Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Who is Johann Wolfgang von Goethe?

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe was born in Frankfurt am Main and became the towering figure of German literature. He studied law but devoted himself to writing, achieving early international fame with the epistolary novel The Sorrows of Young Werther (1774), which helped ignite the Sturm und Drang movement. In 1775 he settled in Weimar, where he served as a minister at the ducal court and pursued interests ranging from botany and anatomy to optics, publishing his Theory of Colours in 1810. His masterpiece, the two-part dramatic poem Faust, occupied him for much of his life, with Part Two completed shortly before his death. Alongside his friend Friedrich Schiller he shaped Weimar Classicism. Goethe also wrote lyric poetry, the novel Wilhelm Meister's Apprenticeship, and Italian Journey, leaving an immense and enduring influence on European thought and letters.

Sources: Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Faust (Part I 1808, Part II 1832) · Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, The Sorrows of Young Werther (1774) · Nicholas Boyle, Goethe: The Poet and the Age (Oxford University Press, 1991-2000)