Letters, by E. Bell (1884). The chief collections of Goethe’s
conversations are: J. P. Eckermann, Gespräche mit Goethe (1836;
vol. iii., also containing conversations with Soret, 1848; 7th ed. by
H. Düntzer, 1899; also new edition by L. Geiger, 1902; English
translation by J. Oxenford, 1850). The complete conversations
with Soret have been published in German translation by C. A. H.
Burkhardt (1905); Goethes Unterhaltungen mit dem Kanzler F. von
Müller (1870). Goethe’s collected Gespräche were published by
W. von Biedermann in 10 vols. (1889–1896).
(b) Biography.—Goethe’s autobiography, Aus meinem Leben: Dichtung und Wahrheit, appeared in three parts between 1811 and 1814, a fourth part, bringing the history of his life as far as his departure for Weimar in 1775, in 1833 (English translation by J. Oxenford, 1846); it is supplemented by other biographical writings, as the Italienische Reise, Aus einer Reise in die Schweiz im Jahre 1797; Aus einer Reise am Rhein, Main und Neckar in den Jahren 1814 und 1815, Tag- und Jahreshefte, &c., and especially by his diaries and correspondence. The following are the more important biographies: H. Döring, Goethes Leben (1828; subsequent editions, 1833, 1849, 1856); H. Viehoff, Goethes Leben (4 vols., 1847–1854; 5th ed., 1887); J. W. Schäfer, Goethes Leben (2 vols., 1851; 3rd ed., 1877); G. H. Lewes, The Life and Works of Goethe (2 vols., 1855; 2nd ed., 1864; 3rd ed., 1875; cheap reprint, 1906; the German translation by J. Frese is in its 18th edition, 1900; a shorter biography was published by Lewes in 1873 under the title The Story of Goethe’s Life); W. Mézières, W. Goethe, les œuvres expliquées par la vie (1872–1873); A. Bossert, Goethe (1872–1873); K. Goedeke, Goethes Leben und Schriften (1874; 2nd ed., 1877); H. Grimm, Goethe: Vorlesungen (1876; 8th ed., 1903; English translation, 1880); A. Hayward, Goethe (1878); H. H. Boyesen, Goethe and Schiller, their Lives and Works (1879); H. Düntzer, Goethes Leben (1880; 2nd ed., 1883; English translation, 1883); A. Baumgartner, Goethe, sein Leben und seine Werke (1885); J. Sime, Life of Goethe (1888); K. Heinemann, Goethes Leben und Werke (1889; 3rd ed., 1903); R. M. Meyer, Goethe (1894; 3rd ed., 1904); A. Bielschowsky, Goethe, sein Leben und seine Werke (vol. i., 1895; 5th ed., 1904; vol. ii., 1903; English translation by W. A. Cooper, 1905 ff.); G. Witkowsky, Goethe (1899); H. G. Atkins, J. W. Goethe (1904); P. Hansen and R. Meyer, Goethe, hans Liv og Vaerker (1906).
Of writings on special periods and aspects of Goethe’s life the more important are as follows (the titles are arranged as far as possible in the chronological sequence of the poet’s life): H. Düntzer, Goethes Stammbaum (1894); K. Heinemann, Goethes Mutter (1891; 6th ed., 1900); P. Bastier, La Mère de Goethe (1902); Briefe der Frau Rat (2 vols., 2nd ed., 1905); F. Ewart, Goethes Vater (1899); G. Witkowski, Cornelia die Schwester Goethes (1903); P. Besson, Goethe, sa sœur et ses amies (1898); H. Düntzer, Frauenbilder aus Goethes Jugendzeit (1852); W. von Biedermann, Goethe und Leipzig (1865); P. F. Lucius, Friederike Brion (1878; 3rd ed., 1904); A. Bielschowsky, Friederike Brion (1880); F. E. von Durckheim, Lili’s Bild geschichtlich entworfen (1879; 2nd ed., 1894); W. Herbst, Goethe in Wetzlar (1881); A. Diezmann, Goethe und die lustige Zeit in Weimar (1857; 2nd ed., 1901); H. Düntzer, Goethe und Karl August (1859–1864; 2nd ed., 1888); also, by the same author, Aus Goethes Freundeskreise (1868) and Charlotte von Stein (2 vols., 1874); J. Haarhuus, Auf Goethes Spuren in Italien (1896–1898); O. Harnack, Zur Nachgeschichte der italienischen Reise (1890); H. Grimm, Schiller und Goethe (Essays, 1858; 3rd ed., 1884); G. Berlit, Goethe und Schiller im persönlichen Verkehre, nach brieflichen Mitteilungen von H. Voss (1895); E. Pasqué, Goethes Theaterleitung in Weimar (2 vols., 1863); C. A. H. Burkhards, Das Repertoire des weimarischen Theaters unter Goethes Leitung (1891); J. Wahle, Das Weimarer Hoftheater unter Goethes Leitung (1892); O. Harnack, Goethe in der Epoche seiner Vollendung (2nd ed., 1901); J. Barbey d’Aurevilly, Goethe et Diderot (1880); A Fischer, Goethe und Napoleon (1899; 2nd ed., 1900); R. Steig, Goethe und die Gebrüder Grimm (1892).
(c) Criticism.—H. G. Graef, Goethe über seine Dichtungen (1901 ff.); J. W. Braun, Goethe im Urteile seiner Zeitgenossen (3 vols., 1883–1885); T. Carlyle, Essays on Goethe (1828–1832); X. Marmier, Études sur Goethe (1835); W. von Biedermann, Goethe-Forschungen (1879, 1886); J. Minor and A. Sauer, Studien zur Goethe-Philologie (1880); H. Düntzer, Abhandlungen zu Goethes Leben und Werken (1881); A. Schöll, Goethe in Hauptzügen seines Lebens und Wirkens (1882); V. Hehn, Gedanken über Goethe (1884; 4th ed., 1900); W. Scherer, Aufsätze über Goethe (1886); J. R. Seeley, Goethe reviewed after Sixty Years (1894); E. Dowden, New Studies in Literature (1895); É. Rod, Essai sur Goethe (1898); A. Luther, Goethe, sechs Vorträge (1905); R. Saitschik, Goethes Charakter (1898); W. Bode, Goethes Lebenskunst (1900; 2nd ed., 1902); by the same, Goethes Ästhetik (1901); T. Vollbehr, Goethe und die bildende Kunst (1895); E. Lichtenberger, Études sur les poésies lyriques de Goethe (1878); T. Achelis, Grundzüge der Lyrik Goethes (1900); B. Litzmann, Goethes Lyrik (1903); R. Riemann, Goethes Romantechnik (1901); R. Virchow, Goethe als Naturforscher (1861); E. Caro, La Philosophie de Goethe (1866; 2nd ed., 1870); R. Steiner, Goethes Weltanschauung (1897); F. Siebeck, Goethe als Denker (1902); F. Baldensperger, Goethe en France (1904); S. Waetzoldt, Goethe und die Romantik (1888).
More special treatises dealing with individual works are the following: W. Scherer, Aus Goethes Frühzeit (1879); R. Weissenfels, Goethe in Sturm und Drang, vol. i. (1894); W. Wilmanns, Quellenstudien zu Goethes Götz von Berlichingen (1874); J. Baechtold, Goethes Götz von Berlichingen in dreifacher Gestalt (1882); J. W. Appell, Werther und seine Zeit (1855; 4th ed., 1896); E. Schmidt, Richardson, Rousseau und Goethe (1875); M. Herrmann, Das Jahrmarktsfest zu Plundersweilen (1900); E. Schmidt, Goethes Faust in ursprünglicher Gestalt (1887; 5th ed., 1901); J. Collin, Goethes Faust in seiner ältesten Gestalt (1896); H. Hettner, Goethes Iphigenie in ihrem Verhältnis zur Bildungsgeschichte des Dichters (1861; in Kleine Schriften, 1884); K. Fischer, Goethes Iphigenie (1888); F. T. Bratranek, Goethes Egmont und Schillers Wallenstein (1862); C. Schuchardt, Goethes italienische Reise (1862); H. Düntzer, Iphigenie auf Tauris; die drei ältesten Bearbeitungen (1854); F. Kern, Goethes Tasso (1890); J. Schubart, Die philosophischen Grundgedanken in Goethes Wilhelm Meister (1896); E. Boas, Schiller und Goethe in Xenienkampf (1851); E. Schmidt and B. Suphan, Xenien 1796, nach den Handschriften (1893); W. von Humboldt, Ästhetische Versuche: Hermann und Dorothea (1799); V. Hehn, Über Goethes Hermann und Dorothea (1893); A. Fries, Quellen und Komposition der Achilleis (1901); K. Alt, Studien zur Entstehungsgeschichte von Dichtung und Wahrheit (1898); A. Jung, Goethes Wanderjahre und die wichtigsten Fragen des 19. Jahrhunderts (1854); F. Kreyssig, Vorlesungen über Goethes Faust (1866); the editions of Faust by G. von Loeper (2 vols., 1879), and K. J. Schröer (2 vols., 3rd and 4th ed., 1898–1903); K. Fischer, Goethes Faust (3 vols., 1893, 1902, 1903); O. Pniower, Goethes Faust, Zeugnisse und Excurse zu seiner Entstehungsgeschichte (1899); J. Minor, Goethes Faust, Entstehungsgeschichte und Erklärung (2 vols., 1901).
(d) Bibliographical Works, Goethe-Societies, &c.—L. Unflad, Die Goethe-Literatur in Deutschland (1878); S. Hirzel, Verzeichnis einer Goethe-Bibliothek (1884), to which G. von Loeper and W. von Biedermann have supplied supplements. F. Strehlke, Goethes Briefe: Verzeichnis unter Angabe der Quelle (1882–1884); British Museum Catalogue of Printed Books: Goethe (1888); Goedeke’s Grundriss zur Geschichte der deutschen Dichtung (2nd ed., vol. iv. 1891); and the bibliographies in the Goethe-Jahrbuch (since 1880). Also K. Hoyer, Zur Einführung in die Goethe-Literatur (1904). On Goethe in England see E. Oswald, Goethe in England and America (1899; 2nd ed., 1909); W. Heinemann, A Bibliographical List of the English Translations and Annotated Editions of Goethe’s Faust (1886). Reference may also be made here to F. Zarncke’s Verzeichnis der Originalaufnahmen von Goethes Bildnissen (1888).
A Goethe-Gesellschaft was founded at Weimar in 1885, and numbers over 2800 members; its publications include the annual Goethe-Jahrbuch (since 1880), and a series of Goethe-Schriften. A Goethe-Verein has existed in Vienna since 1887, and an English Goethe society, which has also issued several volumes of publications, since 1886. (J. G. R.)
Goethe’s Descendants.—Goethe’s only son, August, born on the 25th of December 1789 at Weimar, married in 1817 Ottilie von Pogwisch (1796–1872), who had come as a child to Weimar with her mother (née Countess Henckel von Donnersmarck). The marriage was a very unhappy one, the husband having no qualities that could appeal to a woman who, whatever the censorious might say of her moral character, was distinguished to the last by a lively intellect and a singular charm. August von Goethe, whose sole distinction was his birth and his position as grand-ducal chamberlain, died in Italy, on the 27th of October 1830, leaving three children: Walther Wolfgang, born on April 9, 1818, died on April 15, 1885; Wolfgang Maximilian, born on September 18, 1820, died on January 20, 1883; Alma, born on October 22, 1827, died on September 29, 1844.
Of Walther von Goethe little need be said. In youth he had musical ambitions, studied under Mendelssohn and Weinlig at Leipzig, under Loewe at Stettin, and afterwards at Vienna. He published a few songs of no great merit, and had at his death no more than the reputation among his friends of a kindly and accomplished man.
Wolfgang or, as he was familiarly called, Wolf von Goethe, was by far the more gifted of the two brothers, and his gloomy destiny by so much the more tragic. A sensitive and highly imaginative boy, he was the favourite of his grandfather, who made him his constant companion. This fact, instead of being to the boy’s advantage, was to prove his bane. The exalted atmosphere of the great man’s ideas was too rarefied for the child’s intellectual health, and a brain well fitted to do excellent work in the world was ruined by the effort to live up to an impossible ideal. To maintain himself on the same height as his grandfather, and to make the name of Goethe illustrious in his descendants also, became Wolfgang’s ambition; and his incapacity to realize this, very soon borne in upon him, paralyzed
