Goethe, Johann Wolfgang von

Goethe, Johann Wolfgang von (1749-1832), German writer and poet.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe wrote stories, plays and poetry.

He was also interested in science and did experiments in anatomy and chemistry. Yet he was trained as a lawyer and for ten years acted as an assistant to the Duke of Saxe-Weimar.

His first novel, The Sorrows of Young Werther, made Goethe famous at the age of twenty-five.

His poems include some of the finest ever written in any language.

His most famous play is Faust. He worked on this play for sixty years.

In his old age Goethe was looked upon as the greatest man in Germany. Visitors made long journeys to see him and Napoleon went to the trouble of meeting him.