Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Introduction & Top Questions
Early years (1749–69)
Sturm und Drang (1770–76)
First Weimar period (1776–86)
Italian journey (1786–88)
Return to Weimar and the French Revolution (1788–94)
Friendship with Schiller (1794–1805)
Napoleonic period (1805–16)
Last years (1817–32)
Faust
Legacy

Quotes References & Edit History Quick Facts & Related Topics

Images & Videos

How Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's love affairs inspired his work

Discovering Weimar, Germany: A city rich in art and culture

Johann Heinrich Wilhelm Tischbein: Goethe in the Roman Campagna

A close up image of a digital color-picker, showing shades of greens, yellows, reds, pinks, and blues.

“Mephistopheles Offering His Help to Faust”

At a Glance

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe summary

Quizzes

Illustration of "The Lamb" from "Songs of Innocence" by William Blake, 1879. poem; poetry

A Study of Poetry

4:043 Dickinson, Emily: A Life of Letters, This is my letter to the world/That never wrote to me; I'll tell you how the Sun Rose/A Ribbon at a time; Hope is the thing with feathers/That perches in the soul

Famous Poets and Poetic Form

Ernest Hemingway aboard the boat "Pilar", off Cuba. Ernest Hemingway American novelist and short-story writer, awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1954.

Writer’s Block

Emily Dickinson (1830-1886) only confirmed photograph of Emily Dickinson. 1978 scan of a Daguerreotype. ca. 1847; in the Amherst College Archives. American poet. See Notes:

Poetry: First Lines

Nobel prize-winning American author, Pearl S. Buck, at her home, Green Hills Farm, near Perkasie, Pennsylvania, 1962. (Pearl Buck)

Novels and Novelists Quiz

Related Questions

How did Friedrich Schiller help Johann Wolfgang von Goethe return to major literary work?
How did Friedrich Schiller’s death affect Johann Wolfgang von Goethe?
How did Goethe’s later writing relate to Romanticism?
How did Goethe’s relationship with Friederike Brion influence his early writing?
How did Götz von Berlichingen help launch the Sturm und Drang movement?
How did Johann Wolfgang von Goethe become interested in German folk songs?
How did Johann Wolfgang von Goethe begin his legal career in Frankfurt?
How did Johann Wolfgang von Goethe contribute to Sturm und Drang literature?
How did Johann Wolfgang von Goethe direct the Weimar court theatre?
How did Johann Wolfgang von Goethe respond to the French Revolution?
How did Johann Wolfgang von Goethe’s Italian journey affect his literary style?
How did Johann Wolfgang von Goethe’s theory of colour differ from Isaac Newton’s theory?
How does The Sorrows of Young Werther end?
How many of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe’s siblings survived into adulthood?
How was Johann Wolfgang von Goethe educated as a child?
What did Johann Wolfgang von Goethe write about the French campaigns of 1792 and 1793?
What duties did Johann Wolfgang von Goethe perform in the government of Weimar?
What is Goethe’s Iphigenia in Tauris about?
What is Hermann and Dorothea about?
What is The Sorrows of Young Werther about?
What is Wilhelm Meister’s Apprenticeship about?
What is the plot of Goethe’s play Götz von Berlichingen?
What is the significance of Goethe’s poem Wanderer’s Night Song?
What is the subject of Goethe’s Wilhelm Meister’s Travels?
What is the wager between God and Mephistopheles in Goethe’s Faust?
What kinds of work did Johann Wolfgang von Goethe do besides writing?
What scientific ideas did Johann Wolfgang von Goethe develop about plants?
What was the Sturm und Drang movement?
What were the Xenien written by Goethe and Schiller?
When and where was Johann Wolfgang von Goethe born?
When did Johann Wolfgang von Goethe complete Faust Part II?
When did Johann Wolfgang von Goethe die?
Which real events inspired The Sorrows of Young Werther?
Who recorded Johann Wolfgang von Goethe’s conversations in his final years?
Who was August von Goethe?
Who was Charlotte Buff and how did she inspire Goethe’s writing?
Who was Christiane Vulpius?
Who was Friederike Brion in Johann Wolfgang von Goethe’s life?
Who were Johann Wolfgang von Goethe’s parents?
Why did Duke Charles Augustus invite Johann Wolfgang von Goethe to Weimar?
Why did Goethe and Schiller’s Xenien create a literary controversy?
Why did Johann Wolfgang von Goethe accompany Duke Charles Augustus on military campaigns against France?
Why did Johann Wolfgang von Goethe admire Strasbourg Cathedral?
Why did Johann Wolfgang von Goethe marry Christiane Vulpius in 1806?
Why did Johann Wolfgang von Goethe struggle to reopen the Ilmenau silver mine?
Why did Johann Wolfgang von Goethe study law in Leipzig?
Why did The Sorrows of Young Werther cause moral controversy?
Why is Goethe’s Faust considered an important work of world literature?
Why is Wilhelm Meister’s Apprenticeship important in the history of the bildungsroman?
Why was Faust Part II published after Johann Wolfgang von Goethe’s death?
Why was Johann Wolfgang von Goethe made a noble in 1782?
What was Johann Wolfgang von Goethe’s family like?
What did Johann Wolfgang von Goethe write?
When did Johann Wolfgang von Goethe get married?
How did Bertolt Brecht influence others?
Why is Sylvia Plath important?
When was Sylvia Plath married?
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Where did James Baldwin live?
Who was Henry James?
Where did Henry James grow up?

Literature Novels & Short Stories Novelists A-K

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External Websites

Mises Institute - The Politics of Johann Wolfgang Goethe
Mahler Foundation - Biography of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Encyclopaedia Iranica - Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy - Biography of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
AllMusic - Biography of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Digital Commons at Trinity - Goethe's Colors: Revolutionary Optics and the Anthropocene (PDF)
Goethe Institut - Who is Goethe?
NOVA Open Publishing - World Literature - Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Poetry Foundation - Biography of Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe
BBC - Great Lives - A N Wilson selects Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

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Johann Wolfgang von Goethe - Student Encyclopedia (Ages 11 and up)

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

German author

Written by

Nicholas Boyle

Emeritus Schröder Professor of German, Magdalene College, Cambridge. Author of Goethe: The Poet and the Age.

Nicholas Boyle

Fact-checked by

Britannica Editors

Encyclopaedia Britannica's editors oversee subject areas in which they have extensive knowledge, whether from years of experience gained by working on that content or via study for an advanced degree....

Britannica Editors

Last updated

Oct. 25, 2026 •History

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (born August 28, 1749, Frankfurt am Main [Germany]—died March 22, 1832, Weimar, Saxe-Weimar) was a German poet, playwright, novelist, scientist, statesman, theatre director, critic, and amateur artist, considered the greatest German literary figure of the modern era. Goethe is the only German literary figure whose range and international standing equal those of Germany’s supreme philosophers (who have often drawn on his works and ideas) and composers (who have often set his...