Goethe, Johann Wolfgang von: biography, works, personal life. Brief biography of Johann Wolfgang Goethe In Goethe, the writer when he was born what he wrote

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Johann Wolfgang von Goethe(German Johann Wolfgang von Goethe German pronunciation of the name(inf.); August 28, Frankfurt am Main, Germany - March 22, Weimar, Germany) - German poet, statesman, thinker and naturalist.

Biography

Goethe's mother, Katharina Elisabeth Textor in 1776

House in Frankfurt am Main, where Goethe was born. Rebuilt in 1947-1949

Born in the old German trading city of Frankfurt am Main in the family of a wealthy burgher Johann Kaspar Goethe (1710-1782). His father was an imperial adviser, a former lawyer. Mother Katharina Elisabeth Goethe (née Textor, German. textor, 1731-1808) - the daughter of the city foreman. In 1750, the second child, Cornelia, was born in 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 inherited a craving 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 did not have much love at the age of seventeen, and at eighteen she gave birth to her first child. However, Katharina genuinely loved her son, who called her "Frau Aja". The mother instilled in her son a love for writing stories, she was for Goethe a model of warmth, wisdom and care. Katharina maintained a correspondence with Anna Amalia of Brunswick.

Goethe's house was well furnished, there was an extensive library, thanks to which the writer got acquainted early with the Iliad, with Ovid's Metamorphoses, read in the original the works of Virgil and many contemporary poets. This helped him fill in the gaps in the somewhat unsystematic home education that began in 1755 with the invitation of teachers to the house. The boy learned, in addition to German, also French, Latin, Greek and Italian, and the latter, listening to how his father teaches Cornelia. Johann also received lessons in dancing, riding and fencing. His father was one of those who, having not satisfied his own ambitions, sought to provide more opportunities for children and gave them a full education.

In Frankfurt, Goethe fell seriously ill. For a year and a half, which 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 finish his studies in Strasbourg, where he defended his dissertation for the title of Doctor of Law.

A turning point in creativity is planned precisely where Goethe meets Herder, who introduces him to his views on poetry and culture. In Strasbourg, Goethe finds himself as a poet. He strikes up relationships with young writers, later prominent figures in the Sturm und Drang era (Lenz, Wagner). He is interested in folk poetry, in imitation of which he writes the poem “Heidenröslein” (Steppe rose) and others, Ossian, Homer, Shakespeare (talking about Shakespeare - 1772), finds enthusiastic words to evaluate Gothic monuments - “Von deutscher Baukunst D. M. Erwini a Steinbach” (On the German architecture of Erwin of Steinbach, 1771). The next few years pass in intensive literary work, which cannot be prevented by the practice of law, which Goethe is forced to engage in out of respect for his father.

Goethe's house in Weimar

“I have a huge advantage,” said Goethe to Eckermann, “due to the fact that I was born in such an era when the greatest world events took place, and they did not stop throughout my long life, so I am a living witness of the Seven Years' War, the falling away of America from England, then the French Revolution, and finally the entire Napoleonic era, up to the death of the hero and subsequent events. Therefore, I came to completely different conclusions and views than are available to others who are just born now and who must learn these great events from books they do not understand.

On October 14, 1806, Johann legalized relations with Christiane Vulpius. By this time they already had several children.

Goethe died in 1832 in Weimar.

Goethe and Freemasonry

On June 23, 1780, Goethe was initiated into the Weimar Masonic Lodge Amalia. Moramarco wrote about him in his famous book Freemasonry in its Past and Present:

His letter, written the next day to his beloved, is known, in which he informs her of a gift - a pair of white gloves received during the initiation rite. Goethe was an ardent supporter of Freemasonry until the last days of his life, composing hymns and speeches for his lodge. Possessing the highest degrees of initiation in the system of strict Freemasonry, he nevertheless contributed to the Schroeder reform, aimed at restoring the primacy of the first three universal degrees of the order. In 1813, at the coffin of the late brother Wieland, the poet delivered the famous speech “In memory of Brother Wieland” in the Masonic temple.

Creativity Goethe

Early work

Goethe's first significant work of this new era is Goetz von Berlichingen (originally Gottfried von Berlichingen mit der eisernen Hand), (1773), a drama that made a great impression on his contemporaries. She puts Goethe in the forefront of German literature, puts him at the head of the writers of the Sturm und Drang period. The peculiarity of this work, written in prose in the manner of Shakespeare's historical chronicles, is not so much that it rehabilitates national antiquity, dramatizing the story of a knight of the 16th century. , - since already Bodmer, E. Schlegel, Klopstock, and at the end of the 17th century. Loenstein ("Arminius and Tusnelda") turned to the ancient periods of German history - how much is that this drama, arising outside of Rococo literature, also comes into conflict with the literature of the Enlightenment, hitherto the most influential current of culture. The image of a fighter for social justice - a typical image of the literature of the Enlightenment - receives an unusual interpretation from Goethe. Knight Goetz von Berlichingen, grieving about the state of affairs in the country, leads a peasant uprising; when the latter takes on sharp forms, it moves away from him, cursing the movement that has outgrown it. The established legal order triumphs: before it, the revolutionary movement of the masses, interpreted in the drama as unleashed chaos, and the person who tries to oppose "willfulness" are equally powerless. Goetz finds freedom not in the world of people, but in death, in merging "with mother nature." The meaning of the symbol is the final scene of the play: Goetz comes out of the dungeon into the garden, sees the boundless sky, he is surrounded by reviving nature: “Lord Almighty, how good it is under Your sky, how good freedom is! The trees are budding, the whole world is full of hope. Farewell dear! My roots are cut, my strength leaves me. Goetz's last words are "Oh, what heavenly air! Freedom, freedom!

Artworks

• "Experience on plant metamorphosis" ()
• "On the theory of color" (German. Zur Farbenlehre , )
• "Reineke Fox" ()
• Autobiography I. Goethe Poetry and Truth (Dichtung und Wahrheit). - M .: "Zakharov", 2003. - 736 p. - ISBN 5-8159-0356-6

"The Suffering of Young Werther"

"Years of teaching Wilhelm Meister"

The son of wealthy burghers, Wilhelm Meister, refuses the acting career, which he chose as the only one allowing the burgher to develop all his physical and spiritual talents, become independent in a feudal environment, even play a prominent role in the life of the country ["On the stage, an educated person (burgher) is such same brilliant personality, like a representative of the upper class "(nobility)]. He gives up his dream and ends up by overcoming his burgher pride, putting himself entirely at the disposal of some secret noble union, which seeks to rally around itself people who have reason to fear a revolutionary upheaval (Jarno: “Our old tower will give rise to a society that can spread to all parts of the world ... We mutually guarantee each other the existence of the only case if a coup d'etat finally deprives one of us of his possessions”). Wilhelm Meister not only does not encroach on feudal reality, but is even ready to consider his stage path as a kind of “willfulness” in relation to it, since he came to the theater inspired by the desire to rise above this reality, to develop in himself a burgher who desires domination.

The evolution that has taken place with the image of Prometheus, which reappears in the work of Goethe at the beginning of the 19th century, is very significant. ("Pandora"). The once rebellious opponent of Zeus is now portrayed as deprived of his former rebellious fervor, he is already only a skilled artisan and wise patron of human crafts, he is complemented by Epimetheus, who is the central character of the play, a contemplative, a man who resolutely eschews struggle, rebellion. In Pandora, there are words so typical of the worldview of Goethe of the Weimar period: “You start majestically, titans, but only the gods can lead to eternally good, eternally beautiful, let them act ... for no man should be equal to the gods.” The established order triumphs, the person must renounce encroachments on it, she must act within strictly defined, predetermined limits. In the era of Sturm und Drang, Goethe admired the rebellious audacity of his heroes. Now he admires their patience, their readiness for self-restraint, for renunciation of "arbitrariness". The motive of renunciation becomes the main motive in the works of the mature and old Goethe. Goethe and his characters look at renunciation, at the ability to limit their aspirations, as the highest virtue, almost like a law of nature. Characteristic is the subtitle of the novel "The Years of Wilhelm Meister's Wanderings" - "The Renouncers", hinting at the "union of the renouncers", to which the bulk of the protagonists of the novel belong (Meister, Lenardo, Jarno-Montan, etc.). The members of the union are obliged to renounce encroachments on the existing political system (“An indispensable obligation ... - not to touch any forms of government ... to obey each of them and not go beyond its power”), they learn to curb their impulses, voluntarily taking upon themselves the fulfillment of various vows. In his works of the Weimar period, Goethe definitely seeks to exhaust all possible types of human renunciation: he shows religious renunciation (“Confessions of a Beautiful Soul”, Chapter VI of “Years of Teaching”), love renunciation (“Elective Affinity” - a novel in which the atmosphere of sacrificial renunciation reaches high tension, "Marienbad Elegy"), etc.

"Faust"

Goethe's most grandiose creation is undoubtedly his tragedy Faust, on which he worked throughout his life.

The main dates of the creative history of "Faust":

• -1775 - "Urfaust" (Prafaust),
• - edition of "Faust" in the form of an "excerpt",
• - the end of the first part,
• - release of the first part,
• - start of work on the second part,
• - "Classic Walpurgis Night",
• - "Philemon and Baucis", the end of "Faust".

In Prafaust, Faust is a doomed rebel, striving in vain to penetrate the secrets of nature, to assert the power of his "I" over the world around him. Only with the advent of the prologue "in Heaven" (1800) does the tragedy acquire the outlines in which the modern reader is accustomed to seeing it. Faust's darings receive a new (borrowed from the Bible - the Book of Job) motivation. Because of him, God and Satan (Mephistopheles) argue, and God predicts Faust, who, like any seeking person, is destined to make mistakes, salvation, for "an honest person in a blind search still firmly realizes where the right path is": this path - a path of relentless striving to discover the truly significant meaning of life. Like Wilhelm Meister, Faust goes through a series of "educational steps" before discovering the ultimate goal of his existence. The first step is his love for the naive bourgeois Gretchen, which ends tragically. Faust leaves Gretchen, and she, in desperation, having killed the born child, dies. But Faust cannot do otherwise, he cannot lock himself into the narrow framework of family, indoor happiness, he cannot wish for the fate of Herman (“Herman and Dorothea”). He unconsciously strives for grander horizons. The second stage is his union with the ancient Helena, which should symbolize a life dedicated to art.

Faust, surrounded by Arcadian groves, finds peace for a while in union with a beautiful Greek woman. But it is not given to him to stop even at this step; he ascends to the third and last step. Finally renouncing all impulses to the other world, he, like the “renouncers” from the Years of Wanderings, decides to devote his energies to serving society. Having decided to create a state of happy, free people, he begins a gigantic construction project on the land reclaimed from the sea. However, the forces he has called into being show a tendency towards emancipation from his leadership. Mephistopheles, as the commander of the merchant fleet and the head of construction work, contrary to the orders of Faust, destroys two old farmers - Philemon and Baucis, who live in their estate near the ancient chapel. Faust is shocked, but he, nevertheless, continuing to believe in the triumph of his ideals, directs the work until his death. At the end of the tragedy, the angels lift the soul of the deceased Faust to heaven. The final scenes of the tragedy, to a much greater extent than other works by Goethe, are saturated with the pathos of creativity, creation, so characteristic of the era of Saint-Simon.

The tragedy, which was written for almost 60 years (with interruptions), was begun during the Sturm und Drang period, but ended in an era when the romantic school dominated German literature. Naturally, "Faust" reflects all the stages that the poet's work followed.

The first part is in the closest connection with the Sturmer period of Goethe's work. The theme of a girl abandoned by her lover, who in a fit of despair becomes a child killer (Gretchen), was very common in the literature of Sturm und Drang (cf. Wagner's Baby Killer, Burger's The Priest's Daughter from Taubenheim, etc.). Appeal to the age of fiery Gothic, knittelfers, language saturated with vulgarisms, craving for monodrama - all this speaks of proximity to "Storm and Onslaught". The second part, reaching a special artistic expressiveness in "Elena", is included in the circle of literature of the classical period. Gothic contours give way to ancient Greek ones. The place of action becomes Hellas. The vocabulary is cleared. Knittelfers is replaced by verses of an antique warehouse. The images acquire some kind of special sculptural compaction (the old Goethe's predilection for the decorative interpretation of mythological motifs, for purely spectacular effects: a masquerade - scene 3 of Act I, the classic Walpurgis Night, etc.). In the final scene of Faust, Goethe already pays tribute to romanticism, introducing a mystical choir, opening Catholic heaven to Faust.

Like Wilhelm Meister's Years of Wanderings, the second part of Faust is largely Goethe's body of thought on the natural sciences, politics, aesthetics, and philosophy. Separate episodes find their justification solely in the author's desire to give artistic expression to some scientific or philosophical problem (cf. the poem "Metamorphoses of Plants"). All this makes the second part of Faust cumbersome and - since Goethe willingly resorts to allegorical disguise of his thoughts - very difficult to understand. According to the poet's diary entries, the "main business" of his life was completed in mid-July 1831. The poet put an end to the second part of "Faust" on July 22, and in August the manuscript was sealed in an envelope, with instructions to open and publish it only after his death. In early March 1832, while walking in an open carriage, Goethe caught a cold: catarrh of the upper respiratory tract, presumably a heart attack and a general weakening of the lungs, led to his death on March 22 at 11.30 1832. The second part of "Faust" was published in the same year as the 41st volume in the Collected Works.

The attitude of contemporaries

The attitude of contemporaries to Goethe was very uneven. The greatest success fell to the lot of "Werther", although the educators in the person of Lessing, paying tribute to the author's talent, accepted the novel with noticeable restraint as a work preaching lack of will and pessimism. "Iphigenia" did not reach the sturmers, in the 1770s. proclaiming Goethe their leader. Herder was quite indignant that his former student had evolved towards classicism (see his Adrasteia full of attacks on Goethe and Schiller's classicism). Of great interest is the attitude of the Romantics towards Goethe. They treated him in two ways. Immersed in the classical world of Goethe, a brutal war was declared. Hellenism, which prompted Goethe to sharp attacks against Christianity (in the Venetian Epigrams, Goethe states, for example, that four things are disgusting to him: “tobacco smoke, bedbugs, garlic and the cross”; in The Corinthian Bride, Christianity is interpreted as gloomy, contrary to the joys of earthly life doctrine, etc.), was hostile to them. But the author of "Goetz", "Werther", "Faust", fairy tales (a fairy tale from "Conversations of German Emigrants", "New Melusina", "New Paris") and especially "The Years of the Study of Wilhelm Meister", Goethe the irrationalist, they worshiped with exceptional reverence. A. V. Schlegel wrote about Goethe's fairy tales as "the most attractive of all that have ever descended from fantasy heaven to our wretched earth." In "Wilhelm Meister" the romantics saw the prototype of the romantic novel. The mystery technique, the mysterious images of the Mignon and the Harper, Wilhelm Meister living in the atmosphere of theatrical art, the experience of introducing poems into the prose fabric of the novel, the novel as a collection of the author's statements on various issues - all this found enthusiastic connoisseurs in their faces. "Wilhelm Meister" served as the starting point for "Sternbald" Tieck, "Lucinda" Friedrich Schlegel, "Heinrich von Ofterdingen" Novalis.

The writers of Young Germany, approaching Goethe as a thinker and not finding liberal democratic ideas in him (especially in mature work), made an attempt to debunk him not only as a writer (Mentzel: “Goethe is not a genius, but only a talent”; Winbarg : “The language of Goethe is the language of a courtier”), but also as a person, declaring him “an insensitive egoist who can only be loved by insensitive egoists” (L. Burne) [cf. with this, the opinion of K. Marx, in contrast to Menzel and Berne, who made an attempt to explain the worldview of the mature Goethe: “Goethe was not able to defeat German poverty, on the contrary, it defeated him, and this victory of poverty over the greatest German is the best proof that the German squalor could not be overcome ‘from within’” (from K. Marx’s article on Grün’s book Goethe from a Human Point of View, 1846)]. Gutskov in his pamphlet “Goethe, Uhland and Prometheus” exclaims, referring to Goethe and Uhland: “What can you do? Walk in the light of the evening sun. Where is your struggle to plant new ideas?” Heine, who highly appreciated Goethe as a writer, comparing Goethe's works with beautiful statues in the Romantic School, declares: “You can fall in love with them, but they are fruitless. Goethe's poetry does not generate action like Schiller's. Action is the child of the word, but the beautiful words of Goethe are childless. It is characteristic that Goethe's centenary passed in comparison with Schiller's () very pale. Interest in Goethe revived only at the end of the 19th century. The neo-romanticists (St. George and others) renew the cult, lay the foundation for a new study of Goethe (Simmel, Burdach, Gundolf and others), "discover" the late Goethe, in whom the literary critics of the past century were almost not interested.

Goethe in Russia

In Russia, interest in Goethe appeared already at the end of the 18th century. They started talking about him as the author of Werther, who also found enthusiastic readers in Russia. The first translations into Russian were made in 1781 (translator F. Galchenkov, republished in 1794 and 1796) and in 1798 (translator I. Vinogradov). Radishchev, in his Journey, admits that reading Werther brought tears of joy from him. Novikov, speaking in the "Dramatic Dictionary" (1787) about the largest playwrights of the West, includes Goethe, whom he characterizes as "a glorious German author who wrote an excellent book, praised everywhere -" The Sufferings of Young Werther "". In 1802, an imitation of Goethe's novel appeared - "Russian Werther". Russian sentimentalists (Karamzin and others) experienced a noticeable influence of the young Goethe in their work. In the era of Pushkin, interest in Goethe deepened, and the work of the mature Goethe began to be appreciated (Faust, Wilhelm Meister, etc.).

Romantics (Venevitinov and others), grouped around the Moskovsky Vestnik, put their publication under the patronage of the German poet (who even sent them a sympathetic letter), see Goethe as a teacher, the creator of romantic poetics. Pushkin converged with Venevitinov's circle in worship of Goethe, speaking reverently about the author of Faust (see Rozov's book by V. Goethe and Pushkin. - Kyiv, 1908).

The disputes raised by the Young Germans around the name of Goethe did not go unnoticed in Russia. At the end of the 1830s. Menzel's book "German Literature" appears in Russian, giving a negative assessment of Goethe's literary activity. In 1840, Belinsky, who at that time, during his period of Hegelianism, was under the influence of theses about reconciliation with reality, published the article "Mentzel, critic of Goethe", in which he characterized Menzel's attacks on Goethe as "impudent and impudent". He declares absurd the starting point of Menzel's criticism - the demand that the poet be a fighter for a better reality, a propagandist of emancipatory ideas. Later, when his passion for Hegelianism passed, he already admits that “in Goethe, not without reason, they condemn the absence of historical and social elements, calm contentment with reality as it is” (“Poems by M. Lermontov”, 1841), although he continues to consider Goethe “ a great poet", "a brilliant personality", "Roman Elegies" - "a great creation of the great poet of Germany" ("Goethe's Roman Elegies, translated by Strugovshchikov", 1841), "Faust" - "a great poem" (1844), etc. Intelligentsia of the 1860s did not feel much sympathy for Goethe. The members of the sixties understood the dislike of the Young Germans for Goethe, who had renounced the fight against feudalism. Chernyshevsky's statement is characteristic: "Lessing is closer to our age than Goethe" ("Lessing", 1856). For 19th century writers Goethe is an irrelevant figure. But, in addition to the already mentioned poets of the Pushkin era, Goethe was fond of Fet (who translated Faust, Herman and Dorothea, Roman Elegies, etc.), Alexei Tolstoy (translated The Corinthian Bride, God and Bayadere) and especially Tyutchev (translated poems from "Wilhelm Meister", the ballad "The Singer", etc.), who experienced a very noticeable influence of Goethe on his work. The Symbolists revive the cult of Goethe, proclaiming him one of their predecessor teachers. At the same time, Goethe the thinker enjoys no less attention than Goethe the artist. V. Ivanov declares: “In the field of poetry, the principle of symbolism, once affirmed by Goethe, after long deviations and wanderings, is again understood by us in the meaning that Goethe gave it, and its poetics turns out to be, in general, our poetics of recent years” (Vyach. Ivanov, Goethe at the turn of the century).

Memory

A crater on Mercury and the mineral goethite are named after Goethe. In honor of the heroine of Goethe's poem West-östlicher Diwan, the asteroid (563) Zuleika is named (English) Russian opened in 1905. A bust of a writer was erected in St. Petersburg. In Switzerland, in the city of Dornach, a building was built named after Goethe - Goetheanum, which is the center of the Anthroposophical movement, named by the researcher of Goethe's heritage and the founder of anthroposophy, Rudolf Steiner "Goetheanism of the 20th century", and declared an architectural monument.

Descendants of Goethe

Johann Wolfgang Goethe and his wife Christiane had five children. Children born after the eldest son Augustus did not survive: one child was stillborn, the rest died within a few days or weeks. August had three children: Walter Wolfgang, Wolfgang Maximilian and Alma. Augustus died two years before the death of his father in Rome. His wife Ottilie Goethe gave birth after the death of her husband from another man to a daughter, Anna Sibylla, who died a year later. The children of Augustus and Ottilie did not marry, so the Goethe lineage ended in a straight line in 1885.

Friedrich Georg (born 1657) (8 more brothers and sisters) | Johann Kaspar Goethe + Katharina Elisabeth Textor ______________|_______________________ | | | Johann Wolfgang Cornelia non-surviving children + Christiane Vulpius | |____________________________________________ | | August four non-surviving children + Ottilie von Pogwisch |_______________________________ | | | Walter Wolfgang Alma

Awards

• Knight Grand Cross of the Order of Civil Merit of the Bavarian Crown (1827) (Bavaria)
• Cavalier of the Order of St. Anne 1st class. (Russian empire)
• Cavalier of the Commander's Cross of the Austrian Imperial Order of Leopold (Austria)
• Knight Grand Cross of the Legion of Honor (France)

Translators of Goethe into Russian

Bibliography

• antoine Berman, L "épreuve de l" étranger. Culture et traduction dans l'Allemagne romantique: Herder, Goethe, Schlegel, Novalis, Humboldt, Schleiermacher, Hölderlin., Gallimard, Essais, 1984. ISBN 978-2-07-070076-9
• charles dubos, Goethe Archives Kareline, 2008.
• (de) Friedrich Gundolf, Goethe, 1916
• (de) Karl Otto Conrady, Goethe-Leben und Werk, Artemis Verlag Zürich 1994, 1040 Seiten.
• (de) Richard Friedenthal, Goethe - sein Leben und seine Zeit, Piper-Verlag Munich
• (de) Nicholas Boyle, Goethe. Der Dichter in seiner Zeit. Aus dem English. übers. von Holger Fliessbach. Frankfurt am Main: Insel 2004.
• (de)Bd. 1: 1749-1790. (Insel-Taschenbuch. 3025) ISBN 3-458-34725-9
• (de)Bd. 2: 1790-1803. (Insel-Taschenbuch. 3050) ISBN 3-458-34750-X
• (de)George Henry Lewes, Goethe's Leben und Schriften.übers. von von Julius Frese. Berlin: Duncker 1857.
• (de) Gero von Wilpert, Goethe-Lexikon. Stuttgart 1998, Kröner, ISBN 3-520-40701-9
• (de) Goethe, Johann Wolfgang, in Allgemeine Deutsche Biography, Leipzig, München 1875-1912, Bd. 9, S. 413ff.
• (de) Wolfram Voigt/Ulrich Sucker, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. BSB B. G. Teubner Verlagsgesellschaft, Reihe, Biographien hervorragender Naturwissenschaftler, Techniker und Mediziner Band 38, Leipzig 1987
• (de) Renate Wieland, Schein Kritik Utopie. Zu Goethe und Hegel. München (edition text + kritik) 1992, ISBN 3-88377-419-7
• (de) Ettore Ghibellino, Goethe und Anna Amalia - eine verbotene Liebe, A.J. Denkena-Verlag, Weimar 2003, ISBN 3-936177-02-3
• (de) Peter Matussek, Goethe zur Einführung. Hamburg: Junius, 2002, 2. Aufl., ISBN 3-88506-972-5
• (de) Jürgen Hartmann, Goethe und die Ehrenlegion/ Goethe et la Légion d'Honneur Mainz: Schmidt Universitätsdruckerei, 2005, ISBN 3-93 5647-27-1
• (fr) Dorian ASTOR, Goethe. Faust. Texte et dossier, La Bibliothèque Gallimard, Ed. Gallimard, 2002.
• (fr) Bortoft, La demarche scientifique de Goethe- Editions Triades, 2001
• (fr) Marcel Brion, Goethe Albin Michel, 1982
• (fr) Édouard Rod, Essai sur Goethe, Paris, Perrin,
• (fr) Nanine CHARBONNEL, Sur le Wilhelm Meister de Goethe, Cousset (Fribourg, Suisse) : Delval, 1987
• (fr) Pascal Hachet, Les psychanalystes et Goethe, Paris, L'Harmattan, 1995.
• (fr) Jad Hatem, Satan, monotheiste absolu selon Goethe et Hallaj, Editions du Cygne, Paris, 2006
• (fr) Jean Lacoste, Goethe - La nostalgie de la lumiere, Paris, 2007
• (fr) Ruiz, Alain, Le poète et l'Empereur, Goethe et Napoleon, La revue Napoleon no.36 La capitulation de Madrid, November 2008.
• (fr) Sieveking, Hinrich & al. L "Âge d'or du romantisme allemand - Aquarelles et dessins à l" époque de Goethe. Musée de la Vie romanticique, Paris, 2008
• (fr) Roland Krebs, Johann Wolfgang Goethe, editions Belin (collection Voix allemandes), Paris, 2010
• R. Steiner. Goethe's worldview / Per. with him. - St. Petersburg: Demetra, 2011. - 192 p., 500 copies, ISBN 978-5-94459-037-4 ("Goethes Weltanschauung", 1897)

• For several years, Goethe was in correspondence with Bettina von Arnim, who was 36 years younger than him. The correspondence began in 1807 (when Goethe was 58 and Bettina 22) and ended in 1811 after a quarrel between Bettina and Goethe's wife. The relationship between Goethe and von Arnim is described in Milan Kundera's novel Immortality.

Notes

Links

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe was born on August 28, 1749 in Frankfurt am Main, a German poet, thinker and naturalist. An outstanding representative of the Enlightenment in Germany, one of the founders of modern German literature, a versatile scientist.

The son of an imperial adviser, an educated burgher, Goethe studied in Leipzig (1765-1768) and Strasbourg (1770-1771), lectured in jurisprudence and many other scientific disciplines, including medicine. In Strasbourg, Goethe met J. G. Herder and became a member of the Sturm und Drang movement. In 1775 he came to Weimar at the invitation of Duke Karl August. Ignoring the opinion of the court, Goethe entered into a civil marriage with a flower shop worker, Christiane Vulpius. He accepted the Great French Revolution with restraint, but in September 1792, at the battle of Valmy, he brilliantly defined the world-historical significance of the victory of the revolutionary troops of France: “From this day and from this place a new era of world history begins.” Goethe's friendship with Schiller (since 1794) was of great importance. In Weimar, Goethe directed the theater organized by him in 1791.

The early poetic works of Goethe (1767-1769) gravitate towards the traditions of the Anacreontic lyric. Goethe published his first collection of poems in 1769. A new period of his work begins in 1770. Goethe's lyrics from the Sturm und Drang period are one of the most brilliant pages in the history of German poetry. The lyrical hero of Goethe appears as the embodiment of nature or in an organic merger with it ("The Traveler", 1772, "Song of Mohammed", 1774). He turns to mythological images, comprehending them in a rebellious spirit (“Song of the Wanderer in the Storm”, 1771-1772; Prometheus’ monologue from an unfinished drama, 1773).

The historical drama Goetz von Berlichingen (1773) reflected the events on the eve of the Peasant War of the 16th century, sounding like a harsh reminder of princely arbitrariness and the tragedy of a fragmented country. In the novel The Sorrows of Young Werther (1774), Goethe, using the form of a sentimental novel in letters, conveys the dramatic personal experiences of the hero and at the same time creates a picture of German reality. In the drama "Egmont" (1788), which began even before moving to Weimar and is associated with the ideas of "Storm and Onslaught", the conflict between foreign oppressors and the people, whose resistance is suppressed, but not broken, is at the center of events; the finale of the drama sounds like a call to fight for freedom.

The decade of 1776-1785 is a transitional one in Goethe's creative development. The reaction to individualistic rebellion determined Goethe's thought about the need for self-restraint of the individual ("Borders of Humanity", 1778-1781; "Ilmenau", 1783). However, true to the heroic precepts of humanism, Goethe argues that man is capable of creative daring ("Divine", 1782). This is the inconsistency of Goethe's worldview. The poet could not completely escape the oppressive influence of backward social relations. At the end of the 80s of the 18th century, the concept of the so-called. Weimar classicism - a special version of European and German enlightenment. In the idea of ​​harmony, adopted by Goethe from I. Winckelmann and developed by Goethe and Schiller, the statement of the ideal of a harmonious personality is combined with a program of gradual reforms, the ideas of struggle are replaced by the idea of ​​education, which ultimately meant reconciliation with the existing order (drama "Torquato Tasso", 1780 -1789, ed. 1790).

The pagan-materialistic perception of ancient culture is most clearly expressed in the "Roman Elegies" (1790), glorifying carnal joys. Later, in the ballad The Corinthian Bride (1797), Goethe contrasts this life-affirming paganism with the ascetic religion of Christianity. The tragedy "Iphigenia in Tauris" (1779-1786, published in 1787) is based on the plot of an ancient Greek myth, the idea of ​​the tragedy is the victory of humanity over barbarism.

The Great French Revolution is directly reflected in the Venetian Epigrams (1790, published in 1796), in the drama The Citizen General (published in 1793), and in the short story Conversations of German Emigrants (1794-1795). ). Goethe does not accept revolutionary violence, but at the same time he recognizes the inevitability of social reorganization. During these years, he wrote the satirical poem "Reinecke the Fox" (1793), denouncing feudal arbitrariness. In the poem "Hermann and Dorothea" (1797), written in hexameter, in a genre close to idyll, Goethe confronts the quiet patriarchal way of the German outback and the "unprecedented movement" unfolding beyond the Rhine. Goethe's largest work of the 90s is the novel "The Years of the Teaching of Wilhelm Meister" (1793-1796, published 1795-1796). The stage hobbies of the hero appear as a youthful delusion; in the finale of the novel, he sees his task in practical economic activity.

In fact, this meant reconciliation with the backward German reality. The brightness of realistic everyday scenes, the colorfulness of the images are combined in Goethe's novel with a far-fetched mysterious ending, the image of mysterious figures, etc. The autobiographical book "Poetry and Truth from My Life" (parts 1-4. ed. Goethe's early life, before moving to Weimar, and critically assesses the rebelliousness of Sturm und Drang. "Italian Journey" (vols. 1-3, ed. 1816-1829) is a remarkable artistic document of the era. In the family novel "Elective Affinity" (ed. 1809), Goethe raises the question of freedom of feeling, but under the sign of renunciation and fidelity to family foundations.

The novel The Wandering Years of Wilhelm Meister (parts 1-3, 1821-1829), already largely associated with the tradition of the German romantic novel, is notable for the idea of ​​collective labor, embodied as a naive utopia of a craft community. Interest in the East, characteristic of romanticism, is reflected in the cycle “West-Eastern Divan” (1814-1819, published in 1819), inspired by Persian poetry. In the journalism of recent years, Goethe, rejecting Teutonomania and the mystical aspects of German romanticism, welcomes the collection of folk songs by L. I. Arnim and C. Brentano "The Magic Horn of a Boy" (1806-1808), highly appreciates Byron's romanticism. In polemic against the nationalist tendencies that developed in Germany during and after the Napoleonic Wars, Goethe puts forward the idea of ​​"world literature", while not sharing the Hegelian skepticism in assessing the future of art.

The tragedy "Faust" (1st part - 1808, 2nd part - 1825-1831) sums up the development of the entire European educational thought of the 18th century and anticipates the problems of the 19th century. In processing the plot, Goethe relied on the folk book about Faust (1587), as well as on the puppet drama. The image of Faust embodies faith in the limitless possibilities of man. The inquisitive mind and daring of Faust are opposed to the fruitless efforts of the dry pedant Wagner, who fenced himself off from life, from the people. In the process of searching, Faust, overcoming the contemplativeness of German social thought, puts forward the act as the basis of being. The works of Goethe reflected the brilliant insights of dialectics (the monologue of the Spirit of the Earth, the contradictory aspirations of Faust himself). Goethe removes the metaphysical opposition of good and evil. Denial and skepticism, embodied in the image of Mephistopheles, become the driving force that helps Faust in his search for truth. The path to creation passes through destruction - such is the conclusion to which, according to Chernyshevsky, Goethe comes, summarizing the historical experience of his era. Gretchen's story becomes an important link in the search for Faust.

The tragic situation arises as a result of an insoluble contradiction between the ideal of a natural person, as Margarita appears to Faust, and the real appearance of a limited girl from a petty-bourgeois environment. At the same time, Margarita is a victim of social prejudices and dogmatism of church morality. In an effort to establish the humanistic ideal, Faust turns to antiquity. The marriage of Faust and Helen is a symbol of the unity of two eras. But this unity is only an illusion - Elena disappears, and their son dies. The result of Faust's searches is the conviction that the ideal must be realized on the real earth. At the same time, Goethe already understands that the new, bourgeois society being created on the ruins of feudal Europe is far from ideal. Faced with a complex set of problems of the 19th century, Goethe retains an Enlightenment optimism, but turns it to future generations when free labor on a free land becomes possible. In the name of that bright future, a person must act and fight. “Only he is worthy of life and freedom, Who goes to battle for them every day!” - this is the final conclusion that follows from Goethe's optimistic tragedy.

The death of Goethe, according to G. Heine, marked the end of the "artistic period" in German literature (a concept meaning that the interests of art then prevailed over socio-political ones).

The great German writer Johann Wolfgang Goethe was born on August 28, 1749 in Frankfurt am Main. Fate from early childhood put the boy in happy conditions. His maternal grandfather came from an old family and held one of the highest positions in the city. His father was a rich and educated man, his mother, an intelligent and developed woman, had a soft, cheerful and conciliatory character. The child grew up in contentment, in a happy bourgeois environment, nature endowed him with a beautiful appearance and brilliant abilities. At the age of seven or eight, Goethe already knew the ancient and new languages. The boy's initial education was taken over by his father, then home teachers were invited.

Portrait of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. Painter G. von Kugelgen, 1808-09

In 1765, the sixteen-year-old Goethe entered the University of Leipzig to study law. Staying at the university gave the young man a certain stock of factual knowledge, but he was not satisfied with the pedantry and routine that prevailed at the university. Goethe moved from Leipzig to Strasbourg (1770); but even here he is little satisfied with the study of law. He turns to medicine and natural science. Dissatisfied with science, Goethe turns to alchemy and seeks satisfaction in communication with his comrades, in their adventures. Thus the individualism, the titanic pretensions of a personality dissatisfied with positive science and the ordinary interests of life—the features that later formed the main motif of the period of "stormy aspirations," "Werther" and the original "Faust"—are already outlined in Goethe's youthful years. In Strasbourg, Goethe met Herder, who had a huge influence on the poet. Herder aroused in him a love for German antiquity, developed before him his ideas about the significance of the national element in creativity; he also taught him to love Shakespeare and admire Strasbourg Cathedral, a majestic monument of ancient German art. Under the influence of conversations with Herder, Goethe, probably for the first time, began to get acquainted with the traditions and legends of the past. At this time, he became acquainted with the autobiography of a medieval knight, later the hero of his famous tragedy "Götz von Berlichingen"; At the same time, the medieval the legend of the miraculous magician Faust, - a plot with which Goethe did not part then almost all his life.

The poet's first love for Friederike Brion also belongs to the Strasbourg period of Goethe's life. Goethe in this novel, as in subsequent ones, revealed some features for which the poet was reproached even by his admirers. He could never get carried away deeply and for a long time. Breaking with the object of his love, he often broke the heart of a girl; unwillingness to bind his fate, the desire for peace, which always lived in Goethe's soul even at the moments of his most stormy hobbies - these traits, bordering on selfishness, forced him to leave Friederike. Returning to Frankfurt, Goethe creates his first major work, the tragedy " Goetz von Berlichingen" (1773), which was a vivid expression of the ideas of Sturm und Drang "a (" Storm and onslaught") and immediately brought wide fame to the author. In "Goetz" Goethe's relationship with Friederike Brion was also reflected.

Geniuses and villains. Johann Wolfgang Goethe. video film

Even louder fame was brought to the poet by the work following Goetz: “The Suffering of Young Werther” (see summary and analysis). The canvas for the novel was again the poet's personal impressions: his relationship with Charlotte Buff, who replaced Frederick, and the suicide of his friend Jeruzalem. But on this canvas, Goethe embroidered such rich patterns that still remain the best monument of that turbulent era of doubt and hesitation. Werther is a chosen nature, a man with titanic claims, a true child of Sturm und Drang, a forerunner of Faust. Faced with the surrounding reality, he does not find a correspondence between it and his ideals. He is disappointed in everything: in religion, science, state and public institutions and commits suicide. Werther has lost his medieval faith, and science, to which he makes too great demands, in which he seeks answers to all questions of being, cannot answer them. This fatal discord, this painful transition from faith and doubt to the true view of science and the tasks of earthly existence, the transition that gave rise to the poetry of the so-called "world sorrow" is the main motive of the greatest of Goethe's works - "Faust". "Werther" came out in 1774, and made a real revolution in European literature, caused a mass imitations and was the prototype of those disappointed heroes who flooded all the then fiction.

By 1775, Goethe's third romance with Elisabeth Shenman dates back, which ended as fruitlessly as the first two. Around the same time, Goethe wrote two dramatic works; "Clavigo" and "Stella", far inferior to "Getsu". In 1770, Goethe, at the invitation of Duke Karl August, moved to Weimar. Here he divided his time between adventures undertaken with the duke and administrative labors. He was appointed minister and privy councillor, and at one time actively assisted the duke in matters of administration. Here he conceived his wonderful works: "Iphigenia in Tauris", "Torquato Tasso", "Egmont" and others. Some of them were finally processed only after a trip to Italy (1786-88), which Goethe undertook from Weimar and which had a beneficial influence on his poetic development. In Weimar, Goethe became friends with Mrs. von Stein, an advanced and educated woman. Their long friendship brought many happy moments to the poet; he read his works to Madame von Stein and talked with her about questions of art. At the same time, Goethe was fond of studying the natural sciences and undertook research in geology, botany and comparative anatomy. In the latter, he was especially lucky: Goethe was able to prove that the premaxillary bone, which was considered to belong exclusively to animals, exists in ugly cases in humans as well (it has now been proven that this bone exists in the embryonic life of every person separately from the maxillary bone, with which subsequently grows quite well).

Johann Goethe is an outstanding German writer, poet, thinker, philosopher and naturalist, 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.

In Goethe's home library, there were about 2,000 books, thanks to which Johann, who read a lot, was distinguished by 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 big one in Lisbon, as a result of which many people died.

Johann Goethe in his youth

After that, Johann began to think about God. The boy could not understand how a kind and just Creator could allow the death of so many people.

In this regard, he pondered for a long time on various religious issues.

The childhood of the future writer was very joyful and carefree. At the same time, although their family was very rich, Johann Goethe was not a spoiled child.

He really liked to spend his free time in the library, reading different books. 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.

Parents hired for him the best teachers who were only in.

Interestingly, in addition to traditional items, the boy was interested. In addition, Goethe studied horseback riding, fencing, dancing, as well as playing the cello and.

Having reached the age of 16, he successfully passes the exams at the prestigious University of Leipzig for the Faculty of Law. His father dreamed that Johann became a lawyer. However, jurisprudence was of little interest to the young man.

Instead, he paid attention to natural history and literature. During this period of his biography, he attended lectures by the writer and philosopher Christian Gellert, and also met the famous art historian Winckelmann.

During his studies, Goethe made many friends, as he was a sociable and open person. He went to various social events and often participated in discussions about.

The 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 happened 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, in connection with which relations between them were seriously strained.

Creativity Goethe

Arriving home, Johann Goethe was treated for his illness for a long time. During this period, he wrote the comedy "Partners", which became the first serious work in his biography.

In 1770, he went to Strasbourg to still get a law degree. There he actively studies philology, and also shows interest in chemistry and.

Portrait of Goethe in Campania by Tischbein, 1787

Later, Johann Goethe met the art critic and theologian Johann Herder, who spoke positively about the promising student.

Once 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 flash of love faded away, and the girl ceased to interest him, which he honestly wrote to her in his letter.

Works by 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, in connection with which he fell into depression.

"The Suffering of Young Werther"

However, it was precisely thanks to his difficult state of mind that Johann Goethe managed to write a 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 because of unrequited love.

This work was a great success, but after its publication in Germany, many cases of suicide on the basis of 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"

In the period 1774-1832. Johann Goethe wrote his immortal philosophical drama Faust, which became one of the most famous works in his biography.

Until now, "Faust" is considered the pinnacle of German poetry. The writer worked on this work for almost 60 years, perfecting every phrase.

The most famous translation of "Faust" on was performed.

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 beloved books.

"Forest King"

In 1782, Goethe published the ballad "The King of the Forest", written in the style of a folk epic. It tells of a powerful being who killed a child.

The poet describes a father and son riding a horse through a forest. It seems to the son that the king of the forest is beckoning him; the father explains to him that it all seems to him.

At the end, the son screams that the forest king has overtaken him. When they finally arrive home, the father discovers that the child is dead.

The ballad "The Forest King" has been translated into Russian several times. The most famous Russian translations and Athanasius 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 of the 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 Christiane Vulpius, with whom he lived for 30 years. An interesting fact is that his chosen one did not have much attractiveness, although she was a good-natured and sincere girl.

Their meeting happened quite by accident. One day, Christiane gave Johann Goethe a letter. This fleeting meeting was enough to win the heart of Goethe. He invited her to settle in his estate, to which Vulpius gave her consent.

The former mistresses of the writer considered the choice of Johann an insult, who preferred some peasant woman instead. However, he didn't care at all.

In 1806, Johann and Christiana got married, after which they had five children. Children born after the eldest son Augustus 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 the walks, Johann Goethe caught a serious cold. Every day the disease progressed and eventually became the cause of the death of the great writer.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe died on March 22, 1832, at the age of 82. His last words were: "Please close the window."

Photos of Goethe

At the end, look at the photo of Johann Goethe. More precisely, a photo of artistic portraits of Goethe, painted in oil.

Johann Wolfgang Goethe - philosopher, thinker, naturalist, educator and, most importantly, the great and brilliant German poet was born in Frankfurt am Main on August 28, 1749. His parents were wealthy and respectable people: his father was an imperial adviser, a lawyer, his mother was a noblewoman, the daughter of a Frankfurt elder.

Already in childhood, 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. A talented child read a lot and tried to replenish his knowledge base as much as possible.

In 1765, Goethe became a student at the University of Leipzig, where he was supposed to study law. Finding himself free from parental care and moralizing, Goethe boldly breaks into the literary life of the city, and in 1767 he writes a collection of poems - "Annette", whose works are full of lyrics and convey his experiences of first love.

Studying at the university was interrupted by a serious illness, due to which Goethe leaves home for a year and a half. The father was against the literary activities of his son and insisted on continuing his studies at the university, as a result of which, in 1770, John moved to Strasbourg. In addition to jurisprudence, Goethe studies chemistry, medicine, philology, while continuing to be fond of literature.

After meeting and getting to know the critic and thinker Gottfried Herder, Goethe radically changes his worldview, and he becomes an active member of the Sturm und Drang literary group, whose members opposed conventions and feudal orders.

The period of graduation from the university accounts for the creation of the first historical drama - "Getz von Berlichingen", the main character of which enters the fight against feudal orders.

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 fiancee Charlotte Buff. Goethe depicted his deep feelings and torments in his work “The Sufferings of Young Werther” - this novel made the poet famous.

In 1775, Goethe, at the invitation of Duke Karl August, moved to the city of Weimar, where he became a manager. Occupying the position of privy councilor and performing a wide variety of duties, Goethe soon becomes a minister in the government. A successful public service did not interfere with his literary activities. During this period, he works on the dramas "Egmont" and "Iphigenia in Tauris", begins to work on "Faust", writes poetry and ballads. He also does not neglect the study of physics, botany and the natural sciences. In 1784, Goethe discovered the human premaxillary bone, and in 1790, the treatise "Experience in the Metamorphosis of Plants" was published.

When Goethe was almost sixty years old, he married Christiane Vulpius, his lover and mother of his children, in a civil marriage, despite the fact that she was a commoner, and this provoked public outcry.

Goethe's work is also influenced by his collaboration with Friedrich Schiller. Following his advice, the writer resumes work on Faust, and in 1808 the first part of this tragedy is published. The end of work on Faust falls on 1831.

The brilliant writer passed away on 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.