Johann Wolfgang von Goethe



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A seminal figure in German literature, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe also served as the foremost representative of the German Romantic movement. Goethe wrote poems, plays, and novels from the late 1700s to the early 1800s. Goethe’s masterpiece, the poetic drama Faust (first part, 1808; second, 1832), ranks as the pre-eminent version of the famous Faust legend, in which a character sells his immortal soul to the devil in return for knowledge and experience. An actor recites Goethe’s poem, “Wanderers Nachtlied” (“Wanderer’s Nightsong”) in the original German.

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Germany, Federal Republic of; German Literature; Goethe, Johann Wolfgang von; German Language

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