Biography
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832), born in Frankfurt am Main, is the central figure of German literature. His novel Die Leiden des jungen Werthers (1774) made him internationally famous at twenty-five and launched Sturm und Drang Romanticism across Europe. At the court of Weimar from 1775 onward, Goethe served as minister of state while continuing prolific literary production. His dramatic masterpiece Faust, composed over sixty years and published in two parts (1808 and 1832), stands as the supreme achievement of German drama. His novels—Wilhelm Meister's Apprenticeship, Die Wahlverwandtschaften, the Wilhelm Meister's Travels—established the German Bildungsroman. Goethe was also a scientist who wrote on colour theory, botany, and anatomy. With Schiller he formed the Weimar Classicism partnership that shaped German literary identity. Goethe died in Weimar at eighty-two; his last reported words were 'More light.'
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