The 150th anniversary of Goethe's birth in the year 1999 is taken here as an occasion for reviewing the achievements of modern-day Goethe studies and focussing on the future tasks to be accomplished in this field. Chief among the latter are critical discussion of the major scholarly Goethe editions from Frankfurt and Munich, as well as the question of a fundamental updating of the Weimar edition of Goethe's works. Within this grand design, the projects of the Goethe and Schiller Archives (inventory of Goethe's nachlass, completion of the edition of letters addressed to Goethe, edition of Goethe's diaries and letters) play a central role.