III.

Goethe in Weimar

The year 1775 was important for Goethe and for the literary history of Germany. In that year Charles Augustus, heir apparent to the duchy of Saxe-Weimar, invited Goethe to live and work in Weimar, its capital, at that time one of the intellectual and literary centres of Germany. From 1775 to the year of his death Goethe resided in Weimar, and from there his influence as a writer spread throughout Germany. The first ten years of his connection with the court of Weimar were for him a period of intellectual development rather than of literary production. Through association at Weimar with Herder and the writer Christoph Martin Wieland, and through his friendship with Charlotte von Stein, the wife of a Weimar official and a woman of great charm and talent, Goethe's intellectual life was broadened. Experience in public office, which included service in important posts in the Weimar government as well as a term of office as privy counsellor, gave Goethe an extensive knowledge of practical affairs. In addition he continued his work in science, studying mineralogy, geology, and osteology (the study of bones). He wrote little during the first ten years of his stay at Weimar, except for some notable poems inspired by Charlotte von Stein, including the lyric “Wanderers Nachtlied” (Wanderer's Night Song) and the ballad “Der Erlkönig” (The King of the Elves). He began the composition of some of his best-known works, including the prose drama Iphigenia in Tauris (1787; trans. 1793) and the character dramas Egmont and Faust, all of which he altered as a result of the next important event of his life, his visit to Italy from 1786 to 1788.