Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
1749 – 1832 German writer, scientist
Germany's greatest writer, author of Faust, and a lifelong Freemason.
- Religion
- Unorthodox; he called himself a non-Christian and leaned toward a Spinozan pantheism that saw the divine in nature.
- Affiliations
- Initiated into the Masonic Lodge Amalia in Weimar on 3 June 1780 and remained an active Freemason for life, marking his fiftieth Masonic year in 1831.
Goethe wrote Faust, the towering drama of a scholar who bargains with the devil, along with novels and lyric poetry that shaped German literature. He also did serious science on plants, color, and anatomy. A committed Freemason for over fifty years, he embodied the union of art and inquiry.
Connections
- ally of Friedrich Schiller — Their close friendship defined German literary classicism.
- ally of Friedrich Schiller — Their friendship and collaboration defined Weimar classicism.