Goethe is the greatest poet in Germany and a leading figure in the history of German literature. He was praised by Engels as "the real Zeus on Olympia" in the field of literature and art, and it was he who pushed German literature, which had been at a low ebb, to an unprecedented peak and gained an immortal worldwide reputation. His Faust, like Homer's epic, Dante's Divine Comedy and Shakespeare's Hamlet, is regarded as "a masterpiece among masterpieces". It is not only a masterpiece of enlightenment literature, but also one of the most valuable and influential works in the history of European and even world literature. Goethe is also a versatile and knowledgeable artist and scientist who has made valuable contributions to mankind in the fields of literary theory, philosophy, history, plastic arts and natural sciences.
1749 On August 28th, Goethe was born in Frankfurt on the Rhine. He can read books in German, French, English, Italian, Latin, Greek and other languages at the age of eight. At the age of 65,438+04, he began to write plays and published the novel Young Werther, which became popular all over the world at the age of 25. It took him only four weeks to finish the novel. People call Goethe a genius. In fact, Goethe's talent was not born. His achievements are mainly due to his parents' early education and his unremitting efforts.
Goethe was born in a noble family in Frankfurt on the Rhine. My father's family is rich and he was a royal consultant. My mother is the daughter of the lifelong mayor of Frankfurt. In such a family, Goethe received a good education from an early age. From the age of 16, he studied law at Leipzig University and Strasbourg University. But he was not interested in law, but spent more energy on studying literature, painting and natural science. His early creative attempts were obviously influenced by court literature and classicism. But just as he entered the University of Strasbourg, a decisive turning point appeared in front of him.
Strasbourg is located on the border between Germany and France, which is convenient for accepting French revolutionary ideas. In the 1970s, it became the birthplace of the "Charge" movement, the German branch of the Enlightenment. Here Goethe was influenced by Rousseau and Spinoza. More importantly, he found his mentor here-Herder, the leader of the "charge from the front" movement. He led Goethe into the art world of Homer and Shakespeare, into the collection and research of folk songs, and freed the awakened genius from the shackles of court literature and classicism, and wrote works such as Farewell and Farewell.
177 1 year, Goethe ended his university career as a doctor of law and returned to Frankfurt to engage in legal work. However, his main energy is still devoted to literary creation, and he has successively completed the historical drama Goz von Bolisingen, the Iron Knight, and the epistolary novel The Trouble of Raising Teenagers. The former shows a passionate anti-feudal struggle spirit and is full of yearning for national unity and people's freedom, while the latter depicts a talented and sentimental young Werther. Although he is passionate, yearning for nature and longing for the liberation of human nature, the selfishness and vulgarity of civil society, the discrimination and insult of the aristocratic class and the suppression and picky of feudal bureaucrats make him do nothing and feel deeply lonely. However, he regarded it as the embodiment of people's pure and simple natural nature, and sent all his enthusiasm and infinite worship to her, but she could not escape mediocrity and sacrificed their precious love by obeying feudal customs. All this makes the maintenance feel deeply out of step with the real world. In infinite sadness, resentment and despair, he cut off his blood vessels and completely broke away from the world of "everything around him is dark, hopeless, uncomfortable and hopeless" by suicide. The boy in blue and yellow trousers, his thoughts and emotions are the most accurate embodiment of the thoughts and emotions of the young people at that time. So when the novel came out, it immediately caused a huge noise, and a "Witt fever" spread rapidly among the majority of teenagers. From Witt's costume to Witt's suicide, it was imitated for a time, so that the writer had to add a preface poem in the reprint to persuade young people to "do a good job" in order to put an end to the bad consequences. This epistolary novel made countless people fondle admiringly, even Napoleon, who had been a valiant soldier all his life, took it with him and read it seven times. Engels said that this is by no means "an ordinary sentimental love novel", but "a great critical achievement". These two works won Goethe's reputation in Germany and even in Europe, making him the leader of the "charge" movement.
1775, 1 1 year, Goethe came to Weimar. The following year, he entered the court of Weimar Principality to participate in politics, and started his career for nearly 10 years. He served as a parliamentary adviser, a military chief and presided over the tax department. 1In September, 786, he started a trip to Italy for several years, which provided rich nourishment for his future writing.
1794, Goethe and Schiller met, which opened the heyday of German classical literature marked by the friendship between Goethe and Schiller. 10 years, they helped each other in creation and wrote their own masterpieces. Under the impetus of Schiller, Goethe created his masterpiece Faust. The coexistence and cooperation of two literary giants 10 years pushed German classical literature to a peak, making Weimar, a small park capital, the cultural center of Germany and even Europe at that time.
Goethe's poetic drama Faust, which took 58 years to complete, is the crystallization of his rich thoughts and artistic exploration in his life. When Goethe finally finished writing this book at 183 1, he wrote in his diary: "The main business has been completed", "My future life can be regarded as a pure gift. It doesn't matter whether I do it now or I will do it. " Faust created an image of constantly exploring the true meaning of life and making progress. When Dr. Faust, the hero, was blind at the age of 100, he still believed that life should "explore life and freedom every day, and then enjoy freedom and life", which reflected the spirit of pursuing truth and striving for self-improvement during the rising period of the bourgeoisie and the excellent tradition of the German nation.
Brilliant period
In johann wolfgang von goethe 1776, Goethe, as the counsellor of the palace, began to serve the Principality of Saxony-Weimar-Eisenna (Weimar Principality) and obtained more political tasks. He lived in the house with garden (Goethe's House) given to him by the Grand Duke for six years, and designed and built the garden around the house according to the specifications of the park. He also played an important role in the design of the natural scenery park beside the Illm River in Turing Gendi. He wrote in his diary: "I hope God will make me a gardener or an experimenter, so how happy I should be."
He met a noble woman, Charlotte von Stan. They maintained a close relationship for ten years.
1779, he was promoted to parliamentary adviser. He accepted the advice of Karl Auguste, who is eight years younger than him, and asked him to work in Weimar, a small country, in order to carry out political reform. Goethe's authority in parliament is growing. Politics-even after he stopped holding public office-has always been his concern.
This year, he began to conduct in-depth natural science research.
1became Weimar * * * Economic Association on June 23rd, 780: a student of Amalia branch, 178 1 Goethe became a full member on June 23rd, and1was promoted to president on April 2nd, 782. A few weeks after he was promoted, the Amalia branch had to stop working because the activities of the * * * Economic Association were hostile.
1782, Dagong rented the house near Flawn Plan to Goethe, 1792, and finally gave it to Goethe. Goethe lived here all his life. The garden next to the women's square was also built by the poet himself. (1885, after Goethe's last grandson and heir died, the house next to the women's square was declared as the national museum. The house was severely damaged after World War II, so Karl Foester, a gardener and writer, came to Weimar to rebuild the garden. )
Goethe traveled to Mount Haltz for the first time. 65438+February 10, he climbed der Brocken, which is considered as the first action to climb this mountain in winter. 1783, he went to Mount Haltz for the second time. Later, in 1784, he went to Mount Haltz for the third and last time.
As we all know, Goethe is a great poet, novelist, dramatist and outstanding thinker. However, few people know that he is also a scientific researcher, and he involves many subjects: he is engaged in the study of animal and plant morphology, anatomy, color, optics, mineralogy, geology and so on. And has made commendable achievements in some fields.
1784, Goethe discovered the intermaxillary bone next to the human skull. Although the French scientist Vic Dassault had discovered it four years before this, Goethe did it independently without his knowledge.
Johann wolfgang von goethe However, few people know that Goethe is still a painter, or rather, a painter with considerable attainments. Goethe was extremely active in nature and had a strong thirst for knowledge. He extended his spiritual tentacles to all fields of human knowledge and knew all the means of the outside world. His wisdom, diligence, deep vision, keen sense and 82-year-old longevity have made him make great contributions in different fields, mainly in literary creation. In the art of painting, he has been practicing enthusiastically almost all the time, drawing as many as 2,700 paintings, most of which are landscape paintings, including the paintings he painted during his scientific research and his reproduction of the human body.
Goethe went to Italy to concentrate on natural science. He is engaged in painting and literary creation, and has successively completed works such as Iphigenia of Toliz and Egmont, and also wrote some chapters of Tasso and Faust. In Weimar, only Saidel, his valet and secretary, knew the destination of his trip. In Italy, Goethe called himself "Philip Miller". His first letter to his family was undated. When he arrived in Rome, Goethe reported his real decision and plan to his relatives and friends: he would stay in Italy for quite a long time.
Goethe described his trip to Italy in Travels of Italy. 1786, he met the painter Tishbone in Rome, 1787, and he traveled to Naples with Tishbone and others. In the same year, Tishbein's famous oil painting "Goethe in Italy" was born. This oil painting depicts Goethe, a traveler in the Roman hills. Goethe also met Angelica Kauffmann there.
old age
/kloc-after returning to Weimar in 0/788, he only served as the director of the theater, becoming conservative politically and pursuing the classical beauty of harmony and tranquility in art. After contacting Schiller from 65438 to 0794, with the upsurge of the democratic national movement in Europe and the spread of utopian socialism, his thoughts and creations also made a new leap, and his masterpieces such as Faust were completed.
In Goethe's later years, a series of major historical events took place in Europe: the revolution set off a revolutionary climax throughout Europe, the industrial revolution in advanced countries advanced by leaps and bounds, the rise of the workers' movement, the widespread spread of utopian socialism, and the romantic literary movement spread all over Europe. These circumstances prompted Goethe to break through the narrow world of Germany, pay more attention to the changes in Europe and even the world, and accept more new social thoughts. All these helped him overcome the narrow-mindedness of the previous period. From about the age of 40, Goethe's body became stiff and difficult to move. He suffered from severe disc injury and several thoracic vertebrae deformation.
1795 He and Schiller started a friendship. Schiller first came to Jena as a history professor. Their friendship lasted until Schiller died in 1805.
1798, Goethe wrote an elegy of "Plant Deformation".
A year after Schiller's death, Goethe married Christina Foer Pius. Goethe has lived with her since 1789, and they have a son: August.
On the occasion of the Governor's Meeting in erfurt, Napoleon I received Goethe and awarded him the Legion of Honor.
From 18 13 to 10, Goethe focused his interest on distant China. He borrowed 10 books about China from the library. Among them are China's travels and China's philosophical works. He read some China novels and poems through English-French translation, such as Good Biography, Yujiao Pear, China and Wonders of Ancient and Modern Times. He-straight to "a good biography" and wrote a long poem; After reading The Orphan of Zhao, he was inspired to write another drama. From 1827 to 1829, he wrote 14 lyric poems entitled "Four seasons in the morning between China and Germany", expressing his yearning for the ancient oriental country. Through contact with China's literary works, Goethe saw the similarities between human beings. In the dialogue with his assistant ekman, he expounded his understanding of China: "China people are almost the same as us in thought, behavior and emotion;" Only in them, everything is clearer, purer and more moral than ours ... "He talked about German literature and French literature from China literature, and then put forward a new concept of" world literature ". He said: "I believe more and more that poetry is the common property of mankind. The era of world literature is coming. Now, everyone should make a contribution to make it come soon. " It is worth mentioning that 20 years later, Marx and Engels put forward the concept of "world literature" in the Manifesto of the Productive Party.
Goethe traveled the Rhine and Main rivers. 18 17 began to write my botany research history, and founded the magazine on natural science, especially morphology (until 1824). Establish friendship with mineralogist, botanist Steinberg and musician Janet.
On March 22nd 1832, 165438+ at 0: 30 on Thursday, Goethe passed away. His last words were: "Give me more lights!" This reflects his optimism as a great writer. On March 26th, he was buried in the vassal cemetery.