Goethe (1749-1832), was a German writer universally acknowledged to be one of the giants of world literature. He was also an outstanding critic, journalist, statesman and natural philosopher

Collected by Zia H Shah MD, Chief Editor of the Muslim Times

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (/ˈɡɜːrtə/;^[1][2][3] German: [ˈjoːhan ˈvɔlfɡaŋ fɔn ˈɡøːtə] ( listen); 28 August 1749 – 22 March 1832) was a German writer and statesman. His body of work includes epic and lyric poetry written in a variety of metres and styles; prose and verse dramas; memoirs; an autobiography; literary and aesthetic criticism; treatises on botany, anatomy, and colour; and four novels. In addition, numerous literary and scientific fragments, more than 10,000 letters, and nearly 3,000 drawings by him exist.

Suggested Reading:Professor Emeritus Katharina Mommsen: ‘Goethe – The Muslim’

A literary celebrity by the age of 25, Goethe was ennobled by the Duke of Saxe-Weimar, Carl August in 1782 after taking up residence there in November 1775 following the success of his first novel, The Sorrows of Young Werther. He was an early participant in the Sturm und Drang literary movement. During his first ten years in Weimar, Goethe was a member of the Duke’s privy council, sat on the war and highway commissions, oversaw the reopening of silver mines in nearby Ilmenau, and implemented a series of administrative reforms at the University of Jena. He also contributed to the planning of Weimar’s botanical park and the rebuilding of its Ducal Palace, which in 1998 were together designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site.^[4]

His first major scientific work, the Metamorphosis of Plants, was published after he returned from a 1788 tour of Italy. In 1791, he was made managing director of the theatre at Weimar, and in 1794 he began a friendship with the dramatist, historian, and philosopher Friedrich Schiller, whose plays he premiered until Schiller’s death in 1805. During this period, Goethe published his second novel, Wilhelm Meister’s Apprenticeship, the verse epic Hermann and Dorothea, and, in 1808, the first part of his most celebrated drama, Faust.

Additional Reading

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Quotes – BrainyQuote

Integrating Europe’s Muslims – Javier Solana

Islam in Germany and France: A Collection of Articles