Portrait: Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, national poet and naturalist
Wednesday, 24 March 2021 - 11:00 am (CET/MEZ) Berlin | Author/Destination: Editorial / Redaktion Category/Kategorie: Portrait
Reading Time: 3 minutes
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe by Joseph Karl Stieler in 1828
🔊 Listen to this Post
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe was a German poet, playwright, novelist, scientist, statesman, theatre director, critic, and amateur artist.
His works include: four novels;
epic and
lyric poetry ;
prose and
verse dramas; memoirs; an autobiography;
literary and
aesthetic criticism ; and treatises on
botany ,
anatomy , and
colour . He is considered to be the greatest German literary figure of the modern era.
A literary celebrity by the age of 25, Goethe was ennobled by the Duke of Saxe-Weimar , Karl August , in 1782 after taking up residence in Weimar in November 1775 following the success of his first novel, The Sorrows of Young Werther (1774). He was an early participant in the Sturm und Drang literary movement. During his first ten years in Weimar, Goethe became a member of the Duke’s privy council , sat on the war and highway commissions, oversaw the reopening of silver mines in nearby Ilmenau , and implemented a series of administrative reforms at the University of Jena . He also contributed to the planning of Weimar’s botanical park and the rebuilding of its Ducal Palace .
The coffins of Goethe and Schiller in the Weimarer Fürstengruft © Charlie1965nrw/cc-by-sa-3.0
Goethe’s first major scientific work, the
Metamorphosis of Plants , was published after he returned from a 1788 tour of Italy. In 1791 he was made managing director of the theatre at Weimar, and in 1794 he began a friendship with the
dramatist , historian, and philosopher
Friedrich Schiller , whose plays he premiered until Schiller’s death in 1805. During this period Goethe published his second novel,
Wilhelm Meister’s Apprenticeship ; the verse epic
Hermann and Dorothea , and, in 1808, the first part of his most celebrated drama,
Faust . His conversations and various shared undertakings throughout the 1790s with Schiller,
Johann Gottlieb Fichte ,
Johann Gottfried Herder ,
Alexander von Humboldt ,
Wilhelm von Humboldt , and
August and
Friedrich Schlegel have come to be collectively termed
Weimar Classicism .
The German philosopher
Arthur Schopenhauer named
Wilhelm Meister’s Apprenticeship one of the four greatest novels ever written, while the American philosopher and essayist
Ralph Waldo Emerson selected Goethe as one of six “representative men” in his
work of the same name (along with
Plato ,
Emanuel Swedenborg ,
Montaigne ,
Napoleon , and
Shakespeare ). Goethe’s comments and observations form the basis of several biographical works, notably
Johann Peter Eckermann ‘s
Conversations with Goethe (1836).
Read more on
Wikipedia Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (
Smart Traveler App by U.S. Department of State -
Weather report by weather.com -
Global Passport Power Rank -
Travel Risk Map -
Democracy Index -
GDP according to IMF, UN, and World Bank -
Global Competitiveness Report -
Corruption Perceptions Index -
Press Freedom Index -
World Justice Project - Rule of Law Index -
UN Human Development Index -
Global Peace Index -
Travel & Tourism Competitiveness Index ). Photos by Wikimedia Commons. If you have a suggestion, critique, review or comment to this blog entry, we are looking forward to receive your e-mail at
comment@wingsch.net . Please name the headline of the blog post to which your e-mail refers to in the subject line.
VIDEO
Recommended posts:
Portrait: Friedrich von Schiller, poet, philosopher, physician, historian, and playwright
Portrait: Friedrich Nietzsche, a philosopher, cultural critic, composer, poet, philologist, and Latin and Greek scholar
Portrait: Alexander Sergeyevich Pushkin, national poet and founder of modern Russian literature
Portrait: Musician and composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Portrait: Carl Friedrich Gauss, the Prince of Mathematicians from Brunswick
Portrait: Alexander von Humboldt, not only in South America still a super star
Portrait: Johann Sebastian Bach, a German composer and musician
Portrait: Hans and Sophie Scholl
Portrait: Richard Wagner, composer, theatre director, polemicist, conductor
Portrait: Otto von Bismarck, the Iron Chancellor
Portrait: August Macke, a German Expressionist painter
Portrait: Johann Jacob Schweppe
Portrait: Paul Klee, painter and graphic artist
Portrait: Baron Munchausen
Portrait: Werner von Siemens, founder of modern electrical engineering
[caption id="attachment_230084" align="aligncenter" width="590"] The Joanine Library © Alvesgaspar/cc-by-sa-3.0[/caption][responsivevoice_button voice="UK English Female" buttontext="Listen to this Post"]The University of Coimbra (UC; Portuguese: Universidade de Coimbra) is a public research univer...
[ read more ]
[caption id="attachment_210072" align="aligncenter" width="590"] Polar bear walking © flickr.com - Emma/cc-by-2.0[/caption][responsivevoice_button voice="UK English Female" buttontext="Listen to this Post"]Hudson Bay (sometimes called Hudson's Bay, usually historically) is a large body of saltwater...
[ read more ]
[caption id="attachment_153460" align="aligncenter" width="590"] © Roberta F./cc-by-sa-3.0[/caption][responsivevoice_button voice="UK English Female" buttontext="Listen to this Post"]Mošćenička Draga is municipality in Primorje-Gorski Kotar County. It has 1,600 inhabitants. It is situated southw...
[ read more ]
[caption id="attachment_152642" align="aligncenter" width="590"] MS Astor in Kiel © VollwertBIT/cc-by-sa-3.0[/caption][responsivevoice_button voice="UK English Female" buttontext="Listen to this Post"]MS Astor is a cruise ship owned by the Germany-based Premicon, under charter to the Germany-based ...
[ read more ]
[caption id="attachment_219874" align="aligncenter" width="590"] Sultan Omar Ali Saifuddin Mosque © flickr.com - sam garza/cc-by-2.0[/caption][responsivevoice_button voice="UK English Female" buttontext="Listen to this Post"]Brunei, officially the Nation of Brunei, the Abode of Peace, is a country ...
[ read more ]
[caption id="attachment_165079" align="aligncenter" width="590"] Des Moines skyline at night © Shimo[/caption][responsivevoice_button voice="UK English Female" buttontext="Listen to this Post"]Des Moines is the capital and the most populous city in the U.S. state of Iowa. It is also the county seat...
[ read more ]
[caption id="attachment_245039" align="aligncenter" width="590"] Homemade panettone © flickr.com - N i c o l a/cc-by-2.0[/caption][responsivevoice_button voice="UK English Female" buttontext="Listen to this Post"]Panettone (Milanese: panetton) is an Italian type of sweet bread and fruitcake, origin...
[ read more ]
[caption id="attachment_242948" align="aligncenter" width="590"] © Wurzelgnohm[/caption][responsivevoice_button voice="UK English Female" buttontext="Listen to this Post"]The Prophet's Mosque is the second mosque built by the Islamic prophet Muhammad in Medina, after that of Quba, as well as the se...
[ read more ]
[caption id="attachment_160653" align="aligncenter" width="590"] Hundertwasser house 'The Green Citadelle' © Doris Antony[/caption][responsivevoice_button voice="UK English Female" buttontext="Listen to this Post"]Magdeburg is the largest city and the capital city of Saxony-Anhalt. Magdeburg is sit...
[ read more ]
[caption id="attachment_225244" align="aligncenter" width="590"] in Warnemünde, Germany © Bahnfrend/cc-by-sa-4.0[/caption][responsivevoice_button voice="UK English Female" buttontext="Listen to this Post"]Regal Princess is a Royal-class cruise ship operated by Princess Cruises, a subsidiary of Car...
[ read more ]
[caption id="attachment_227406" align="aligncenter" width="590"] Europe Day 2009 in Strasbourg © flickr.com - Francois Schnell/cc-by-2.0[/caption][responsivevoice_button voice="UK English Female" buttontext="Listen to this Post"]Europe Day is a day celebrating "peace and unity in Europe" celebrated...
[ read more ]
[caption id="attachment_163112" align="aligncenter" width="590"] Hard Rock Cafe Paris © flickr.com - Flavio Ensiki/cc-by-2.0[/caption][responsivevoice_button voice="UK English Female" buttontext="Listen to this Post"]Henry John Heinz was an American businessman who founded the H. J. Heinz Company. ...
[ read more ]