Goethe

or Göthe, JOHANN WOLFGANG VON, (făn goh'ta,) the greatest of German writers, was B. at Frankfort on-the-Main, in 1749. After some preparatory study at Leipzig, he completed his legal education at Strasburg University, where he took his doctor's degree in 1771. In the same year his drama of Götz von Berlichingen, made a sensation in the literary world of Germany, and laid the basis of its author's reputation. In 1774 appeared The Sorrows of Young Werther, " a glowing leaf of the human soul, full of interest and beauty at all times, but which, in the then state of European thought and feeling, stirred the whole literary mind of Europe like a breeze sweeping over a forest. " In 1775, G. repaired to Weimar, on the invitation of the Grand Duke, and there became the cynosure ofa host of literary talent attracted thither, and also for a while gave himself up to the wildest di ipation. In 1788 he formed a liaison with a young woman in an humble sphere of life, who bore him a son, and whom he subsequently married. In 1792 he accompanied the Grand-Duke of Saxe-Weimar in the campaign against France. D. at Weimar, March 22, 1832. Egmont (1788), and Wilhelm Meister's Apprenticeship (1795), were among the other and well-known fruits of his pen; his masterpiece, however, is undoubtedly the dramatic poem of Faust, 1806-30. [s. 414]