Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

A German writer was Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. He was called by George Eliot "Germany's greatest man of letters.. and the last true polymath to walk the earth." Goethe's work spans the fields of poetry, drama, literature, theology, humanism and science. The two-part drama Faust is Goethes magnum opus, lauded as one of the highlights of world literature. Goethe's other well-known literary works include his numerous poems, the Bildungsroman Wilhel... m Meisters Apprenticeship and The Sorrows of Young Werther.Goethe was one of the key figures of German literature and the Weimar Classicism movement of the late 18th and early 19th centuries; this movement coincides with Enlightenment, Sentimentality (Empfindsamkeit), Sturm und Drang. He influenced Darwin with his focus on plant morphology as the author of the scientific text Theory of Colors. He also served for a long time as the Privy Councilor ("Geheimrat") of Weimar's duchy. Goethe is the originator of the concept of world literature ("world literature"), having taken great interest, among others, in the literatures of England, France, Italy, classical Greece, Persia, Arabic literature. His influence on German philosophy is virtually unmeasurable, having a major impact especially on the generation of Hegel and Schelling, although Goethe himself expressly and decisively refused to practice philosophy in a rare sense. Goethe's influence spread throughout Europe, and his works were a major source of inspiration in music, drama, poetry and philosophy for the next century. Many consider Goethe to be the most important writer in the German language as well as one of Western culture's most important thinkers. However, early in his career, he wondered if painting might not be his true vocation; late in his life, he expressed the hope that he would ultimately be remembered above all for his optical work.READ MORE