Trauerspiele von goethe biography

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Biography

Childhood

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832), German poet, dramatist and philosopher, was born at Frankfort-on-Main on the 28th of August 1749, the oldest child of Johann Kaspar and his wife Katharina Elisabeth.

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Of the later children only Cornelia, born in 1750, survived the years of childhood. The best elements in Goethe’s genius came from his mother’s side; of a lively, impulsive disposition, and gifted with remarkable imaginative power, Frau Rat was the ideal mother of a poet; moreover, being hardly eighteen at the time of her son’s birth, she was herself able to be the companion of his childhood.

From his father, whose stern, somewhat pedantic nature repelled warmer feelings on the part of the children, Goethe inherited that “holy earnestness” and stability of character which brought him unscathed through temptations and passions, and held the balance to his all too powerful imagination.