Which real events inspired The Sorrows of Young Werther?

The Sorrows of Young Werther was inspired by two primary real-life experiences Johann Wolfgang von Goethe had while working at the supreme court in Wetzlar in 1772:

• Goethe’s own unrequited love: During his time in Wetzlar, Goethe fell in love with Charlotte (“Lotte”) Buff. Because she was already engaged to another man, the relationship was emotionally tormenting for Goethe, eventually leading him to leave the city in September 1772.1
• The suicide of Carl Wilhelm Jerusalem: Shortly after his departure, Goethe learned that a young lawyer he had known in Wetzlar, Carl Wilhelm Jerusalem, had died by suicide. It was widely rumored that Jerusalem had taken his own life due to a hopeless love for a married woman.1

Goethe fused these two elements—his own intense personal feelings for Lotte and the tragic death of Jerusalem—into the epistolary novel that would define the Sturm und Drang movement.12