LEAD 101 Travelers and Learners

1. Johann Wolfgang Goethe
Biographical Overview
LEAD 101 2015
Prof. Gundolf Graml

2. Early Years: Frankfurt
• born 28 August 1749 into a
wealthy tailor family
• several siblings, but only sister
Cornelia survived childhood; close
relationship with J.W.
• J.W. receives excellent education:
• Latin, Greek, French, Italian,
English, Hebrew, Yiddish;
• Natural Sciences, Religion,
Painting; Piano, Cello, Riding,
Fencing, Dancing
https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Datei:Goethe_1765.jpg

3. Student Years: Leipzig
• Father sent J.W. to Leipzig to study law
• Frankfurt: quiet, traditional
• Leipzig: exciting, cosmopolitan —> “Little
Paris”
• Goethe lived in city center; with 100
Gulden/month he had twice the disposable
funds that life at most expensive universities
would have cost
• J.W. did not like law —> spent his time with
friends, visited theater, fell in love, started
writing
• 1768: returned to Frankfurt without a degree
but with tuberculosis
• Used recovery time for early literary research
on Christianity; alchemy
https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Datei:Leipzig_Goethes_Studentenwohnung.jpg

4. Student Years: Strasbourg
• 1770 J.W. continued studying law in
Strasbourg
• meets Johann Gottfried Herder,
theologian and literary theorist
• 1771 Goethe submits dissertation about
relationship between state and church
—> scandal
• University recommends that he
withdraw dissertation and simply go for
the law practice permit
• 1771: J.W. opens small law office but
focuses mostly on writing
• 1772: J.W. begins internship in Wetzlar
https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Datei:Maison_Goethe_Strasbourg.jpg

5. 1774: “Storm and Passion”
• During internship in Wetzlar,
Goethe falls in love with wife of
his colleague, Charlotte Buff.
• After rejection, J.W. channels
disappointment into novel
“Sorrows of Young Werther”
• European bestseller, viewed as
founding document of literary
“Sturm und Drang [storm and
passion]” period

6. Minister in Weimar
• 1775: 18-year old Duke Carl August invites then
already famous author J.W. Goethe to Weimar
• Weimar: small town of 6,000 people, but
important cultural center
• Goethe becomes part of Duke’s senior advising
group
• Minister of Mining
• chair of roads committee and war committee
• 1782 Goethe named Minister of Finance for
Weimar; President of University of Jena
• promoted into aristocracy: Johann Wolfgang
von Goethe
• 33 years old, height of government career
https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Datei:Weimar,_Stadtplan_von_Franz_Ludwig_G%C3%BCssefeld,_1784.jpg

7. • Official roles leave little time for
literature
• 1780 Goethe begins research in natural
sciences: geology, mineralogy, botany,
osteology
• 1784 Goethe (re)discovers human
incisive bone
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Incisive_bone#/media/File:Gray160.png

8. Crisis and Travel
• mid-1780s: Goethe frustrated
with work at court and inability
to write
• uses a vacation in Karlsbad to
leave for Italy; travels incognito
under the name of Johann
Philipp Möller
https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Datei:Johann_Heinrich_Wilhelm_Tischbein_007.jpg