Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Also known as: Goethe
Biography
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe is the reason Weimar is Weimar. He came in 1775, at twenty-six and already famous as the author of Werther, on the invitation of the young Duke Carl August, and stayed until his death in 1832 — fifty-seven years in which he was the duchy's minister, the director of its theatre, a naturalist of real standing, and the poet who wrote Iphigenie, Tasso, Wilhelm Meister, the Wahlverwandtschaften, the Divan and both parts of Faust in this town. His house on the Frauenplan, his home for almost fifty years, is the Goethe-Nationalmuseum; his garden house stands in the park he helped lay out; his coffin lies in the Fürstengruft beside Schiller's.
How he came to Weimar, 1774–1782
In December 1774 Karl Ludwig von Knebel brought him together with the hereditary prince Carl August in Frankfurt — an acquaintance the Neue Deutsche Biographie calls fateful — and the invitation followed the next year. On 11 June 1776 the duke made him Geheimer Legationsrat with a seat and a vote in the privy council; in 1779 he became Geheimer Rat, and on 10 April 1782, at the duke's request, the Emperor granted him the patent of nobility. Carl August gave him the garden house in the park in 1776; in 1782 he moved as a tenant into the house on the Frauenplan and stayed for almost fifty years.
What he wrote here, 1779–1832
The first Weimar decade produced the prose Iphigenie of 6 April 1779, the first Tasso of 1780/81 and work on Egmont; then, on 3 September 1786, he left for Italy, reached Rome on 29 October and came back on 18 June 1788. The journey changed the work: Iphigenie in verse in 1787, Egmont in 1788, Tasso in 1790, and Faust printed as a fragment the same year. Wilhelm Meisters Lehrjahre followed in 1795/96; Faust I went to press for the Leipzig Easter fair of 1808; Die Wahlverwandtschaften was written in 1808 and 1809 and appeared that October; the West-östlicher Divan of 1819 grew out of his reading of Hafis and his exchange with Marianne von Willemer, some of whose poems it contains. From 1825 to the summer of 1831 he finished Faust II, sealed the manuscript to be opened only after his death, and it appeared in 1832.
The naturalist, 1784–1810
He found the intermaxillary bone in the human skull in 1784 and came back from Italy in 1788 with the idea that every part of a plant is a variation of one basic form — published in Gotha in 1790 as the Versuch die Metamorphose der Pflanzen zu erklären. Twenty years of experiments with light became Zur Farbenlehre, published on 16 May 1810, the work he rated above his poetry: in his own century, he told Eckermann, he was the only one in that difficult science who knew the truth, and he took some pride in it. The Goethe-Nationalmuseum's exhibition, Lebensfluten – Tatensturm, shows him as this too — naturalist, draughtsman, collector.
What he built and ran, 1789–1817
He ran things. From 1789 he directed the classical rebuilding of the residence palace after the fire, with Arens, Thouret and Gentz working under him; between 1792 and 1797 he supervised the building of the Roman House in the park for the duke; and he worked out designs for the Park an der Ilm with the publisher Friedrich Justin Bertuch. In 1791 Carl August put him in charge of the new court theatre, which he opened with Iffland's Die Jäger and led until 1817. Much of what a visitor walks through in Weimar today was laid out under his hand.
Napoleon, 1808–1813
Weimar's minister stood face to face with the master of Europe. When Napoleon and Tsar Alexander I gathered the princes of the Confederation of the Rhine at Erfurt from 27 September to 14 October 1808, the emperor had Goethe brought to the governor's palace on 2 October. They talked about the French stage and about literature, and Napoleon opened with three words, Vous êtes un homme. Twelve days later Goethe and Wieland received the Légion d'honneur from the emperor's hand. Goethe's admiration for Napoleon only grew with the years, but he wore the order only until the tide turned: after Leipzig in 1813 an Austrian general billeted in his house made him take it off.
Charlotte, Christiane, Schiller, 1776–1805
For nearly eleven years Charlotte von Stein was his closest attachment in Weimar and received over 1,600 letters from him; the friendship broke after Italy, when in July 1788 he took up with Christiane Vulpius, whom he married in 1806. He acted opposite Corona Schröter and wrote the part of Iphigenie towards her. The friendship that mattered most began in 1794, after a lecture in Jena, when Schiller's two letters of 23 and 31 August won him over: the Xenien of 1796 are their joint work, and from 1799 until Schiller's death in 1805 the two of them ran the Weimar stage together — the years the town calls its classical ones.
The Fürstengruft, 1832
He died on 22 March 1832 in the house on the Frauenplan and was carried into the Fürstengruft on 26 March, into the vault of the ruling house, beside Schiller — an honour without much precedent for a writer, and the reason the ducal mausoleum is a literary pilgrimage. The house itself, with his study, his library and his collections, is the Goethe-Nationalmuseum; the garden house stands in the park; the town has kept him at its centre ever since.
Questions visitors ask
- Where did Goethe live in Weimar?
- In two houses. From 1776 to 1782 in the garden house in the Park an der Ilm, a gift from Duke Carl August; from 1782 until his death in 1832 in the house on the Frauenplan, which he rented at first and which is the Goethe-Nationalmuseum today, with his study, his library and his collections.
- How long did Goethe live in Weimar?
- Fifty-seven years: he came in 1775 at the age of twenty-six and died in the house on the Frauenplan on 22 March 1832.
- Which works did Goethe write in Weimar?
- Almost all of the mature work: Iphigenie (1787), Egmont (1788), Tasso (1790), Wilhelm Meisters Lehrjahre (1795/96), Faust I (1808), Die Wahlverwandtschaften (1809), the West-östlicher Divan (1819) and Faust II, finished in 1831 — as well as the Metamorphose der Pflanzen (1790) and the Farbenlehre (1810). Werther, which made him famous, came before Weimar.
- What did Goethe do in Weimar apart from writing?
- He was a minister of the duchy from 1776, ran the court theatre from 1791 to 1817, directed the rebuilding of the palace after the fire, oversaw the building of the Roman House and laid out the Park an der Ilm with Bertuch — and pursued botany, anatomy and the theory of colour as a working scientist.
- Where is Goethe buried?
- In the Fürstengruft on the Historischer Friedhof, the burial vault of the ducal house, where he was laid on 26 March 1832 beside Schiller.
- Can I visit Goethe's house?
- Yes. The house on the Frauenplan is the Goethe-Nationalmuseum, open Tuesday to Sunday, with the rooms as he left them and the permanent exhibition Lebensfluten – Tatensturm on Goethe as poet, naturalist, draughtsman and collector. The garden house in the park can be visited as well.
Famous Quotes
“One ought, every day at least, to hear a little song, read a good poem, see a fine picture, and, if it were possible, to speak a few reasonable words.”
“A noble person attracts noble people, and knows how to hold on to them.”
“Who strives always to the utmost, for him there is salvation.”
Notable Works & Achievements
Faust (Part I & II)
Wilhelm Meister's Apprenticeship
The Sorrows of Young Werther
Götz von Berlichingen
Iphigenie auf Tauris
Hermann and Dorothea
Elective Affinities
West-Eastern Diwan
Connected Places in Weimar
Frauenplan 1, 99423 Weimar
He moved in as a tenant in 1782 and lived here until his death in 1832; it is now the Goethe National Museum.
Ilm Park, 99425 Weimar
He and Carl August began laying the park out in 1778, and his garden house stands in it.
Park an der Ilm, 99425 Weimar
The duke gave it to him in 1776; it was his home for six years, until he moved to the Frauenplan in 1782.
Fürstengraben 26, 07743 Jena
As the Weimar minister responsible for the duchy's scientific institutions, he commissioned the greenhouses and the inspector's house here in 1794 and spent many hours in the garden himself.
Bad Berka, at the edge of the Kurpark
He supported the laying out of the spa grounds, recommended the building, and wrote of the finished house: "Eine höchst fröhliche Bewegung."
Max-Krehan-Straße 2, 07774 Dornburg-Camburg
He lived in the Renaissance castle's Bergstube for two months in 1828, after Carl August's death, and wrote the Dornburg poems there.
Anger, 99084 Erfurt
He was a guest at Haus Dacheröden on the Anger, the house of Karl Friedrich von Dacheröden.
Historischer Friedhof am Poseckschen Garten, 99423 Weimar
Buried here on 26 March 1832, beside Schiller.
Fürstengraben 26, 07743 Jena
Goethe spent more than 350 days here between 1817 and 1830, ran his supervision of the duchy's scientific institutions from the house and had it rebuilt in 1825–1827; the exhibition inside is devoted to his natural science.
Theaterplatz, 99423 Weimar
One of the two figures Rietschel made, standing since 1857.
Jenaer Straße 1, 99425 Weimar
His handwritten literary estate is held here and is inscribed in UNESCO's Memory of the World.
Am Markt 1 (Amtshaus), 98693 Ilmenau
Weimar
The city names her as his friend and close confidante; the correspondence between them was written from this house.
Schillerstraße 9, 99423 Weimar
A frequent visitor in the shop's Cranachhaus years, who also read the weekly paper Hoffmann published.
Am Rollplatz 4, 99423 Weimar
He married Christiane Vulpius in this sacristy on 19 October 1806.
Park an der Ilm, 99423 Weimar
He directed the building work between 1792 and 1797.
Schillerstraße 25, 07407 Rudolstadt
Schillergäßchen 2, 07745 Jena
The two held their evening conversations at the stone table in the garden, the Jena half of the friendship that shaped Weimar Classicism.
Im Schlosshof 3, 07407 Großkochberg
A regular guest from 1775 to 1788, who inked the dates of his visits onto a desk here.
Burgplatz 4, 99423 Weimar
He took part from the start in the building commission of March 1789 that rebuilt the palace after the fire of 1774.
Hauptstraße 14, 99425 Weimar-Tiefurt
Among the guests she received here; one of the rooms is named for him.
Schillerstraße 16, 99423 Weimar
Goethe's Faust is the last of the scenes the museum lists.
Historical Context
He arrived in 1775 on Carl August's invitation and stayed until his death in 1832 — the period is bounded by his lifespan.
For roughly sixty years a duchy of a few thousand people held the centre of German literature, because its ruler kept inviting writers to live there and then gave them jobs. That is the whole mechanism, and it ran from Goethe's arrival in 1775 to his death in 1832.
Read more about this period →Quick Facts
1749
1832
German
Stay and eat nearby
Where to stay
Goetheplatz 2, 99423 Weimar
The house counts Goethe among the guests of its early years.
Where to eat
Frauentorstraße 23, Weimar
The house says Goethe was a regular guest and quotes him on itself: "Der Weiße Schwan begrüßt Dich jederzeit mit offenen Flügeln."
On stage
On stage
His Faust is the play that fails to happen — and then gets retold from the prompter's corner.
Walter Hesse
The other half of the title, and the man whose theatre made and framed her Weimar career.
Walter Hesse
The Dichterfürst of the title, trying and failing to get an afternoon's work done on Faust.
Rainer Hauer
His Faust is the centre of the evening, and his own warning about the character is quoted in the house's billing.
One of the two combatants, billed by the house as the universal genius from Frankfurt.
Schauspiel · Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Goethe's own play, in the city where he wrote much of it.
Events
Events
Fridays at 18:00 and Saturdays at 16:00, about ninety minutes
Daily at 10:00 and 14:00, about two hours
Two days a year — International Women's Day and the Buß- und Bettag
One of the three figures the day's guided tours are built to follow.
Fridays and Saturdays from 20:30, 21 March to 1 November
The route passes his front door on the Frauenplan and Charlotte von Stein's in the Seifengasse in the same stretch — which is the walk's point about scale.
Running through most of the year, in the archive
It is about his management of his own legacy, told through the documents he kept to shape it.
Historical figures
Historical figures
1789–1830 • chamberlain • chamber councillor • jurist
His father, whom he predeceased by two years.
1777–1848 • actress • singer
He was her intendant, praised her stage instinct, found her impossible to direct — and left the theatre in 1817.
1742–1827 • lady-in-waiting • author
Nearly eleven years his closest attachment in Weimar, and the recipient of more than 1,600 of his letters, until the rupture of 1788.
1762–1827 • novelist • dramaturg • librarian
His patron: the NDB says it was only through Goethe's protection that he established himself as dramaturg from 1790.
1765–1816 • companion • wife of Goethe
His companion from their meeting on 12 July 1788 and his wife from 19 October 1806 until her death; mother of his son August.
1775–1845 • architect • Oberbaudirektor
Goethe called him to Weimar at the end of 1815; the two became friends, and Coudray witnessed Goethe's last hours in 1832.
1751–1802 • singer • actress • composer
He brought her to Weimar in 1776, acted opposite her, and drew the figure of Iphigenie from her — she played the title role at the first performance, with Goethe as Orest.
1747–1822 • publisher • entrepreneur • court official
They worked out the designs for the Park an der Ilm together, and the ADB places him in the closest relations with Goethe's circle.
1759–1805 • writer • poet • historian
They ran the Weimar stage together from 1799 until Schiller's death.
1774–1845 • philologist • librarian • editor
Taken into his house in September 1803; later assisted on the Wahlverwandtschaften, the Farbenlehre and Faust, and edited his correspondence with Zelter.
1737–1806 • painter • drawing master
Goethe wrote admiringly of his gift for turning domestic, companionable gatherings into portraits.
1792–1854 • writer • editor • librarian
He arrived in 1823 hoping for a reading, stayed as an editorial assistant, and recorded the conversations of Goethe's last nine years.
1766–1838 • writer • salonnière
He was among the regulars at her tea gatherings from 1806.
1768–1826 • writer • educator • philanthropist
Frequent dealings marked by practical and personal conflict that never broke for good; Falk took an active part in his colour-theory work.
1757–1828 • duke • grand duke • patron
He met him in Frankfurt in December 1774, brought him to Weimar in November 1775, made him a privy councillor in 1776 and gave him the palace, the theatre and the parks to run; they lie in the same vault.
1744–1834 • poet • translator • tutor at court
He introduced Goethe to the hereditary prince in Frankfurt in December 1774[^ndb-knebel] — the meeting that brought Goethe to Weimar — and remained his friend for sixty years.
1757–1830 • duchess • grand duchess
He wrote Lila, the Planetentanz and the Luisenfest for her, built the Luisenkloster for her name day in 1778, and in 1825 handed her the medal for the rescue of Weimar.
1796–1872 • editor • salonnière
Her father-in-law, in whose house she kept the household and whose legacy she defended for forty years after his death.
1824–1897 • grand duchess • collector • archive founder
She was sole heir to his manuscript estate in 1885, and turned it into a public archive rather than a family possession.
In Weimar's history
In Weimar's history
In December 1774, on a journey to Frankfurt, a tutor at the Weimar court brought the hereditary prince together with a young lawyer who had written a scandalous novel.
He was twenty-five, and the invitation that followed took him to Weimar for the rest of his life.
On 7 November 1775 a carriage from Frankfurt brought the twenty-six-year-old author of Werther into a town of six thousand people. He had come for a short visit; he stayed for the rest of his life.
He came for a short visit on 7 November 1775, at twenty-six, and stayed until his death in 1832.
Goethe's Iphigenie was first performed in its prose version on Easter Tuesday 1779, with Corona Schröter in the title role and Goethe himself playing Orest.
He wrote the play and appeared in it as Orest.
The duke handed Weimar's most famous writer a theatre to run, and he opened it with a box-office hit by somebody else.
The directorship was his, and he opened the house with Iffland's "Die Jäger".
He died in the study on the top floor of his own house, three years after buying it, and was buried in the night of 11–12 May in a vault the court kept for people of rank who had no grave of their own.
It ended the six years in which the two of them had run the Weimar stage together.
From 27 September to 14 October 1808 Napoleon and Tsar Alexander I met in Erfurt with the princes of the Rhine Confederation — and on 6 October the congress came to Weimar.
Goethe met Napoleon in the Erfurt Statthalterei on 2 October 1808 and again in Weimar on 6 October, and received the Légion d'honneur on 14 October.
Stages and venues
Theaterplatz 2, 99423 Weimar
He directed the Weimar stage; the house reopened in 1948 with his Faust.
He lived here for close to fifty years, from 1782 until his death in 1832.
Schopenhauerstraße 2, 99423 Weimar
His Faust II is in the repertoire, taken apart by a young ensemble under the title Game Over.
Lucas-Cranach-Haus, Markt 11/12, 99423 Weimar
Most of the repertoire is his: three Faust evenings, the young Werther, and the women around him.
UNESCO-Platz 1, 99423 Weimar
The first hall was inaugurated in 1932, on the hundredth anniversary of his death.
Around Weimar
South
He supported the laying out of the spa grounds after the springs were found in 1813, and the Coudray-Haus was built on his recommendation.
19 km East
Goethe spent more than five years in Jena, took an official and personal interest in its university, and began his friendship with Schiller here in 1794.