Literature · Art · Politics · 1749–1832
Born: 22 August 1749 · Died: 22 March 1832 · Age: 82
German poet, playwright and scientist, author of Faust and The Sorrows of Young Werther, and a giant of European literature
Did you know?In addition to his literature, he published a major scientific treatise on the theory of colours and human perception.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe was a one-man cultural movement, so central to German literature that the country's international cultural institute bears his name. He became famous almost overnight in his twenties with The Sorrows of Young Werther, a novel of doomed love that swept Europe. His masterpiece, Faust, the tale of a scholar who bargains with the devil, took him some sixty years to complete. Beyond literature, he served as a government minister, studied plants, minerals and colour, and wrote a theory of colour that still interests artists. Few writers have ranged so widely across art, science and public life.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (28 August 1749 – 22 March 1832) was a German polymath who is widely regarded as the most influential writer in the German language.
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Profile
German poet and polymath, born 1749
Goethe was born in Frankfurt on 22 August 1749.
The Sorrows of Young Werther made him famous in 1774.
He wrote the verse drama Faust.
He died in Weimar on 22 March 1832.
Career highlights
Did you know?He also published a theory of colour and studied plant biology.
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