Johann Wolfgang von Goethe





Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (August 28, 1749 - March 22, 1832) was a German
writer, scientist, and philosopher. Goethe was the author of Faust (ISBN
0385031149) and Theory of Colors (ISBN 0262570211), etc. He inspired Darwin
with his independent discovery of the human premaxilla jaw bones.

Goethe, (pron. "GURR-tah") was born at Frankfurt am Main, Germany. His
father was a man of means and position, and he personally supervised the
early education of his son. The young Goethe studied at the universities of
Leipzig and Strasbourg, and in 1772 entered upon the practice of law at
Wetzlar. At the invitation of Karl August, Duke of Saxe-Weimar, he went in
1775 to live in Weimar, where he held a succession of political offices,
becoming the Duke's chief adviser. From 1786 to 1788 he traveled in Italy,
and directed the ducal theater at Weimar. He took part in the wars against
France, and in the following began a friendship with Friedrich Schiller,
which lasted till the latter's death in 1805. In 1806 he married Christiane
Vulpius. From about 1794 he devoted himself chiefly to literature, and after
a life of extraordinary productiveness died at Weimar.

The most important of Goethe's works produced before he went to Weimar were
his tragedy Gštz von Berlichingen (1773), which first brought him fame, and
The Sorrows of Young Werther, a novel which obtained enormous popularity
during the so-called Sturm und Drang period. During the years at Weimar
before he knew Schiller he began Wilhelm Meister, wrote the dramas
Iphigenie, Egmont, and Torquato Tasso, and his Reinecke Fuchs. To the period
of his friendship with Schiller belong the continuation of Wilhelm Meister,
the beautiful idyl of Hermann and Dorothea, and the Roman Elegies. In the
last period, between Schiller's death in 1805 and his own, appeared Faust,
Elective Affinities, his autobiographical Dichtung und Wahrheit (Poetry and
Truth), his Italian Journey, much scientific work, and a series of treatises
on German Art.