Goetheforschung

Last updated

Goetheforschung (also Goethe-Forschung, literally "Goethe-research") is a German term originating in the 19th century for the Goethe Movement, centering on both amateur and academic study of the life of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. [1] [2] Study and research is often done privately and facilitated through Goethe societies such as the Goethe-Institut. Such societies are dedicated to preserving the memory of Goethe in the public consciousness.

The name of no other German poet resonates in the public mind as much as Goethe's, and he is held in an esteem approaching that accorded to Shakespeare in the realm of literature, Michelangelo, in sculpture, or Beethoven in musical composition. In the 19th century, Goetheforschung was associated with non-academic enthusiasts and collectors such as Woldemar von Biedermann who sought personal betterment and enrichment through immersion in Goethe's life and works. In communist East Germany, Goetheforschung was upheld as part of the regime's conservative cultural policy (German: Kulturpolitik  [ de ]) promoting Weimar classicism as the foundation of Germany's cultural heritage. In modern Germany and elsewhere, Goethe is often far better known than read.

Researchers have even paid intense attention to even Goethe's non-literary and incidental works, such as his scientific writings and everyday correspondence, as exemplified in the critical commentary to the 1950s Leopoldina complete edition of Goethe's works. [3]

Notable Figures

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">German literature</span>

German literature comprises those literary texts written in the German language. This includes literature written in Germany, Austria, the German parts of Switzerland and Belgium, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, South Tyrol in Italy and to a lesser extent works of the German diaspora. German literature of the modern period is mostly in Standard German, but there are some currents of literature influenced to a greater or lesser degree by dialects.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Charlotte von Stein</span> German playwright and close friend of Goethe and Schiller

Charlotte Albertine Ernestine von Stein, born von Schardt; 25 December 1742, Eisenach – 6 January 1827, Weimar, was a lady-in-waiting at the court in Weimar and a close friend to both Friedrich Schiller and Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, whose work and life were strongly influenced by her.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bauhaus University, Weimar</span> Public university in Weimar, Germany

The Bauhaus-Universität Weimar is a university located in Weimar, Germany, and specializes in the artistic and technical fields. Established in 1860 as the Great Ducal Saxon Art School, it gained collegiate status on 3 June 1910. In 1919 the school was renamed Bauhaus by its new director Walter Gropius and it received its present name in 1996. There are more than 4000 students enrolled, with the percentage of international students above the national average at around 27%. In 2010 the Bauhaus-Universität Weimar commemorated its 150th anniversary as an art school and college in Weimar.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Weimar Classicism</span> German literary and cultural movement, whose practitioners established a new humanism

Weimar Classicism was a German literary and cultural movement, whose practitioners established a new humanism from the synthesis of ideas from Romanticism, Classicism, and the Age of Enlightenment. It was named after the city of Weimar, Germany, because the leading authors of Weimar Classicism lived there.

David E. Wellbery is an American professor of German Studies at the University of Chicago. As of 2022 he is the chair of the department of Germanic Studies and holds the LeRoy T. and Margaret Deffenbaugh Carlson University Professorship in the department. In 2020 he was elected to the American Philosophical Society.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nike Wagner</span> German opera director

Nike Wagner is a German dramaturge, arts administrator and author. She directed the festival Kunstfest Weimar, and has been the director of the Beethovenfest from 2014. The daughter of Wieland Wagner, she is a great-granddaughter of Richard Wagner, and a great-great‑granddaughter of Franz Liszt. She devoted books to the Wagner family and its cultural and political influence.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Johann Wolfgang von Goethe</span> German writer and polymath (1749–1832)

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe was a German polymath, who is widely regarded as the greatest and most influential writer in the German language. His work has had a profound and wide-ranging influence on Western literary, political, and philosophical thought from the late 18th century to the present day. A poet, playwright, novelist, scientist, statesman, theatre director, and critic, his works include plays, poetry and aesthetic criticism, as well as treatises on botany, anatomy, and color.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Friedrich Justin Bertuch</span> German publisher

Friedrich Johann Justin Bertuch was a German publisher and patron of the arts. He co-founded the Weimar Princely Free Drawing School with the painter Georg Melchior Kraus in 1776. He was the father of the writer and journalist Karl Bertuch.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Johann Friedrich Bause</span> German copper engraver

Johann Friedrich Bause was a German copper engraver; primarily of portraits.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Goethe-Nationalmuseum</span> Museum in Weimar

The Goethe-Nationalmuseum is a museum devoted to the German author Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, in the town of Weimar in Germany. Originally comprising the Goethe House, where Goethe lived intermittently for 50 years from 1782 to 1832, the museum was founded on 8 August 1885 as a result of the will of Goethe's last living heir, his grandson Walther von Goethe, who left the Goethe House to the state.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Johann Friedrich Rochlitz</span> German playwright, musicologist and art and music critic

Johann Friedrich Rochlitz was a German playwright, musicologist and art and music critic. His most notable work is his autobiographical account Tage der Gefahr about the Battle of Leipzig in 1813 — in Kunst und Altertum, Goethe called it "one of the most wondrous productions ever to have been written". A Friedrich-Rochlitz-Preis for art criticism is named after him — it is awarded by the Leipzig Gesellschaft für Kunst und Kritik and was presented for the fourth time in 2009.

Gustav Woldemar Freiherr von Biedermann was a jurist, literary historian, and Goethe researcher.

<i>Goethe and Schiller Monument</i> Monument at the German National Theater in Weimar (erected in 1857)

The original Goethe and Schiller Monument is in Weimar, Germany. It incorporates Ernst Rietschel's 1857 bronze double statue of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749–1832) and Friedrich Schiller (1759–1805), who are probably the two most revered figures in German literature. The monument has been described "as one of the most famous and most beloved monuments in all of Germany" and as the beginning of a "cult of the monument". Dozens of monuments to Goethe and to Schiller were built subsequently in Europe and the United States.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Schloss Weimar</span> Palace in Weimar, Thuringia, Germany

Schloss Weimar is a Schloss (palace) in Weimar, Thuringia, Germany. It is now called Stadtschloss to distinguish it from other palaces in and around Weimar. It was the residence of the dukes of Saxe-Weimar and Eisenach, and has also been called Residenzschloss. Names in English include Palace at Weimar, Grand Ducal Palace, City Palace and City Castle. The building is located at the north end of the town's park along the Ilm river, Park an der Ilm. It forms part of the World Heritage Site "Classical Weimar", along with other sites associated with Weimar's importance as a cultural hub during the late 18th and 19th centuries.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Böhlau Verlag</span> Publishing company

Böhlau Verlag is a book and magazine publisher predominantly of humanities and social science disciplines, based in Vienna and Cologne, with a branch in Weimar. They describe their focus as being "from the historically oriented humanities". The publishing house was an independent and privately owned media corporation until it was acquired by Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht in 2017.

August Wilhelm Dennstedt (1776–1826), surname sometimes spelled Dennstaedt, was a German physician and botanist who was bürgermeister of Magdala, a town near Weimar. From 1817 he was scientific director of the Grand Ducal Garden in Belvedere.

George Guțu is a Romanian philologist, teacher in the Department of German Language and Literature of the Faculty of Foreign Languages and Literatures, University of Bucharest. He is also director of the Paul Celan Center for Research and Excellence and the Master programme "Intercultural Literary and Linguistic Communication Strategies", initiated by the Department of Germanic Languages and Literatures together with other departments of the Faculty of Foreign Languages and Literatures. His academic activity is based on the history of German literature ; German and Austrian contemporary literature; German literature from Romania, cultural inter-referentiality in Central and Southeast Europe, particularly in Bukovina, poetics, literary theory, translation, the history of German studies and guidance for PhD students. His research domains are the history of German literature; comparative literature; German literature from Romania; cultural inter-referentiality; imagology; the history and aesthetics of reception; theory and practice of translation.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Franz Kirms</span>

Franz Kirms was the official comrade of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe in the management of the Weimar Theatre and as a flower lover. He was born in the Holy Roman Empire.

Norbert Miller is a German scholar of literature and art. He was professor of literary studies at the Technische Universität Berlin from 1973 and retired in 2006.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hans-Georg Fleck</span> German historian

Hans-Georg Fleck is a German historian and former Country Director at Friedrich-Naumann-Stiftung für die Freiheit (FNF).

References

  1. "Querschnitt der Goethe-Forschung - das "Goethe-Handbuch" des Metzler Verlages ist abgeschlossen : Literaturkritik.de".
  2. http://www.lochmann-verlag.com/neueperspektivenzurgoetheforschung.pdf [ bare URL PDF ]
  3. Goethe: Die Schriften zur Naturwissenschaft. (Im Auftrage der Deutschen Akademie der Naturforscher Leopoldina begründet von Karl Lothar Wolf  [ de ] und Wilhelm Troll.) Vollständige, mit Erläuterungen versehene Ausgabe von Dorothea Kuhn  [ de ], Wolf von Engelhardt u. Irmgard Müller. Böhlau-Verlag, Weimar 1947ff., ISBN   3-7400-0024-4.URL Archived 2001-02-19 at the Wayback Machine