His parents were citizens of that imperial town and Wolfgang was their only son.
Between 1752 and 1765, he was privately educated. He has tutors in French, Hebrew, Italia and English. His early reading includes the poetry of Klopstock, Homer in translation, the Bible and French Classical dramatists.
During the romantic era, Wolfgang von Goethe was also a scientist and philosopher of science, as well as a friend and intellectual colleague of leading German scientist, including Alexander von Humboldt.
He was a scientist and patron of science and technology, with notably publications in anatomy, botany and chromatics.
He is most remembered for his work in optics, in which he attempted unsuccessfully to dethrone Newton’s theory of the composition of white light from rays of colored light.
In his late years he was celebrated as a sage and visited by world luminaries. The greatest figure of German Romanticism, he is regarded as a giant of world literature.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832)
