Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

1749-1831 • Ranked #117 in the top 500 poets

German poet, dramatist and philosopher, was born at Frankfort-on-Main on the 28th of August 1749. He
came, on his father’s side, of Thuringian stock, his great-grandfather, Hans Christian Goethe, having been
a farrier at Artern-on-the-Unstrut, about the middle of the I7th century. Hans Christian’s son, Friedrich
Georg, was brought up to the trade of a tailor, and in this capacity settled in Frankfort in 1686. A second
marriage, however, brought him into possession of the Frankfort inn, “Zum Weidenhof,” and he ended
his days as a well-to-do innkeeper. His son, Johann Kaspar, the poet’s father (1710—1782), studied law at
Leipzig and, after going through the prescribed courses of practical training at Wetzlar, travelled in Italy.
He hoped, on his return to Frankfort, to obtain. an official position in the government of the free city, but
his personal influence with the authorities was not sufficiently strong. In. his disappointment he resolved
never again to offer his services to his native town, and retired into private life, a course which his ample
means facilitated. In 1742 he acquired, as a consolation for the public career he had missed, the title of
kaiserlicher Rat, and in 1748 married Katharina Elisabeth (1731—1808), daughter of the Schuitheiss or
Burgcrmeister of Frankfort, Johann Wolfgang Textor.’ The poet was the eldest son of this union. Of the
later children only one, Cornelia, born in 1750, survived the years of childhood; she died as the wife of
Goethe’s friend, J. G. Schlosser, in 1777.