, inFaust, the first use of Faust's power after signing a contract with the Devil is to seduce a teenage girl. Some of theVenetian Epigrams were held back from publication due to their sexual content. Goethe clearly sawhuman sexuality as a topic worthy of poetic and artistic depiction, an idea that was uncommon in a time when the private nature of sexuality was rigorously normative.[81]
In a conversation on 7 April 1830 Goethe stated thatpederasty is an "aberration" that easily leads to "animal, roughly material" behaviour. He continued, "Pederasty is as old as humanity itself, and one can therefore say, that it resides in nature, even if it proceeds against nature....What culture has won from nature will not be surrendered or given up at any price."[82] In one epigram, which are often facetious and satirical, he wrote: "I love boys as well, but girls are even dearer to me. If I tire of her as a girl, she'll serve as a boy for me as well".[83]
Goethe was afreethinker who believed that one could be inwardly Christian without following any of the Christian churches, many of whose central teachings he firmly opposed, sharply distinguishing between Jesus and the tenets of Christian theology and criticizing its history as a "hodgepodge of mistakes and violence".[84][85] His own descriptions of his relationship to the Christian faith and even to the Church varied widely and have been interpreted even more widely, so that while Goethe's secretaryEckermann portrayed him as enthusiastic about Christianity, Jesus,Martin Luther, and theProtestant Reformation, even calling Christianity the "ultimate religion",[86] on one occasion Goethe described himself as "notanti-Christian, nor un-Christian, but most decidedly non-Christian,"[87] and in his Venetian Epigram 66, Goethe listed the symbol of the cross among the four things that he most disliked.[88] According toNietzsche, Goethe had "a kind of almostjoyous andtrusting fatalism" that has "faith that only in the totality everything redeems itself and appears good and justified."[89]
Born into aLutheran family, Goethe's early faith was shaken by news of such events as the1755 Lisbon earthquake and theSeven Years' War. A year before his death, in a letter toSulpiz Boisserée, Goethe wrote that he had the feeling that all his life he had been aspiring to qualify as one of theHypsistarians, an ancient sect of theBlack Sea region who, in his understanding, sought to reverence, as being close to the Godhead, what came to their knowledge of the best and most perfect.[90] Goethe's unorthodox religious beliefs led him to be called "the great heathen" and provoked distrust among the authorities of his time, who opposed the creation of a Goethe monument on account of his offensive religious creed.[91]August Wilhelm Schlegel considered Goethe "a heathen who converted to Islam."[91]
Goethe showed interest in other religions, including Islam, although Karic suggests that attempts to claim Goethe for any religion "is a pointless, Sysiphean task".[92] At age 23, Goethe wrote a poem about a river, originally part of a dramatic dialogue, which he published as a separate work calledMahomets Gesang ("Muhammad's Song").[93][94] The poem's depiction of nature and forces within it is consonant with hisSturm und Drang years.[95] In 1819, he published hisWest–östlicher Divan to ignite a poetic dialogue between East and West.[96]
Politically, Goethe described himself as a "moderate liberal".[97][98][99] He was critical of the radicalism of Bentham and expressed sympathy for the liberalism ofFrançois Guizot.[100] At the time of theFrench Revolution, he thought the enthusiasm of the students and professors to be a perversion of their energy and remained skeptical of the ability of the masses to govern.[101] Goethe sympathized with theAmerican Revolution and later wrote a poem in which he declared, "America, you're better off than our continent, the old."[102][103] He did not join in the anti-Napoleonic mood of 1812, and he distrusted the strident nationalism which started to be expressed.[104] Themedievalism of theHeidelberg Romantics was also repellent to Goethe's eighteenth-century ideal of a supra-national culture.[105]
Goethe was aFreemason, joining the lodge Amalia in Weimar in 1780, and frequently alluded to Masonic themes of universal brotherhood in his work.[106] He was also attracted to theIlluminati, a Bavarian secret society founded on 1 May 1776.[107][106]
Although often requested to write poems arousing nationalist passions, Goethe would always decline. In old age, he explained why this was so to Eckermann:
How could I write songs of hatred when I felt no hate? And, between ourselves, I never hated the French, although I thanked God when we were rid of them. How could I, to whom the only significant things are civilization [Kultur] and barbarism, hate a nation which is among the most cultivated in the world, and to which I owe a great part of my own culture? In any case this business of hatred between nations is a curious thing. You will always find it more powerful and barbarous on the lowest levels of civilization. But there exists a level at which it wholly disappears, and where one stands, so to speak, above the nations, and feels the weal or woe of a neighboring people as though it were one's own.[108]
Statue dedicated "To Goethe the Mastermind of the German People" in Chicago'sLincoln Park (1913)
In a letter written to Leopold Casper in 1932, Einstein wrote that he admired Goethe as 'a poet without peer, and as one of the smartest and wisest men of all time'. He goes on to say, 'even his scholarly ideas deserve to be held in high esteem, and his faults are those of any great man'.
Illustration of Goethe as a classical poet byFidus (1901)
Goethe embodied many of the contending strands in art over the next century: his work could be lushly emotional, and rigorously formal, brief andepigrammatic, and epic. He would argue thatClassicism was the means of controlling art, and thatRomanticism was a sickness, even as he penned poetry rich in memorable images, and rewrote the formal rules of German poetry. His poetry was set to music by almost every major Austrian and German composer fromMozart toMahler, and his influence would spread to French drama and opera as well.Beethoven declared that a "Faust" Symphony would be the greatest thing for art.Liszt and Mahler both created symphonies in whole or in large part inspired by thisseminal work, which would give the 19th century one of its most paradigmatic figures:Doctor Faustus.
TheFaust tragedy/drama, often calledDas Drama der Deutschen (the drama of the Germans), written in two parts published decades apart, would stand as his most characteristic and famous artistic creation. Followers of the twentieth-centuryesotericistRudolf Steiner built a theatre named theGoetheanum after him—where festival performances ofFaust are still performed.
Goethe was also a cultural force. During his first meeting withNapoleon in 1808, the latter famously remarked: "Vous êtes un homme (You are a man)!"[117] The two discussed politics, the writings ofVoltaire, and Goethe'sSorrows of Young Werther, which Napoleon had read seven times and ranked among his favorites.[118][119] Goethe came away from the meeting deeply impressed with Napoleon's enlightened intellect and his efforts to build an alternative to the corrupt old regime.[118][120] Goethe always spoke of Napoleon with the greatest respect, confessing that "nothing higher and more pleasing could have happened to me in all my life" than to have met Napoleon in person.[121] Goethe would receive theLégion d'honneur from Napoleon himself on 14th October 1808. He was also awarded theOrder of Saint Anna byemperor Alexander.[122]
Germaine de Staël, inDe l'Allemagne (1813), presented German Classicism and Romanticism as a potential source of spiritual authority for Europe, and identified Goethe as a living classic.[123] She praised Goethe as possessing "the chief characteristics of the German genius" and uniting "all that distinguishes the German mind."[123] Staël's portrayal helped elevate Goethe over his more famous German contemporaries and transformed him into a European cultural hero.[123] Goethe met with her and her partnerBenjamin Constant, with whom he shared a mutual admiration.[124]
In Victorian England, Goethe's great disciple wasThomas Carlyle, who wrote the essays "Faustus" (1822), "Goethe's Helena" (1828), "Goethe" (1828), "Goethe's Works" (1832), "Goethe's Portrait" (1832), and "Death of Goethe" (1832) which introduced Goethe to English readers; translatedWilhelm Meister's Apprenticeship (1824) andTravels (1826), "Faust's Curse" (1830),"The Tale" (1832), "Novelle" (1832) and "Symbolum" at a time when few read German; and with whom Goethe corresponded.[125][126] Goethe exerted a profound influence onGeorge Eliot, whose partnerGeorge Henry Lewes wrote aLife of Goethe (dedicated to Carlyle).[127][128] Eliot presented Goethe as "eminently the man who helps us to rise to a lofty point of observation" and praised his "large tolerance", which "quietly follows the stream of fact and of life" without passing moral judgments.[127]Matthew Arnold found in Goethe the "Physician of the Iron Age" and "the clearest, the largest, the most helpful thinker of modern times" with a "large, liberal view of life".[129]
Goethe memorial in front of the Alte Handelsbörse, Leipzig
It was to a considerable degree due to Goethe's reputation that the city ofWeimar was chosen in 1919 as the venue for thenational assembly, convened to drafta new constitution for what would become known as Germany'sWeimar Republic. Goethe became a key reference forThomas Mann in his speeches and essays defending the republic.[130] He emphasized Goethe's "cultural and self-developing individualism", humanism, and cosmopolitanism.[130]
The Federal Republic of Germany's cultural institution, theGoethe-Institut, is named after him, and promotes the study of German abroad and fosters knowledge about Germany by providing information on its culture, society and politics.
Goethe's influence was dramatic because he understood that there was a transition in European sensibilities, an increasing focus on sense, the indescribable, and the emotional. This is not to say that he was emotionalistic or excessive; on the contrary, he lauded personal restraint and felt that excess was a disease: "There is nothing worse than imagination without taste". Goethe praisedFrancis Bacon for his advocacy of science based on experiment and his forceful revolution in thought as one of the greatest strides forward in modern science.[132] However, he was critical of Bacon's inductive method and approach based on pure classification.[133] He said inScientific Studies:
We conceive of the individual animal as a small world, existing for its own sake, by its own means. Every creature is its own reason to be. All its parts have a direct effect on one another, a relationship to one another, thereby constantly renewing the circle of life; thus we are justified in considering every animal physiologically perfect. Viewed from within, no part of the animal is a useless or arbitrary product of the formative impulse (as so often thought). Externally, some parts may seem useless because the inner coherence of the animal nature has given them this form without regard to outer circumstance. Thus...[not] the question, What are they for? but rather, Where do they come from?[134]
Goethe's scientific and aesthetic ideas have much in common withDenis Diderot, whose work he translated and studied.[135][136] Both Diderot and Goethe exhibited a repugnance towards the mathematical interpretation of nature; both perceived the universe as dynamic and in constant flux; both saw "art and science as compatible disciplines linked by common imaginative processes"; and both grasped "the unconscious impulses underlying mental creation in all forms."[135][136] Goethe'sNaturanschauer is in many ways a sequel to Diderot'sinterprète de la nature.[136]
His views make him, along withAdam Smith,Thomas Jefferson, andLudwig van Beethoven, a figure in two worlds: on the one hand, devoted to the sense of taste, order, and finely crafted detail, which is the hallmark of the artistic sense of theAge of Reason and theneo-classical period of architecture; on the other, seeking a personal, intuitive, and personalized form of expression and society, firmly supporting the idea of self-regulating and organic systems. George Henry Lewes celebrated Goethe's revolutionary understanding of the organism.[135]
Thinkers such asRalph Waldo Emerson would take up many similar ideas in the 1800s. Goethe's ideas onevolution would frame the question thatDarwin andWallace would approach within the scientific paradigm. The Serbian inventor and electrical engineerNikola Tesla was heavily influenced byGoethe'sFaust, his favorite poem, and had actually memorized the entire text. It was while reciting a certain verse that he was struck with the epiphany that would lead to the idea of therotating magnetic field and ultimately,alternating current.[137]
The public university in the city of Frankfurt am Main was named after Goethe, theGoethe University.
Hammer, Carl Jr.Goethe and Rousseau: Resonances of their Mind.
Holm-Hadulla, Rainer Matthias.Goethe's Path to Creativity: A Psycho-Biography of the Eminent Politician, Scientist and Poet, New York: Routledge, 2019.ISBN9780429459535
Nicholls, Angus.Goethe's Concept of the Daemonic: After the Ancients.
Pagel, Louis.Doctor Faustus of the Popular Legend: Marlowe, the Puppet-Play, Goethe, and Lenau: Treated Historically and Critically: a Parallel between Goethe and Schiller: an Historic Outline of German Literature. 1883.
^Meier-Braun, Karl-Heinz [in German] (2017), Die 101 wichtigsten Fragen: Einwanderung und Asyl, C.H. Beck, "Dass Johann Wolfgang von Goethe türkische Vorfahren hatte, war bekannt. Dass diese Wurzeln jedoch nach Baden-Württemberg zurückreichen, weniger. Das hat jedenfalls der Brackenheimer Dekan Werner-Ulrich Deetjen herausgefunden Laut dem promovierten Kirchenhistoriker gehen Goethes Vorfahren auf Sadok Selim zurück, der gegen Ende des 13. Jahrhunderts bei Kämpfen mit Kreuzfahrern im Heiligen Land in die Gefangenschaft des Deutschritterordens geriet."
^Leiprecht, Rudolf [in German] (2005), Schule in der Einwanderungsgesellschaft: ein Handbuch, Wochenschau Verlag, p. 29, ISBN 9783879202744, "Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, einen fremdländischen Vorfahren : Er soll von dem türkischen Offizier Sadok Seli Zoltan abstammen, den Graf Reinhart von Württemberg im Jahre 1291 von einem der Kreuzzüge aus dem Heiligen Land mit nach Süddeutschland gebracht hatte"
^Engelmann, Bernt [in German] (1991), Du deutsch?: Geschichte der Ausländer in Deutschland, Steidl, p. 59, ISBN 9783882431858
^Maier, Ulrich [in German] (2002), Fremd bin ich eingezogen: Zuwanderung und Auswanderung in Baden-Württemberg, Bleicher Verlag, p. 27, "Gedachter Johann Soldan heiratete Rebekka Dohlerin... Kein Geringerer als Johann Wolfgang von Goethe zählt diesen ehemaligen türkischen Beamten und Offizier zu seinen Vorfahren"
^Engelmann, Bernt [in German] (1991), Du deutsch?: Geschichte der Ausländer in Deutschland, Steidl, p. 59, ISBN 9783882431858, "...die er taufen ließ und zur Ehefrau nahm, und fast jeder der heimkehrenden Barone und Grafen hatte Kriegsgefangene in seinem Gefolge...Der deutsche Dichterfürst mit orientalischen Vorfahren stellt indessen keineswegs eine seltene Ausnahme dar."
^abHerman Grimm:Goethe. Vorlesungen gehalten an der Königlichen Universität zu Berlin. Vol. 1. J.G. Cotta'sche Buchhandlung Nachfolger, Stuttgart / Berlin 1923, p. 36
^Catharina was the daughter ofJohann Wolfgang Textor [de] (1693–1771), sheriff (Schultheiß) of Frankfurt, and of Anna Margaretha Lindheimer (1711–1783).
^Kruse, Joseph A. (2018). "Poetisch-religiöse Vorratskammer – Die Hebräische Bibel bei Goethe und Heine". In Anna-Dorothea Ludewig; Steffen Höhne (eds.).Goethe und die Juden – die Juden und Goethe (in German). Walter de Gruyter. p. 71.ISBN9783110530421.
^Oehler, R 1932, "Buch und Bibliotheken unter der Perspektive Goethe – Goethe's attitude toward books and libraries",The Library Quarterly, 2, pp. 232–249
^Goethe, Johann Wolfgang von.The Autobiography of Goethe: Truth and Poetry, From My Own Life, Volume 1 (1897), translated byJohn Oxenford, pp. 114, 129
^Herman Grimm:Goethe. Vorlesungen gehalten an der Königlichen Universität zu Berlin. Vol. 1. J. G. Cotta'sche Buchhandlung Nachfolger, Stuttgart / Berlin 1923, p. 81
^Karl Robert Mandelkow, Bodo Morawe: Goethes Briefe. 2. edition. Vol. 1: Briefe der Jahre 1764–1786.Christian Wegner, Hamburg 1968, p. 571
^Valerian Tornius:Goethe – Leben, Wirken und Schaffen. Ludwig-Röhrscheid-Verlag, Bonn 1949, p. 60
^abMandelkow, Karl Robert (1962).Goethes Briefe. Vol. 1:Briefe der Jahre 1764–1786. Christian Wegner Verlag. p. 589
^Mandelkow, Karl Robert (1962).Goethes Briefe. Vol. 1:Briefe der Jahre 1764–1786. Christian Wegner Verlag. pp. 590–592
^Vogel, Carl (1833)."Die letzte Krankheit Goethe's beschrieben und nebst einigen andern Bemerkungen über denselben".Journal der Practischen Heilkunde.LXXVI (II): 17.[...] "Mehr Licht" sollen, während ich das Sterbezimmer auf einen Moment verlassen hatte, die letzten Worte des Mannes gewesen seyn, dem Finsterniss in jeder Beziehung stets verhasst war. [...] Christoph Wilhelm Hufeland in his postscript commented: "He ended with the words: "More light" —He has now received it.— We want to be told this as an obituary, to encourage and revive us."Hufeland, C. W. (1833)."Nachschrift".Journal der Practischen Heilkunde.LXXVI (II): 32.Er endete mit den Worten: "Mehr Licht" —Ihm ist es nun geworden.— Wir wollen es uns gesagt seyn lassen, als Nachruf, zur Ermunterung und Belebung.
^Ludwig, Emil (1928)Goethe: The History of a Man 1749–1833, Schiller and Wilhelm Meister Translated by Ethel Colburn Mayne, New York: G.P. Putnum's Sons.
^Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1966).Iphigenia in Tauris. Manchester University Press. p. 15.
^Lamport, Francis John. 1990.German Classical Drama: Theatre, Humanity and Nation, 1750–1870. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.ISBN0-521-36270-9. p. 90.
^Goethe's Plays, by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, translated into English with introductions by Charles E. Passage, Publisher Benn Limited, 1980,ISBN978-0-510-00087-5,978-0-510-00087-5
^Aristotle wrote that colour is a mixture of light and dark, since white light is always seen as somewhat darkened when it is seen as a colour. (Aristotle,On Sense and its Objects, III, 439b, 20 ff.: "White and black may be juxtaposed in such a way that by the minuteness of the division of its parts each is invisible while their product is visible, and thus colour may be produced.") SeeAristotle; Ross, George Robert Thomson (1906).Aristotle De sensu and De memoria; text and translation, with introduction and commentary. Robarts – University of Toronto. Cambridge University Press.
^The phrase Goethe uses is "Mischmasch von Irrtum und Gewalt", in his "Zahme Xenien" IX,Goethes Gedichte in Zeitlicher Folge, Insel Verlag 1982ISBN978-3-458-14013-9, p. 1121
^Arnold Bergsträsser, "Goethe's View of Christ",Modern Philology, vol. 46, no. 3 (February 1949), pp. 172–202; Martin Tetz, "Mischmasch von Irrtum und Gewalt. Zu Goethes Vers auf die Kirchengeschichte", Zeitschrift für Theologie und Kirche, 88 (1991) pp. 339–363
^Thompson, James (1895).Venetian Epigrams. Retrieved17 July 2014.Venetian Epigrams, 66, ["Wenige sind mir jedoch wie Gift und Schlange zuwider; Viere: Rauch des Tabacks, Wanzen und Knoblauch und †."]. The cross symbol he drew has been variously understood as meaning Christianity, Christ, or death.
^Letter to Boisserée dated 22 March 1831 quoted in Peter Boerner,Johann Wolfgang von Goethe 1832/1982: A Biographical Essay. Bonn: Inter Nationes, 1981 p. 82
^abKrimmer, Elisabeth; Simpson, Patricia Anne (2013).Religion, Reason, and Culture in the Age of Goethe. Boydell & Brewer. p. 99.
^Karic, Enes, "Goethe, His Era, and Islam". p. 100. Retrieved 14 December 2022.
^"Mahomets Gesang".The LiederNet Archive.Archived from the original on 24 September 2022. Retrieved15 November 2022.
^Jolle, Jonas (2004).The River and its Metaphors: Goethe's "Mahoments Gesang".
^Dallmayr, F. (2002).Dialogue Among Civilizations. NY: Macmillan Palgrave. p. 152.
^Eckermann, Johann Peter (1901).Conversations with Goethe. M.W. Dunne. p. 320.'Dumont,' returned Goethe, 'is a moderate liberal, just as all rational people are and ought to be, and as I myself am.'
^Selth, Jefferson P. (1997).Firm Heart and Capacious Mind: The Life and Friends of Etienne Dumont. University Press of America. pp. 132–133.
^Mommsen, Katharina (2014).Goethe and the Poets of Arabia. Boydell & Brewer. p. 70.
^Peter Eckermann, Johann (1901).Conversations with Goethe. M.W. Dunne. pp. 317–319.
^McCabe, Joseph. 'Goethe: The Man and His Character'. p. 343
^Gemünden, Gerd (1998).Framed Visions: Popular Culture, Americanization, and the Contemporary German and Austrian Imagination. University of Michigan Press. pp. 18–19.
^Assiter, Alison (29 April 2015).Kierkegaard, Eve and Metaphors of Birth. Rowman & Littlefield. p. 126.ISBN978-1-78348-326-6.Carl Linnaeus, the botanist, physician, and zoologist, who laid the foundation for modern biological naming, was a major influence on Goethe. The latter, a well-known influence on Kierkegaard, writes of Linnaeus, [...]
^Murphy, Tim (18 October 2001).Nietzsche, Metaphor, Religion. SUNY Press. p. 53.ISBN978-0-7914-5087-1.No one would deny that Goethe influenced Nietzsche, but it is important to understand that relationship in very specific terms.
Calder, Angus (1983), '"Scott & Goethe: Romanticism and Classicism", in Hearn, Sheila G. (ed.),Cencrastus No. 13, Summer 1983, pp. 25–28,ISSN0264-0856
Von Gronicka, André. 1968.The Russian Image of Goethe. Volume 1 Goethe in Russian Literature of the First Half of the Nineteenth Century. Philadelphia Pa: University of Pennsylvania Press.
Von Gronicka, Andrè. 1985The Russian Image of Goethe. Volume 2 Goethe in Russian Literature of the Second Half of the Nineteenth Century. Philadelphia Pa: University of Pennsylvania Press.
Hatfield Henry Caraway. 1963.Goethe: A Critical Introduction. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Jane K. n.d.Goethe's Allegories of Identity. Philadelphia Pa: University of Pennsylvania Press.
Maertz Gregory. 2017.Literature and the Cult of Personality: Essays on Goethe and His Influence. New York: Columbia University Press.
Robertson, Ritchie. 2016.Goethe: A Very Short Introduction. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Santayana, George (1910)."Goethe's Faust".Harvard Studies in Comparative Literature, Volume 1: Three Philosophical Poets: Lucretius, Dante, and Goethe, Critical Edition. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. pp. 139–202. Retrieved22 September 2022.
Viëtor, Karl 1950. Bayard Quincy Morgan, trans.Goethe the Thinker. Cambridge Mass: Harvard University Press.
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