Goethe - Top Ten World Writers

Author: Tong Yiqiu
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2006-08-01
Features:
1. The Beginning of a Giant
On August 28, 1749, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe was born in Frankfurt, a city on the Rhine River in central Germany. Under the care of his parents, the young Goethe grew up. The rich cultural atmosphere of the family left a deep impression on the young Goethe. Goethe's father did not ostentatious appearances for their home but devoted a great deal of effort to arranging his library and equipping a gallery to display works by contemporary artists. The elder Goethe traveled extensively around the world, and souvenirs and local products from various places adorned the rooms and spacious, bright hall of their home. In this small museum and art exhibition, what attracted Goethe was a set of Roman landscape paintings in the style of Piranesi. This world-famous Italian etcher, archaeologist, and architect used strong contrasts between black and white and exquisite modeling techniques to depict grand ancient and Baroque architectural complexes. Goethe lingered for a long time amidst the treasures of culture and art, gradually cultivating his extraordinary artistic temperament.
According to the conventions of all upper-class families at the time, Goethe received meticulous home education from a very young age. He had excellent tutors who placed particular emphasis on the study of humanities. He demonstrated remarkable understanding of Latin and Greek. Once, when he was only eight years old, the boy proudly noted in his exercise book that the Latin exercises for the highest year of the classical secondary school were copied and translated by him. After completing the study of ancient languages, he began learning French, English, and Italian, and later Hebrew. At the age of 10, he started reading works by Aesop, Homer, Virgil, and Ovid, "One Thousand and One Nights," Defoe's "Robinson Crusoe," and Schnabel's "The Island of the Stone Fortress." He also read German folk tales, such as "Oierenspiegel," "Doctor Faust," "The Beautiful Malony," "Fortunatus," and "The Wandering Jew."
In addition to reading and studying, major social events deeply shook the young Goethe. On November 1, 1755, a major earthquake struck Lisbon, one of the greatest natural disasters of the 18th century, which had a profound impact on Goethe's spiritual development. For the first time, Goethe witnessed the terrifying power of nature's wrath so swiftly and violently, leading him to doubt the benevolence of God, the creator and maintainer of the heavens and the earth. The God in the Bible was so wise and merciful, yet in the earthquake, he allowed both good and evil people to perish without showing the least bit of a fatherly heart. From then on, Goethe's religious beliefs began to waver.
In 1756, the Seven Years' War broke out between Prussia and Austria. After the Lisbon earthquake, when Goethe was six years old, he began to doubt God's benevolence. Now, he also began to doubt the public's sense of justice. Goethe was naturally inclined to respect others, but now his belief in something worth respecting was shaken, showing the great impact of the Prussian-Austrian War on him. He had always believed that those who demanded proper conduct and behavior were also upright people, but the reality was the opposite: the greatest and most glorious achievements were often slandered and opposed, while noble acts, even if not denied, were at least distorted and belittled, and such base behavior often came from the upper class. Small incidents of political relationships, which were common in the upper echelons, often led to deep reflections on his part. During the French occupation of Frankfurt, Goethe began to write poetry, and starting in January 1759, he wrote a large number of poems with ease. P1-2