Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

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Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Q: Why is Johann Wolfgang von Goethe important?

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749–1832) was a German poet , playwright , novelist , scientist, statesman, theatre director, critic, and amateur artist. In the literary culture of the German-speaking countries, he has had so dominant a position that, since the end of the 18th century, his writings have been described as “classical.”

Q: What was Johann Wolfgang von Goethe’s family like?

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe’s father, Johann Caspar Goethe (1710–82), was a man of leisure who lived on an inherited fortune. Johann’s mother, Catharina Elisabeth Textor (1731–1808), was a daughter of Frankfurt ’s most senior official. Goethe was the eldest of seven children, though only one other survived into adulthood, his sister Cornelia (1750–77).

Q: What did Johann Wolfgang von Goethe write?

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe is perhaps best known for The Sorrows of Young Werther (1774), the first novel of the Sturm und Drang movement, and for Faust (Part I, 1808; Part II, 1832), a play about a man who sells his soul to the Devil that is sometimes considered Germany’s greatest contribution to world literature.

Q: When did Johann Wolfgang von Goethe get married?

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe formally married Christiane Vulpius in October 1806. He was opposed to the church ceremony that was, at the time, the only way of being legally married, so, although she bore Goethe a son, August, in 1789, he didn’t marry her until the Napoleonic army sacked the city in which they lived.

German author

Written by Nicholas Boyle

Fact-checked by The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica

Last Updated: Feb 5, 2024 • Article History

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

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Category: Arts & Culture

Born:: August 28, 1749, Frankfurt am Main [Germany]

Died:: March 22, 1832, Weimar, Saxe-Weimar (aged 82)

Notable Works:: “Alexis und Dora”; “Auf dem See”; “Clavigo”; “Der Gross-Cophta”; “Egmont”; “Faust”; “Götz von Berlichingen”; “Hermann und Dorothea”; “Iphigenie in Tauris”; “Stella”; “The Erl-King”; “The Sorrows of Young Werther”; “The Theatrical Mission of Wilhelm Meister”; “Torquato Tasso”; “Über allen Gipfeln”; “Venetian Epigrams”; “Wilhelm Meister’s Apprenticeship”

Movement / Style:: Sturm und Drang

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Why is Johann Wolfgang von Goethe important?

What was Johann Wolfgang von Goethe’s family like?

What did Johann Wolfgang von Goethe write?

When did Johann Wolfgang von Goethe get married?

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (born August 28, 1749, Frankfurt am Main [Germany]—died March 22, 1832, Weimar, Saxe-Weimar) German poet, playwright, novelist, scientist, statesman, theatre director, critic, and amateur artist, considered the greatest German literary figure of the modern era. Goethe is the only German literary figure whose range and international standing equal those of Germany’s supreme philosophers (who have often drawn on his works and ideas) and composers (who have often set his works to music). In the literary culture of the German-speaking countries, he has had so dominant a position that, since the end of the 18th century, his ...(100 of 10351 words)

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