The Autobiography of Goethe: Relating to My Life

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe was a German poet, dramatist, writer, scientist, statesman, theatre director, and critic who lived from 28 August 1749 to 22 March 1832. In addition to treatises on botany, anatomy, and color, his writings also contain plays, poetry, literary criticism, and aesthetic works. The Metamorphosis of Plants, Goethe's first significant scientific publication, was released in 1788. He was appointed managing director of the Weimar theatre in 1791. On August 20, 1748, in Frankfurt, Johann Caspar married Catharina Elisabeth Textor, the mother of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. Except for Johann Wolfgang and his sister Cornelia Friederica Christiana (born in 1750), all of their children died at a young age. Johann Caspar Goethe, an Imperial Councillor and law professor, was Goethe's father. From 1765 to 1768, Goethe attended Leipzig University to study law. He published Annette, his first book of poems, under a pseudonym in 1770. Goethe graduated from Strasbourg Law School in 1771 and was awarded the Licentiate of Law degree. He resumed his legal career in Wetzlar in 1772. When The Sorrows of Young Werther was released in 1774, it made him famous all over the world. Goethe died at Weimar in 1832, ostensibly from heart failure. He is interred in Weimar's Historical Cemetery in the Ducal Vault.