1 - Introduction

Summary

BEFORE WE COME TO detailed consideration of Goethe's literary works, we wish to explore three aspects which combine to constitute what one might call the “Goethe phenomenon.” They are: his life, his thought, and, for want of a better word, his image. All great writers tend to generate in the minds of their readers a sense both of the historical person who wrote the literary works and of the mentality, the creative persona from which these works emanated. Moreover, the thinking of great writers tends to play a role in the cultural (and even, on occasion, socio-political) traditions of their native land. As we shall see, all three propositions apply with particular force to Goethe. As regards the third aspect, his role as an icon within Germany's culture and politics has been both complex and, on occasion, problematic.

To convey a sense of the issues involved, let us begin with a quotation from Friedrich Gundolf's magisterial study of 1916, which is entitled simply Goethe. In the introduction he reflects on and justifies that one-word title in the following terms:

Das nachfolgende Buch ist betitelt “Goethe” ohne weiteren Zusatz. Es ist schon daraus zu entnehmen, worauf es wesentlich ankommt: auf die Darstellung von Goethes gesamter Gestalt, der größten Einheit, worin deutscher Geist sich verkörpert hat.

[This book is entitled “Goethe” pure and simple. From this fact one can gather what essentially it aims to do: to explore the whole entity that is Goethe, the greatest unity in which the German spirit has expressed itself.]

And, a few paragraphs later, we read the following:

Goethe ist das größte verewigte Beispiel der modernen Welt, daß die bildnerische Kraft eines Menschen, mag sie als Instinkt oder als bewußter Wille wirken, den gesamten Umfang seiner Existenz durchdrungen hat.

[Goethe is the greatest and most lasting exemplification in the modern world that the forming energies of a person, whether they express themselves as instinct or as a deliberate act of will, can permeate the full extent of his being.]

Here, Gundolf claims that a particular wholeness and centeredness informs every facet of Goethe's life, experience, thinking, writing. His key terms are “wesentlich,” “gesamte Gestalt,” “größte Einheit,” “deutscher Geist,” “das größte verewigte Beispiel,” “bildnerische Kraft,” “den gesamten Umfang seiner Existenz.” We shall return later to the particular issue of uses (and abuses) of Goethe within German culture.