Johann Wolfgang von Goethe- German poet, statesman, thinker.
Goethe was born August 28 1749 years in Frankfurt am Main in a wealthy bourgeois family. His father is an imperial adviser, a lawyer, his mother is a noblewoman, the daughter of a Frankfurt elder.
Already as a child, Johann began to show amazing abilities for science. Already at the age of seven he knew several languages, in addition, at this age he began to write his first poems and compose plays. The talented child read a lot and tried to replenish his knowledge as much as possible.
IN 1765 Goethe became a student at the University of Leipzig, where he was supposed to study jurisprudence. At this time, he fell in love for the first time, and this became the reason for the creation of the lyrical collection of poems “Annette” (1767).
Serious illness in 1768 year almost put an end to the biography of Johann Goethe, forcing the young man to leave his studies at the university, which he was able to continue only in 1770 in Strassburg. Here, along with acquiring legal knowledge, he studied natural sciences and medicine.
IN 1771 g. After defending his dissertation, Goethe became a doctor of law.
IN 1772
Goethe moved to the city of Wetzlar to practice law. It is in this city that the poet experiences the pangs of unrequited love for his friend’s fiancée, Charlotte Buff. Goethe depicted his deep experiences and torment in his work “The Sorrows of Young Werther” - this novel made the poet famous.
IN 1775 year, Johann Goethe receives an offer from his close friend, Prince Karl August, to enter the public service. He agrees and settles in Weimar. The famous writer and poet, having broad powers, controlled finances, the condition of roads, and education. For his successes in this field, Goethe was elevated to the rank of nobleman in 1782, and in 1815 he became the first minister in the government of Karl August. The year 1791 was marked by the opening of a theater in the city, which happened with the direct participation of the writer.
IN 1784 Goethe discovered the human intermaxillary bone, and in 1790 the treatise “An Experience in the Metamorphosis of Plants” was published.
When Goethe was almost sixty years old, he had a civil marriage with Christiana Vulpius, his lover and mother of his children, despite the fact that she was a commoner, and this caused public protest.
In 1808, the first part of the tragedy “Faust” was published. The end of work on Faust occurred in 1831.
A brilliant writer has passed away March 22, 1832, leaving his brilliant legacy in the form of many poems, ballads, plays, novels, scientific works in the field of anatomy, geology, mineralogy, and physics.
The greatest poet and universal genius of German literature. He called his work “fragments of a huge confession.” His autobiographical works, incl. Poetry and Truth (Dichtung und Wahrheit), telling the story of the poet's childhood and youth up to 1775; Travel to Italy (Italienische Reise), an account of a trip to Italy in 1786–1788; The French Campaign of 1792 (Die Campagne in Frankreich 1792) and the Siege of Mainz in 1793 (Die Belagerung von Mainz, 1793), as well as the Annals and Diaries (Annalen and Tag- und Jahreshefte), covering the period from 1790 to 1822, were all published in the firm belief that it is impossible to appreciate poetry without first understanding its author.
Goethe was born on August 28, 1749 in Frankfurt am Main. “My stern / way of life, physique took after my father; / My mother always has a lively disposition / And an attraction to stories” (translated by D. Nedovich), he wrote in one of his later poems. Goethe's first poetic experiments date back to the age of eight. Not too strict home education under the supervision of his father, and then three years of student freedom at the University of Leipzig left him enough time to satisfy his craving for reading and try out all the genres and styles of the Enlightenment, so that by the age of 19, when a serious illness forced him to interrupt his studies , he had already mastered the techniques of versification and dramaturgy and was the author of quite a significant number of works, most of which he later destroyed. The collection of poems Annette (Das Buch Annette, 1767), dedicated to Anna Katharina Schönkopf, the daughter of the owner of the Leipzig inn where Goethe usually dined, and the pastoral comedy The Whims of a Lover (Die Laune des Verliebten, 1767) were specially preserved.
In Strasbourg, where Goethe completed his legal studies in 1770–1771, and in the next four years in Frankfurt, he was the leader of a literary revolt against the principles established by J. H. Gottsched (1700–1766) and the theorists of the Enlightenment.
In Strasbourg, Goethe met with J. G. Herder (1744–1803), the leading critic and ideologist of the Sturm und Drang movement, filled with plans to create great and original literature in Germany. Herder's enthusiastic attitude towards Shakespeare, Ossian, the Monuments of Ancient English Poetry by T. Percy and the folk poetry of all nations opened new horizons for the young poet, whose talent was just beginning to unfold. He wrote G tz von Berlichingen and, using Shakespeare's "lessons", began work on Egmont and Faust; helped Herder collect German folk songs and composed many poems in the manner of folk songs. Goethe shared Herder's conviction that true poetry should come from the heart and be the fruit of the poet's own life experience, and not rewrite old models. This conviction became his main creative principle throughout his life. During this period, the ardent happiness that filled him with his love for Friederike Brion, the daughter of a Sesenheim pastor, was embodied in the vivid imagery and sincere tenderness of such poems as Date and Parting (Willkommen und Abschied), May Song (Mailied) and With a Painted Ribbon (Mit einem) bemalten Band); reproaches of conscience after parting with her were reflected in scenes of abandonment and loneliness in Faust, Goetz, Clavigo and in a number of poems. Werther's sentimental passion for Lotte and his tragic dilemma: love for a girl already engaged to another is part of Goethe's own life experience. Poems to Lili Schönemann, a young beauty from Frankfurt society, tell the story of his fleeting infatuation.
Eleven years at the Weimar court (1775–1786), where he was a friend and adviser to the young Duke Karl August, radically changed the poet's life. Goethe was at the very center of court society - a tireless inventor and organizer of balls, masquerades, practical jokes, amateur performances, hunts and picnics, a trustee of parks, architectural monuments and museums. He became a member of the Ducal Privy Council and later a minister of state; was in charge of road construction, recruiting, government finance, public works, mining projects, etc. and spent many years studying geology, mineralogy, botany and comparative anatomy. But what benefited him the most was his continued daily communication with Charlotte von Stein. The emotionalism and revolutionary iconoclasm of the Sturm und Drang period are a thing of the past; now Goethe's ideals in life and art become restraint and self-control, balance, harmony and classical perfection of form. Instead of great geniuses, his heroes become quite ordinary people. The free stanzas of his poems are calm and serene in content and rhythm, but little by little the form becomes harsher, in particular Goethe prefers the octaves and elegiac couplets of the great “troika” - Catullus, Tibullus and Propertius.
Goethe's numerous official duties seriously hampered the completion of the major works he had begun - Wilhelm Meister, Egmont, Iphigenie and Tasso. Taking a year and a half vacation, he goes to Italy, sculpts there, makes more than a thousand landscape sketches, reads ancient poets and the history of ancient art by I. I. Winkelman (1717–1768).
Upon returning to Weimar (1789), Goethe did not immediately switch to a “sedentary” lifestyle. Over the next six years, he made a second trip to Venice, accompanied the Weimar Duke on his trip to Breslau (Wroclaw), and participated in the military campaign against Napoleon. In June 1794, he established friendly relations with F. Schiller, who asked for help in publishing the new magazine "Ory", and after that he lived mainly in Weimar. Daily communication between poets, discussion of plans, joint work on such ideas as the satirical Xenia (Xenien, 1796) and ballads of 1797 were an excellent creative stimulus for Goethe. The works that were lying in his desk were published, incl. Roman elegies (R mische Elegien), the fruit of nostalgia for Rome and love for Christiane Vulpius, who became Goethe’s wife in 1806. He completed the Years of Study of Wilhelm Meister (Wilhelm Meisters Lehrjahre, 1795–1796), continued work on Faust and wrote a number of new works, incl. Alexis and Dora (Alexis und Dora), Amyntas (Amyntas) and Hermann and Dorothea (Hermann und Dorothea), an idyllic poem from the life of a small German town against the backdrop of the events of the French Revolution. As for prose, Goethe then wrote a collection of stories, Conversations of German Emigrants (Unterhaltungen deutscher Ausgewanderten), which also included the inimitable Tale (Das M rchen).
When Schiller died in 1805, thrones and empires shook - Napoleon was reshaping Europe. During this period he wrote sonnets to Minna Herzlieb, the novel Elective Affinity (Die Wahlverwandtschaften, 1809) and an autobiography. At the age of 65, wearing the oriental mask of Hatem, he created the West-Eastern Diwan (West-licher Diwan), a collection of love lyrics. The Zuleika of this cycle, Marianne von Willemer, was herself a poetess, and her poems were organically included in the Divan. Parables, insightful observations and wise reflections on human life, morality, nature, art, poetry, science and religion illuminate the poems of the West-East Divan. The same qualities are manifested in Conversations in prose and verse (Spr che in Prosa, Spr che in Reimen), Orphic first verbs (Urworte. Orhisch, 1817), as well as in Conversations with I.P. Eckerman, published in the last decade of the poet’s life , when he was finishing Wilhelm Meister and Faust. Goethe died in Weimar on March 22, 1832.
MAIN WORKS
Götz von Berlichingen with an Iron Hand (G tz von Berlichingen mit der eisernen Hand, 1773), inspired by the historical chronicles of Shakespeare, gives a vivid realistic picture of Germany in the 16th century, depicting the conflict between the old imperial order, represented by its knighthood and peasantry, and the new forces, the conflict princes and cities destined to define modern life. Clavigo's play (Clavigo, 1774) is based on an episode from the memoirs of P.O.K. Beaumarchais; in contrast to Goetz, this is a compositionally simple modern tragedy from the life of the middle class, raised by Goethe to the level of a problem play, where each character is right in his own way. The Hero of Egmont (Egmont, 1788) is a Dutch stadtholder (governor) from the time of Philip II, executed by the Spaniards during the struggle of the Netherlands for liberation from the Spanish yoke. Freedom is the main theme of the tragedy. The use of an orchestra accompanying the allegorical vision of the goddess of Liberty in the last act caused sharp criticism at that time, but later Schiller also resorted to this technique - this was the first step towards Wagnerian musical dramas; Beethoven's overture to Egmont continued this tradition. Iphigenie in Tauris (Iphigenie auf Tauris, 1787) is a truly beautiful hymn to Goethe’s woman. In contrast to Euripides' Iphigenia, a cunning intriguer, Goethe's heroine, having set herself the high goal of lifting the family curse, achieves this goal by renouncing blood feud, under no circumstances does she betray herself and lives a pure, sinless life, confident that the gods approve of her love of humanity. . Torquato Tasso (Torquato Tasso, 1790) is stunning to the core and, with all the limitations imposed by the sublimity of poetic language and classical form, a realistic and convincing tragedy of a genius threatened by madness. The novel Selective Affinity (Die Wahlverwandtschaften, 1809) examines the problems of divorce in detail and impartially.
Published in 1774, the sentimental psychological novel in letters The Sorrows of Young Werther (Die Leiden des jungen Werthers) brought the author worldwide fame. Its first part contains more or less exact circumstances of Goethe's unhappy love with Charlotte (Lotte) Buff, the bride of his friend G.K. Kästner, in the summer of 1772 in Wetzlar. The second part is based on the unlucky fate of K.V. Jerusalem, the Brunswick Plenipotentiary Secretary: despised by the aristocratic society of the Trial Chamber, harassed by his superiors and in love with the wife of a colleague, he committed suicide in October 1772. The crystallization of these materials and characters, however, took place under the influence of a painful incident that happened to Goethe in February 1774 in the house of Maximiliana Brentano’s jealous husband.
The unprecedented success of the novel cannot be attributed solely to the unsurpassed skill with which Goethe puts an ordinary love story into epistolary form. Here is the credo of an entire generation that rebelled against the primitive optimistic rationalism of their fathers, who saw the operation of speculative laws in the wondrous abundance of nature, in its mysterious Creator - a kind of watchmaker, in the events of life - a set of moral rules, and in the circuitous paths of losses and gains - a well-trodden path to happiness achievable by reasonable behavior. Despite all this, Werther proclaimed the right of the heart.
Wilhelm Meister is the main character of Goethe's dilogy Wilhelm Meisters Lehrjahre and Wilhelm Meisters Wanderjahre. The genre is a novel of education (Bildungsroman), revealing the organic spiritual development of the hero as he accumulates life experience. The first edition of the novel - Wilhelm Meister's Theatrical Vocation (Wilhelm Meisters theatralische Sendung, written in 1777–1786) - was discovered in Switzerland in 1910 and was published in 1911. The novel is remarkable for its realistic description of the life of an actor, the life of burghers and aristocrats and is truly unique in the assessments of German, French and English playwrights, in particular Shakespeare. Wilhelm Meister's years of study (1795–1796) were inspired by Schiller's friendly participation; six books of Theatrical Vocation were included in the first four books of the new edition, but were revised from a more mature position of the author. According to the new plan, the Meister had to be brought to a more universal, humanistic concept of life, which could only be achieved by communicating with the aristocrats. Theater certainly retains its educational value, but only as a detour towards the ideal, and not as a goal in itself. Years of Wandering, written in the last years of his life (published 1829), again demonstrates the changes in philosophy and style of writing that are characteristic of Goethe, who always sought to keep pace with the changing times. The Industrial Revolution, far more important in its consequences than the short-lived French Revolution, confirmed how radically times had changed since the end of the Years of Learning. It is noteworthy that at the end of his European travels, Wilhelm emigrated with his family and a group of friends to America, where they intended to create a democratic brotherhood of workers.
Faust is the central figure of many legends, appearing more than once in the history of literature. It took Goethe more than 60 years to complete the treatment of the legend according to the master plan drawn up in 1770. The first part was published only in 1808. The second part - with the exception of the magnificent tragedy of Helen in Act III, begun in 1800 and published in 1827 - was mainly creativity of the last years of the writer’s life (1827–1831); completed shortly before Goethe's death and published in 1833.
The two great antagonists of the mystery tragedy are God and the devil, and the soul of Faust is only the field of their battle, which will certainly end in the defeat of the devil. This concept explains the contradictions in Faust’s character, his passive contemplation and active will, selflessness and selfishness, humility and audacity - the author masterfully reveals the dualism of his nature at all stages of the hero’s life.
The tragedy can be divided into five acts of unequal magnitude, corresponding to the five periods of the life of Doctor Faustus. In Act I, which ends with an agreement with the devil, Faust the metaphysician tries to resolve the conflict between two souls - contemplative and active, which symbolize the Macrocosm and the Spirit of the Earth, respectively. Act II, the tragedy of Gretchen, which concludes the first part, reveals Faust as a sensualist in conflict with spirituality. Part two, which leads Faust into the free world, to higher and purer spheres of activity, is thoroughly allegorical, it is like a dream play, where time and space do not matter, and the characters become signs of eternal ideas. The first three acts of the second part form a single whole and together constitute act III. In them, Faustus appears as an artist, first at the court of the Emperor, then in classical Greece, where he is united with Helen of Troy, a symbol of harmonious classical form. The conflict in this aesthetic realm arises between the pure artist, who makes art for art's sake, and the eudaimonist, who seeks personal pleasure and glory in art. The culmination of Helen's tragedy is her marriage to Faust, in which the synthesis of classicism and romanticism, which both Goethe himself and his beloved student J. G. Byron sought, finds expression. Goethe paid poetic tribute to Byron, endowing him with the features of Euphorion, the offspring of this symbolic marriage. In Act IV, which ends with Faustus's death, he is presented as a military leader, engineer, colonist, business man, and empire builder. He is at the pinnacle of his earthly accomplishments, but his inner discord still torments him, because he is unable to achieve human happiness without destroying human life, just as he is unable to create a paradise on earth with abundance and work for everyone without resorting to bad means. The devil, always present, is actually necessary. This act ends with one of the most impressive episodes created by Goethe's poetic fantasy - Faust's meeting with Care. She announces his imminent death, but he arrogantly ignores her, remaining a willful and unreasonable titan until his last breath. The last act, the ascension and transfiguration of Faust, where Goethe freely used the symbolism of Catholic heaven, concludes the mystery with a majestic finale, with the prayer of the saints and angels for the salvation of Faust's soul by the grace of the good God.
Faust's influence on German and world literature is enormous. Nothing compares with Faust in poetic beauty, and in integrity of composition - perhaps Milton's Paradise Lost and Dante's Divine Comedy.
Johann Goethe is an outstanding German writer, poet, thinker, philosopher and natural scientist, statesman.
Goethe's works, especially the tragedy "Faust", are recognized as masterpieces of German and world literature. The genius of the thinker lay in his amazing versatility and depth of knowledge.
Goethe's home library contained about 2,000 books, thanks to which Johann, who read a lot, was distinguished by his deep thinking from early childhood.
Childhood and youth
When Johann Goethe was 6 years old, a turning point occurred in his biography: he learned about a major accident in Lisbon, as a result of which many people died.
Johann Goethe in his youth After this, Johann began to think about God. The boy could not understand how a kind and fair Creator could allow the death of so many people.
In this regard, he pondered various religious issues for a long time.
The childhood of the future writer was very joyful and carefree. Moreover, although their family was very rich, Johann Goethe was not a spoiled child.
He really enjoyed spending his free time in the library, reading different things. He was an inquisitive child and at the age of 10 he was already composing poetry.
In 1756, Goethe went to school, but after studying there for only 3 years, he switched to home schooling.
His parents hired the best teachers available for him.
Interestingly, in addition to traditional subjects, the boy was interested in. In addition, Goethe studied horse riding, fencing, dancing, as well as playing the cello and.
Having reached the age of 16, he successfully passes exams to the prestigious University of Leipzig at the Faculty of Law. His father dreamed of Johann becoming a lawyer. However, the young man was of little interest in jurisprudence.
Instead, he paid attention to natural science and literature. During this period of his biography, he attended lectures by the writer and philosopher Christian Gellert, and also met the famous art critic Winckelmann.
During his studies, Goethe made many friends because he was a sociable and open person. He went to various social events and often participated in discussions about.
Student Goethe did not need anything, since he received a substantial amount of money from his father every month.
However, it was then that a serious trouble occurred in his biography: he was diagnosed with tuberculosis, as a result of which he had to return home without graduating from university.
Goethe Sr. was very upset that his son did not receive a diploma of education, and therefore the relationship between them was seriously strained.
Goethe's work
Arriving home, Johann Goethe was treated for his illness for a long time. During this period, he wrote the comedy “Accomplices,” which became the first serious work in his biography.
In 1770 he went to Strasbourg to finally obtain a legal education. There he actively studies philology, and also shows interest in chemistry and.
Portrait of Goethe in Campania by Tischbein, 1787 Later, Johann Goethe met art critic and theologian Johann Herder, who spoke positively about the promising student.
One day in Strasbourg he met Friederike Brion and immediately fell in love with her. The writer began to dedicate love poems to her, confessing his feelings.
However, very little time passed, and the sudden love that flared up died away, and the girl ceased to interest him, which he honestly wrote to her in his letter.
Works of Goethe
In 1773, Johann Goethe published the play “Goetz von Berlichingen with an Iron Hand,” which brought him some popularity.
Goethe's next lover is Charlotte Buff, whom he saw at the ball. But the girl did not show any interest in him, and therefore he became depressed.
"The Sorrows of Young Werther"
However, it was precisely thanks to his difficult mental state that Johann Goethe managed to write the magnificent novel “The Sorrows of Young Werther,” in which Buff was the prototype of the main character.
The plot of the novel was about a young man who committed suicide due to unrequited love.
This work was a great success, but after its publication in Germany, many cases of suicide due to unrequited love were recorded.
An interesting fact is that in some German cities this book was banned due to its negative impact on young minds.
"Faust"
During the period 1774-1832. Johann Goethe wrote his immortal philosophical drama “Faust,” which became one of the most famous works in his biography.
To this day, Faust is considered the pinnacle of German poetry. The writer worked on this work for almost 60 years, bringing every phrase to perfection.
The most famous translation of Faust was not carried out.
An interesting fact is that he had a sharply negative attitude towards most of Goethe’s works, but on the contrary, he called “Faust” one of his most favorite books.
"Forest King"
In 1782, Goethe wrote the ballad “The Forest King,” written in the style of a folk epic. It tells about a certain powerful being who killed a child.
The poet describes a father and son riding a horse through the forest. It seems to the son that the forest king is beckoning him; his father explains to him that he is imagining all this.
At the end, the son shouts that the forest king has caught up with him. When they finally arrive home, the father discovers that the child is dead.
The ballad “The Forest Tsar” was translated into Russian several times. The most famous Russian translations are those of Afanasy Fet.
Personal life
Johann Goethe was a man of genius, capable of mastering any knowledge. At the same time, he was a rather strange and mysterious person.
A number of biographers believe that Heinrich Faust from his poem had many character traits inherent in Goethe himself.
Throughout his life, Goethe was very popular with women, as a result of which he had many love affairs.
However, despite this, his only love was the milliner Christiana Vulpius, with whom he lived for 30 years. An interesting fact is that his chosen one was not particularly attractive, although she was a good-natured and sincere girl.
Their meeting happened completely by chance. One day Christiane gave Johann Goethe a letter. This fleeting meeting was enough to win Goethe's heart. He invited her to settle in his estate, to which Vulpius gave her consent.
The writer's former lovers considered it an insult to Johann's choice, who chose some peasant woman instead of them. However, he didn't care at all.
In 1806, Johann and Christiane got married, after which they had five children. The children born after Augustus's eldest son did not survive: one child was stillborn, the rest died within a few weeks.
Goethe had different ones. The most famous of them is collecting. He was also seriously interested in minerals (the mineral goethite is named after him).
Death
During one of his walks, Johann Goethe caught a serious cold. Every day the disease progressed and ultimately caused the death of the great writer.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe died on March 22, 1832, aged 82. His last words were: “Please close the window.”
Photo Goethe
At the end, look at the photo of Johann Goethe. More precisely, photos of artistic portraits of Goethe, painted in oil.
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French writer who gained fame after the publication of the short story "Pumpkin" (1880). He served in the Naval Ministry (1872-1878), worked in the Ministry of Public Education (1878-1880). Since May 1880 he collaborated with the newspaper Gauloise. Author of about 300 short stories (the first collection of short stories, “Tellier’s Establishment,” was published in May 1881...36th President of the United States (1963-1969), from the Democratic Party. In 1961-1963 - Vice President of the United States. The Johnson government began an aggressive war in Vietnam and intervened in the Dominican Republic (1965). Domestic politics led to worsening social and racial conflicts. Lyndon Johnson is not...
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Real name and surname - Ivo Livi. French actor and singer. He was a singer in Marseille, and since 1944 he performed in Paris at the Folies Bergere and Moulin Rouge. Since 1945 - film actor. He starred in the films “The Wages of Fear” (1953), “The Witches of Salem”…
French writer, philosopher, politician. Participant in the French Revolution of 1789. He spent about thirty years in prison. He spent the last ten years of his life in Charenton, a hospital for the mentally ill. Author of the novels “The 120 Days of Sodom” (1785), “Justine, or the Miserable Fate of Virtue” (1791), “The History of Juliette, or the Benefits of Vice”…
The most depraved of the popes since the Ottones. After the death of Innocent VIII he received the papal mantle. Talent, energy and wealth allowed him to gain great influence. His activities reveal some state abilities. The Borgia family is the Spanish Borjo family, which moved to Italy in the 15th...
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German playwright, poet and historian. A surgeon by training. After the success of the play "The Robbers" (1781), he devoted himself entirely to literature and completed his tragedies "Cunning and Love" (1783) and "The Fiesco Conspiracy" (1784). In Weimar he wrote the drama “Don Carlos” (1988) and the ode “To...
On November 18, 1960, Jean-Claude Camille Francois van Varenberg was born into an intelligent family, now he is known as Jean-Claude Van Damme. The action hero did not show any athletic inclinations as a child; he studied piano and classical dancing, and also drew well. A dramatic change occurred in his youth,...
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
"Johann Wolfgang von Goethe"
German poet, writer and playwright, founder of German literature of modern times. He stood at the head of the romantic literary movement "Storm and Drang". Author of the biographical novel "The Sorrows of Young Werther" (1774). The pinnacle of Goethe's creativity is the tragedy "Faust" (1808-1832). A visit to Italy (1786-1788) inspired him to create the classic dramas Iphigenia in Tauris (1787), Torquato Tasso (1790). First Minister of the Duchy of Saxe-Weimar (1775-1785). Author of the autobiographical book "Poetry and Truth" (ed. 1811-1833), "The Years of Wilhelm Meister's Study" (1795-1796), "The Years of Wilhelm Meister's Wanderings" (1821-1829), a collection of lyrical poems "West-Eastern Divan" ( 1814-1819) etc.
Goethe was known as the greatest admirer of women in the history of literature; he had many mistresses.
Kind, handsome, brilliant... Moreover, he himself is very amorous. And therefore, the sun of German poetry, wherever fate took him, always appeared in the company of a pretty friend. The woman was his ideal, his guiding star, his element. And this star shone for him from his youth until the end of his life.
Gretchen is considered the poet's first love. However, some biographers and commentators argue that this was just a figment of youthful imagination. She haunted Goethe in the days of his youth, accompanied his dreams in adulthood, served as his muse in his old age, ultimately embodied in the image of the enchanting Faustian Gretchen, the best and most attractive of Goethe’s heroines. However, the poet’s mother recalled Gretchen as her son’s first love, and in his autobiography Goethe described his love in detail...
One day, young Wolfgang met a company of cheerful young people. They obtained money for their spree in very unusual ways: they forged bills of exchange, found orders for poems for the poet for various special occasions: weddings, funerals, etc.
At one of these parties, Goethe met a charming blonde named Gretchen. She was a year or a year and a half older than him and, generously accepting the young poet’s worship, nevertheless did not allow him any liberties.
At one feast, the cheerful company stayed up past midnight. Goethe, fearing his father's wrath, decided not to return home and stayed with friends. They spent time talking until sleep overtook one after another. Gretchen also fell asleep, resting her pretty head on the shoulder of her gentleman, who sat proudly and happily, trying not to move. In the morning, Gretchen was already more affectionate with the poet and even gently shook his hand. It seemed that nothing would prevent the young people from getting closer, when suddenly the police learned about the antics of the cheerful company. The investigation began and interrogations followed.
Gretchen stated that she actually met Goethe, and not without pleasure, but she always looked at him as a child, and treated him like a sister to a brother. Wolfgang was offended to the core. At fifteen, he considered himself a real man, and not a boy who was looked down upon! Goethe cried, got angry, was indignant and, of course, “torn out of his heart the woman” who had so cruelly ridiculed his sincere feelings!
But how fleeting are the passions of youth! If Wolfgang Goethe had been told at the time of his first love that he would soon forget his charming Gretchen and give his warm heart to another girl, equally beautiful, but even closer in spirit, he would have been indignant. Nevertheless, two years later, when Goethe was already studying in Leipzig, this is exactly what happened.
In the house of the innkeeper Schenkopf, a company of young people gathered at the table d'hôte, among whom was Goethe. The owner and hostess, very nice people, were sitting right there, and their charming daughter was busy in the kitchen and served wine to the guests. This was Anna-Katerina, or simply Kätchen, whom Goethe in his early collections called either Anchen or Annette.
The appearance of the 19-year-old girl can be judged from a letter from Horn, one of Goethe’s friends. “Imagine a girl,” he wrote, “of good, but not very tall stature, with a round, pleasant, although not particularly beautiful face, with relaxed, sweet, charming manners. There is a lot of simplicity in her and not a drop of coquetry. Moreover, she is smart, although she did not receive a good upbringing. He loves her very much and loves her with the pure love of an honest person, although he knows that she can never be his wife." Ketchen did not remain indifferent to the feelings of the young poet and reciprocated.
And suddenly Wolfgang began to be furiously jealous of the girl, and completely groundlessly. In the end, Kätchen got tired of the suspicions that insulted her dignity, and she left Goethe and never returned to him. The poet tried to regain her favor, but without success. Only after the breakup did Goethe realize how much he loved this girl.
Severe mental anguish forced him to seek oblivion in wine and carousing, which seriously undermined his health. To regain his strength, Goethe went home to Frankfurt, but the image of a charming girl haunted him there too. Two years after the breakup, he learned that Kätchen was getting married, and to his good friend, Dr. Kanne, the future vice-burgomaster of Leipzig. The shock was so great that the poet suffered pulmonary hemorrhage. Wolfgang wrote touching letters to his beloved, in which he promised to go far away and forget her forever, and warned that she should not answer him. But in a noble impulse of self-sacrifice, regret about the lost happiness awoke in his soul, and the pen wrote sad, sincere lines: “You are my happiness! You are the only woman whom I could not call a friend, because this word is too weak in comparison with what what I feel".
The fruit of Goethe's love for Kätchen was the pastoral "The Whims of a Lover." In her heroes, who spend time in continuous quarrels, Goethe and Kätchen are easily recognizable. The subjects for his works were often events from his own life. A great poet once said: “All my works are only fragments of the great confession of my life.”
When Goethe recovered, he was sent to Strasbourg to study jurisprudence. Strasbourg was a cheerful city, and Goethe soon forgot about Kötchen. There was a lot of dancing in this city, even in the open air, and Goethe could not help but succumb to the general passion. He began taking lessons from a local dancing master, who had two daughters, Lucinda and Emilia. After the first lesson, it turned out that Goethe fell in love with Emilia, and Lucinda fell in love with Goethe.
Alas, Emilia loved another, so Goethe did not have to count on reciprocity.
"Johann Wolfgang von Goethe"
Meanwhile, Lucinda, like a true Frenchwoman, did not hide her feelings and often reproached Goethe that her heart was being neglected. One day she turned to a fortune teller. The cards showed that the girl did not enjoy the favor of the person to whom she was not indifferent. Lucinda turned pale, and the fortune teller, guessing what was going on, started talking about some kind of letter, but the girl interrupted her with the words: “I didn’t receive any letter, and if it’s true that I love, then it’s also true that I deserve reciprocity.” She ran away crying. Goethe and Emilia rushed after her, but the girl locked herself, and no requests could force her to open the doors.
Emilia suggested that Goethe stop dancing lessons and frankly admitted to him that she loved another and was bound to him by word. Emilia also said that Goethe would act nobly if he left their home, since she, too, was beginning to have sympathy for him, and this could have bad consequences. Submitting to bitter necessity, Goethe retired.
Among the many romances experienced by the great poet, his relationship with the daughter of the Sozenheim pastor Brion, Friederike, deserves special attention.
Twenty-year-old Goethe was four years older than the kind, poetic Friederike. He came to Sozenheim by accident and experienced a feeling of surprise mixed with admiration when, in the modest house of the Sozenheim pastor, little Friederike appeared before him, shining with chaste beauty. She was wearing a short skirt and a black apron, her eyes sparkled, her slightly upturned nose seemed to ask who this stranger was, who had come from a noisy city to their quiet village, where everything was peaceful and simple, where people lived as their ancestors lived. And the stranger answered her. But what an answer that was! Passion flowed from his lips, inspiration sparkled in his gaze. The girl fixed her eyes on his beautiful face, she greedily caught his every word, tried to remember every gesture. Of course, the great Goethe spoke to her!
On the very first day he fell passionately in love, and his heart beat anxiously at the thought that she might already be in love, maybe even engaged. Fortunately, Friederike, like a spring flower, was just beginning to live and was eager to meet the one who would be the first to extend his hand to her...
The next day, the young people walked together. How many words were said in these minutes! Then they listened to the pastor's sermon in the church. And then, in the afternoon, when the voices of their friends rang in the air, how eagerly the touch of their lips was, during the game, but fueled by an inner flame! A secret kiss, a real one... And the next day, departure to Frankfurt. He left almost as a groom, although there was no engagement, because only two days passed between Goethe’s first meeting with his beloved and the climax of his amorous rapture!
The history of European literature owes much to a poor village girl who inspired strong feelings in one of its greatest representatives. For Goethe, after meeting Friederike, the world began to sparkle with new colors. The significance of this was all the greater since since the sad story with Kätchen he had almost parted with his muse. After meeting Friederike, his craving for creativity awoke.
Unfortunately, the end of the affair with Friederike bore little resemblance to its beginning. Goethe did not marry her, although in fact he was already considered her fiancé. The daughter of a poor pastor could not become the wife of the son of an eminent Frankfurt citizen, who would never consent to such a marriage. And Goethe himself realized this when the pastor’s family arrived in Strasbourg. If in the village Friederike seemed like a forest flower or a nymph, then in the city, where she would have to live after marrying Goethe, she resembled a simple peasant woman.
He continued to love her, missed her, but was clearly aware that separation was inevitable. Friederike remained faithful to Goethe until the last days of her life. Despite numerous proposals, she never got married. “Whoever was loved by Goethe,” Frederica once said to her sister, “cannot love anyone else.”
Having parted with her and wanting to drown out the difficult feelings in his soul, Goethe tried to find solace in work, wrote many works, including the sensational “Goetz von Berlichingen”, which immediately put its author at the head of a movement known in the history of literature as “storm and stress” ". At the same time, he sketched out the plan for Prometheus and Faust, which immortalized his name. To forget the image of his beloved girl, he delved into the study of antiquity, which was also reflected in his works.
From May to September 1772, Goethe practiced law at the Imperial Court in Wetzlar. Wolfgang immediately became known as a philosopher and captivated everyone with his sharp mind. Beautiful girls were looking for his acquaintance. In Wetzlar, the 23-year-old poet met Charlotte Buff, the daughter of the estate manager of the German Order of Knighthood. The girl was engaged to Christian Kästner, who served in the Imperial Court of Justice as plenipotentiary secretary of the embassy of the city of Hanover.
Without Goethe's unhappy love for Charlotte Buff (he called her Lotte), one of the poet's most famous works, “The Sorrows of Young Werther,” would not have been created. Goethe fell in love with 19-year-old Charlotte at first sight, for her gentle beauty and cheerful character could not help but attract the poet.
In "The Sorrows of Young Werther" the scene of the meeting with Lotte is vividly described, a scene later immortalized on canvas by Kaulbach. “Having walked through the courtyard to a beautiful building and climbed up the stairs, I opened the door, and the most delightful sight I had ever seen met my eyes. In the first room, six children from eleven to two years of age were spinning around a beautiful, medium-sized girl dressed in "A simple white dress with pink bows on the chest and on the sleeves. She held black bread and cut portions to the little ones around her, in accordance with the age and appetite of each, and served it with such friendliness!" It was a painting in the spirit of that sentimental time, and Goethe met Lotte in 1772.
A sad time began in Goethe's life. Consumed by the desire to get closer to the charming daughter of Councilor Buff, the poet at the same time understood that he had to either destroy someone else’s happiness, or suppress the feeling that had flared up in himself. But the second path meant suicide.
Surprisingly, the poet did not hide his feelings for her from the groom, and the groom himself encouraged their meetings, confident that Goethe was too honest and Lotte too noble for the base role of lovers. And Goethe decided to leave the city. He did not say goodbye to his beloved and her fiancé, instead he sent them a note with passionate outpourings, sighs and tears and almost immediately decided to describe his mental anguish.
"Johann Wolfgang von Goethe"
The fruit of his experiences was “The Sorrows of Young Werther”...
The name Lily is familiar to anyone who has read Goethe's famous elegy "Park Lily". Anna-Elisabeth Schenemann was Goethe's fiancée and almost became his wife. The poet dedicated several poems to her: “Tosca”, “The Bliss of Sorrow”, “In Autumn”, “Lily”, “New Love, New Life”, “Belinda”, “To the Golden Heart That He Carried on His Chest”...
Rich, cheerful, frivolous, always living in luxury, surrounded by society dandies, constantly moving in high society, the girl was the complete opposite of the great poet. Even their closest friends and acquaintances did not allow the thought of marriage between them.
Goethe met Elisabeth Schenemann at the end of 1774 at her parents' house in Frankfurt. Sixteen-year-old Lily sat at the piano and played a sonata. When she had finished, Goethe introduced himself to her. “We looked at each other,” he wrote in his autobiography, “and, I don’t want to lie, it seemed to me that I felt an attractive force of the most pleasant quality.” For the ardent Goethe, one meeting was enough to immediately write a poem and pour out his feelings.
Lily quickly attracted Goethe to her, and he was truly happy when she honored him with affection.
Flirty Lily liked the handsome poet. She enthusiastically told him about her life, complained about its emptiness, said that she only wanted to test her power over Goethe, but she herself was caught in the net. The young people explained themselves, and the matter would probably have ended in marriage, if not for the difference in social status between the families. Knowing her father’s pickiness in this matter, Cornelia, Goethe’s sister, resolutely opposed this marriage. Others also objected. But Goethe did not listen.
A certain girl from Delphi took upon herself the difficult task of arranging the matter. One day she told the lovers that their parents had agreed and ordered them to shake hands. Goethe approached Lily, and she slowly but firmly raised hers and placed it in his hand, after which both “with a deep sigh” threw themselves into each other’s arms. Then the engagement took place. But the marriage still failed. Goethe’s trip to Switzerland also played a role, during which Lily’s entourage tried to assure her of the coldness of her groom. In the end, the young people had to leave. Goethe took the break very hard. He stood under her window for hours, wrapped in a cloak, and returned happy when he happened to see her shadow in the windows.
Subsequently, Lily married a Strasbourg banker, and Goethe, leaving for Italy, wrote in his notebook: “Lily, goodbye! For the second time, Lily! Separating the first time, I still hoped to unite our fate. Now it’s decided: we must play our roles separately. I'm not afraid for myself or for you. It all seems so confusing. Goodbye."
Goethe met 33-year-old Charlotte von Stein in 1775 and loved her for fourteen years, despite the fact that she was married to the Chief of the Horse of the Weimar court and was surrounded by seven children. True, she was very educated, tactful, smart, but... the poet was only 26 years old! Probably, the fact that Goethe was lonely in small, cheerful Weimar, where he found himself after his native Frankfurt and where the new duties of a courtier weighed heavily on him, probably played a role here.
Wolfgang described his feelings for Charlotte in the famous "Iphigenia". Some biographers of Goethe believe that his love for Charlotte was platonic. They exchanged passionate confessions, wrote fiery letters to each other during their separation, but never went beyond what was permitted, although Charlotte's husband was at home only once a week. At the same time, one cannot ignore the fact that when Goethe became close to Christiana Vulpius, his future wife, Charlotte, burning with anger and demanding her letters back, burned them, and ended all relations with Goethe. The seriousness of their relationship is also evidenced by the drama composed by Charlotte, where Goethe is depicted in an unsightly form. It portrays the poet as a stupid braggart, a rude cynic, ridiculously vain, a treacherous hypocrite, a godless traitor...
In the summer of 1788, Goethe, the Duke's Privy Councilor, returned to Weimar after a year and a half in Italy. Charlotte von Stein pointedly avoided him. After all, he left for Italy without telling her a word, and did not inform her of his whereabouts for quite a long time. And when he decided to tell her the “beautiful secrets” of his erotic adventures with a Roman widow, she, with her stiffness, did not find anything sublime in his stories. He became overly “sensual,” she wrote in one of her letters.
It is not difficult to imagine that after the very first days in Weimar, Goethe felt lonely; he sorely missed the artistic treasures of Italy and its free life. He had to be content with a camp bed in a garden house in Ilm Park, and the Roman widow, whom he called Faustina, no longer delighted his lonely nights.
Goethe was at the zenith of his fame. He was the best friend of the Duke of Weimar, who personally bestowed on him the title of nobility and, in addition, almost all the highest positions and awards of the tiny state. Goethe was associated with the thought giants of his time. He was thirty-nine years old. His romances with noble and educated European ladies cannot be counted. He was on the way to Olympus, a national hero of Weimar.
Christiana Vulpius, a small, unremarkable flower girl of twenty-three years old, had a modest income; she helped her mother support her younger children after her father abandoned the family. She was not educated, spoke with a strong Thuringian accent, read with great difficulty, and wrote even worse. But she was fresh, with soft skin, clear eyes and rosy cheeks, unruly chestnut curls falling on her forehead. She had a cheerful disposition, and she willingly laughed, joked and recklessly made eyes. She worked as a flower girl in a factory in Weimar, where she made artificial flowers from silk scraps, which then decorated the hats and necklines of beautiful Weimar ladies.
A giant of spirit and an uneducated flower girl - is it possible to imagine more dissimilar people?
So the two met in the Palace Park in Weimar. And it’s no coincidence: Christiana had been standing there for a long time, waiting for him. She had an unusual business with him; it concerned not her personally, but her brother, and therefore the whole family. In her hand she held a letter written by her brother asking for help. The brother correctly calculated: the request will have an effect if the poet’s pretty sister conveys it.
Christiana's brother, August Christian Vulpius, entered literary history thanks to his sister's meeting with Goethe in Weimar's Palace Park on that June day in 1788.
"Johann Wolfgang von Goethe"
If Goethe had helped him, he would have created a masterpiece, the most striking novel from the life of robbers - a novel about the noble Rinaldo Rinaldini. His dream came true: after meeting his sister in the Palace Park, Goethe showed favor to him. Of course, it was not the unknown Vulpius and not his literary masterpiece, completed or just conceived, that interested Goethe. The spoiled ladies' man was smitten by the girl.
Everything suggests that Christiana became Goethe’s beloved on the same day, for both annually celebrated the anniversary of their union on July 12th. Some stanzas in the “Roman Elegy” are undoubtedly dedicated to Christians: “Darling, do you repent that you gave up so soon? Do not repent: with a daring thought, believe me, I will not humiliate you,” - this is how the third elegy begins.
Soon Christiana left her job and moved in with Goethe, becoming his secret mistress, whose existence he hid in every possible way.
The guest room in Goethe's house was always ready to receive Fritz von Stein, the youngest son of the poet's old friend Charlotte von Stein. The boy often lived for a long time with the lonely Goethe, even after the break between his mother and the poet. And now Fritz was telling his mother about the new girl who had appeared in Goethe’s house. Charlotte took the news painfully, of course. After so many years of love, spiritual communication as equals, she felt deeply insulted, being rejected for the sake of an uneducated, unworthy young flower girl.
The news quickly spread throughout the city. People gossiped, outraged by the poet's immorality. Goethe was revered as almost a supreme being, and rumor did not condemn his relationship with Mrs. von Stein, who was his equal in everything. Now they saw in him a vicious seducer, who only knew what to indulge his whims. In July 1790 he wrote: "I got married, but without a solemn ceremony." This is precisely what seemed indecent to Weimar society. Friend Schiller, visiting the house on Frauenplan, simply did not notice Christiana. In 1800, when Goethe's work was experiencing some decline, Schiller was sure that this was a consequence of his life together with Christiana.
Indeed, it is difficult to imagine a more unequal couple. There was an irrational beginning in their relationship from the moment they met: Goethe fell in love instantly. But this happened to him so many times in his life! More recently, in the history of literature, the poet’s work was divided into periods associated with the names of the women who inspired him: Lotte, Friederike, Marianne, Lily, Charlotte... However, much less often they wrote about Christians in this sense. Perhaps because their relationship was very long-lasting, lasting more than thirty years, until her death in 1818. Partly because it is hardly possible to talk about direct “inspiration”, such as, for example, Lotte Buff had on the appearance of “The Sorrows of Young Werther” or Frederic Brion - on the memories of his youth in the novel “Poetry and Truth. From My Life” .
First of all, “Roman Elegies”, and perhaps also a few poems written for the occasion. That's probably all.
She was simply the person he needed so much: a simple, cheerful, funny, free nature, which contrasted so much with his isolation, high demands on the ideal, intellectual exercises, sophisticated communication in secular salons, with the prim atmosphere of the court. Apparently, Goethe liked how cheerfully his “child of nature,” his “little eroticon,” chattered.
She remained his mistress for seventeen years before he decided to legitimize their relationship with a modest civil marriage in 1806 under the French occupation authorities. Even when she became the mother of his son Augustus, born during Christmas week 1789, he did not think about marriage. But even before the birth of her son, she actually created a family for the stubborn bachelor, which included her half-sister, an old aunt and a brother - the one who wrote about Rinaldo Rinaldini. The family would have been larger: Christiana gave birth to four more children, but two died at birth, two were stillborn. It was as if fate itself had spread its black wings over the unequal union, because even Augustus, who lived to adulthood, was a physically weak and mentally unstable person.
In a word, their family life was not like an idyll; they had to go through a lot of dramas, which, of course, could not help but leave their mark on the character of the most cheerful of the flower girls.
So Christiana was the opposite of the poet. There were no difficult problems for her; she laughed, joked and spoiled him. She was the embodiment of sensual warmth and feminine spontaneity, as Goethe wrote in his Roman Elegies. She was "ein Lieb mit alien seinen Prachten" ("flesh in all its splendor"). Here we are talking about purely physical, sensual love, which Christiana evoked in him. Without her, he would not have created such a holistic picture of love. After all, love is not only an all-consuming passion of the soul, but also a “little eroticon,” as Goethe himself beautifully wrote about it. Perhaps she personified love in the poet’s life.
The Duke of Württemberg was sympathetic to the situation - who doesn’t have a beloved. Karl August willingly agreed to become the godfather of the poet's son, Augustus; The child was probably named in honor of a high patron. Christiana, of course, was not present at her son's christening. Even Goethe could not allow such a meeting - the Duke with his beloved.
August was five years old when his grandmother, who lived in Frankfurt, finally learned about the existence of her grandson. Christiana was never seen with Goethe. On the contrary, she enjoyed spending time with people in her circle, among whom were many artists from the small Weimar court theater. Over the years, she became plump, heavier, and at the end of her life she turned into a plump fat woman.
In 1806, Goethe finally decided to legalize his relationship with Christiana. On October 19 they officially got married. And this time everything was modest: they got married in the sacristy of the Church of St. James.
The very next day after the wedding, Frau von Goethe appeared in the salon of Johanna Schopenhauer, the mother of the famous philosopher, who had just been widowed and decided to settle in Weimar. This lady's reasoning boiled down to approximately the following: since Goethe gave Christiana his name, then she, Mrs. Schopenhauer, would treat her to a cup of tea.
The doors of many houses opened before the newly-made secret councilor. However, there was no triumphant procession through the magnificent salons.
After her “exaltation,” Christiana did not live long. Having become terribly fat, I fell in love with solitude. In Weimar they talked irreverently about "Goethe's fat half."
Her end was hard. She suffered from uremia, went for treatment, but the water of the Egerland spring only caused her to swell excessively. Goethe did not show much interest in it. Always afraid of illness and death, so that one could not even talk about these sad things in his presence, he turned away from her suffering. Like many hypochondriacs, he became isolated on his own illnesses. She died alone, he did not hold her hand in the last moments.
In his diary he wrote very briefly: “My wife died. The last, terrible struggle of her body. She died at lunchtime. There is emptiness and terrible silence in me and around me.” But immediately after these words he continued: “The ceremonial entry of Princess Ida and Prince Bernhard. Court Councilor Mayer-Reimer. In the evening there are fabulous illumination in the city. My wife is taken to the morgue at night. I am in bed all day.”
In Goethe's life there were women before and after Christiana Vulpius. Women who inspired him and influenced the development of his poetic gift. But relationships with most of them flashed through short episodes in his life. He hurried on all the time.
The only woman with whom he lingered was Christiana, although he left her for a long time. No one else had given him such simple, unpretentious love. Thanks to this love, he may have known peace, for she was all constancy, while he was all movement.
However, marriage did not save Goethe from the arrows of Cupid. He continued to love and be loved.
Bettina. The strange person, later the wife of the science fiction writer Arnim, was, as Lewis put it, more of a demon than a woman. Young, ardent, eccentric, whimsical, she fell in love with the poet in absentia, and began to bombard him with letters full of delight. Then she suddenly arrived in Weimar, threw herself into the poet’s arms and, as she herself says, on their first date she fell asleep on his chest. After that, she pursues him with love, vows, and jealousy, despite the fact that the object of her passion was already fifty-eight. And Goethe came to life again, involuntarily succumbing to her charm. But soon Bettina’s extravagant antics and her violent passion began to tire Goethe. The breakup was inevitable.
Then, on the life path of the 60-year-old poet, a young, passionately loving Minna Herzlieb appeared, the adopted daughter of the bookseller Froman, a girl who fell in love with the old poet with all her heart and inspired him to write a number of sonnets and the novel “Affinity of Souls,” which describes his feelings for his beloved . The passion of Minna and Goethe inspired great fear in their friends, and they tried to avoid serious consequences by sending the girl to a boarding school, which really turned out to be a saving grace.
Five years later, that is, when the poet was sixty-five, he met the charming wife of the banker Willemer, Marianne, and both immediately fell in love with each other with such passion that, reading now, many years later, Goethe’s outpourings and the same answers from his girlfriend , you completely forget the difference in the years of the lovers. It seems that before us are two completely young creatures, just learning about all-consuming passion and rushing to enjoy a hitherto unknown feeling.
The lovers separated, but until the poet’s death - for 17 years - they corresponded. A month before his death, Goethe returned Marianne her letters and her poem "To the West Wind."
And finally, Goethe's last love. At seventy-five years old, as a young man, he fell in love with 18-year-old Ulrika Levetsov. Ulrika fell in love with the poet with a sincere, ardent love that did not dry up in her soul until her death.
Ulrika died in 1898, leaving behind memories of the brilliant man who almost became her husband. She never married, because she did not meet a man who could take the place in her heart that belonged to Goethe. He was old, but still slim and fit, not a single wrinkle on his forehead, and his eyes sparkled with a dazzling brilliance of beauty and strength...
So why did women love him so much? Undoubtedly, he was smart, but intelligence is not always an argument for a woman’s heart; he was handsome, but beauty is also not always attractive. Perhaps the best explanation was given by Heinrich Heine: “In Goethe we find in its entirety that harmony of appearance and spirit that is noticeable in all extraordinary people. His appearance was as significant as the words of his creations; his image was full of harmony, clear , noble, and one could study Greek art on it, as on ancient sculpture. This proud figure never bent in the Christian humility of a worm: these eyes did not look sinfully fearful, piously or with unctuous tenderness: they were calm, like those of some then deities. A firm and bold look in general is a sign of the gods. Napoleon's eyes also possessed this property; therefore I am sure that he was a god. Goethe's look remained as divine in old age as it was in his youth. Time covered his head with snow, but could not bend it. He still carried it proudly and high, and when he spoke, he seemed to grow, and when he extended his hands, it seemed as if he could show the stars their paths in the sky. They made the remark that his mouth expressed selfish tendencies; but this trait is also inherent in the eternal gods, and precisely in the father of the gods - the great Jupiter, with whom I have already compared Goethe. In fact, when I visited him in Weimar, standing in front of him, I involuntarily looked to the side to see if there was an eagle with lightning bolts near him. I almost spoke to him in Greek, but noticing that he understood German, I told him in German that the plums on the road from Jena to Weimar were very tasty. On the long winter nights I so often wondered how much sublime and deep I would convey to Goethe when I saw him. And when I finally saw him, I told him that Saxon plums were very tasty. And Goethe smiled. He smiled with the same lips with which he had once kissed Leda, Europa, Danae, Semele... Friederike, Lily, Lotte, Ulrika - weren’t they the same Semele, Europa, Leda, Danae?
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Johann Wolfgang von Goethe- German poet, statesman, thinker and naturalist.
Born in the old German trading city of Frankfurt am Main in the family of a wealthy burgher Johann Caspar Goethe (1710-1782). His father was an imperial adviser and a former lawyer. Mother Katharina Elisabeth Goethe (née Textor, German Textor, 1731-1808) is the daughter of the city foreman. In 1750, a second child, Cornelia, was born into the family. After her, four more children were born who died in infancy. Goethe's father was a pedantic, demanding, unemotional, but honest man. From him, his son subsequently passed on a thirst for knowledge, scrupulous attention to detail, accuracy and stoicism. Mother was the complete opposite of Johann Kaspar. She became the wife of a man for whom she had no particular love at the age of seventeen, and at eighteen she gave birth to her first child. However, Katharina sincerely loved her son, who called her “Frau Aja”. The mother instilled in her son a love of writing stories; she was for Goethe an example of warmth, wisdom and care. Katharina maintained correspondence with Anna Amalia of Brunswick.
House Goethe It was well furnished, there was an extensive library, thanks to which the writer early became acquainted with the Iliad, Ovid’s Metamorphoses, and read the original works of Virgil and many contemporary poets. This helped him fill the gaps in the somewhat deprived home education system, which began in 1755 with the invitation of teachers into the home. The boy learned, in addition to German, French, Latin, Greek and Italian, the latter by listening to his father teach Cornelia. Johann also received lessons in dancing, horse riding and fencing. His father was one of those who, having not satisfied his own ambitions, sought to provide more opportunities for his children and gave them a full education.
In 1765 he went to the University of Leipzig and completed his higher education at the University of Strasbourg in 1770, where he defended his dissertation for the title of Doctor of Law.
Practicing jurisprudence had little attraction for Goethe, who was much more interested in medicine (this interest later led him to study anatomy and osteology) and literature. In Leipzig, he falls in love with Kätchen Scheinkopf and writes funny poems about her in the rococo genre. In addition to poetry, Goethe began to write other things. His early works are marked by features of imitation. The poem "Höllenfahrt Christi" (1765) is adjacent to the spiritual poems of Kramer (Klopstock circle). The comedy "Die Mitschuldigen" (The Owls), the pastoral "Die Laune des Verliebten" (The Lover's Caprice), the poems "To the Moon", "Innocence" and others are included in the circle of Rococo literature. Goethe writes a number of subtle works that do not, however, reveal his originality. Like the Rococo poets, his love is sensual fun, personified in playful cupid, nature is a masterfully executed decoration; he talentedly plays with the poetic formulas inherent in Rococo poetry, is fluent in Alexandrian verse, etc.
In Frankfurt, Goethe became seriously ill. During the year and a half that he lay in bed due to several relapses, his relationship with his father deteriorated greatly. Bored during his illness, Johann wrote a crime comedy. In April 1770, his father lost patience and Goethe left Frankfurt to complete his studies in Strasbourg, where he defended his dissertation for the title of Doctor of Law.
A turning point in creativity is outlined precisely where Goethe meets Herder, who introduces him to his views on poetry and culture. In Strasbourg, Goethe finds himself as a poet. He begins relationships with young writers, later prominent figures of the era of Sturm and Drang (Lenz, Wagner). He is interested in folk poetry, in imitation of which he writes the poem “Heidenröslein” (Steppe Rose), etc., Ossian, Homer, Shakespeare (talking about Shakespeare - 1772), finds enthusiastic words for evaluating Gothic monuments - “Von deutscher Baukunst D. M. Erwini a Steinbach” (On German architecture by Erwin of Steinbach, 1771). The coming years pass in intensive literary work, which cannot be interfered with by the legal practice that Goethe is forced to engage in out of respect for his father.
On October 14, 1806, Johann legalized his relationship with Christiana Vulpius. By this time they already had several children.
Goethe died in 1832 in Weimar.
