Jakub Valentík, 3.

Johann Wolfgang von Geothe

Born in August 28, 1749 in Frankfurt to a middle-class family with his father
Kaspar being a successful lawyer and his mother Katherina being a
daughter of the local mayor which had later got Geothe to many
connections. In 1765 Geothe started to study law at the University of
Liepzig in Liepzig as he would say “Paris of Germany“. Three years later
in 1768 Geothe became very ill and came home to recover... When he was
ready to continue in his studies, he resumed them in Strasbourg which had
been the major turning point in his career. He began reading about
mysticism and ocultism which had significantly affected his life and
culminated into his masterpiece “Faust“. Faust was a story of a man that
sold his soul to the Devil in exchange for fame, wealth, etc... based on the
Christopher Marlowe’s play “Doctor Faustus“. Faust is considered by
many to be the greatest work of German literature. In Strabourg, Geothe
met Johann Gottfried Herder. They became close and Geothe became over
time more intellectually developed. Only because of Harder, Geothe got
interested in Shakespare which was later described as his personal
awakening in literature. In October 1770, Geothe fell in love with
Friederike Brion and he made sveral poems in this time period. In 1771
Geothe acquired the academic digree of the Lizenziat. In 1774 Geothe
published his novel “The Sorrows of Young Werther“ which was one of
the main novels in the “Strum und Drang“ period in German literature and
later influenced the later Romantic movement. Later in 1775 Geothe
joined the royal Weimar court, where he was commited to scientific and
metaphysical studies. Six months after his arrival, Geothe was made
a member of the ruling Privy Council. Although at first he only had a few
unimportant duties, he soon began to accumulate more prosaic
responsibilities and was motivated by the idea of reformed principiality
governed, in accordance with Enlightment principles. In 1786 Geothe
took his journey to Italy. He was almost obsessed with searching for the
temples and stractures of the ancient world in Florence. There was
a report from that time period called “Italian Journey“ that was published
later in 1816 and 1817. It was based on Geothe's diaries. There was also
the French revolution going on from 1789 and Geothe looked on the
ascendancy of Napoleon Bonaparte with fear in his eyes. In 1791, Geothe
became close with Friedrich Schiller and their collaboration set in motion
the movement known as the German classicism. In 1808 the first part of
the “Faust“ which I already talked about was published. After Shiller
died, Geothe came in contact with a new school of German Romantics.
Between 1810 and 1820 Geothe continued writing Novels such as
“Wilhelm Meister's Travels“ which was a very popular work containing
Geothe's reflection on America. Geothe continued working on his big
masterpiece “Faust“ and published the second part later in 1831. Not that
long after finishing his masterpiece, Geothe died at the age of 83 letting
an indelible mark on the whole world.