Weimar and Faust

German Literature

Course 1 · Chapter 5 · Weimar Classicism & Goethe's Faust

In the years around 1800 the small court town of Weimar became a centre of German writing, home to Goethe and, for a decade, Schiller. Their "Weimar Classicism" turned from the storm of the 1770s to balance, form and the idea of the fully developed human being. This chapter looks at the Weimar partnership, at the Bildungsroman and at Goethe's life work Faust, which grew from the legend of Chapter 3 into a two-part drama written over about sixty years. Names and dates are from general knowledge and flagged "check".

Weimar

A small court

Goethe came to Weimar in 1775 at the invitation of the young Duke Karl August and stayed for the rest of his life, serving in the duchy's government as well as writing (check). Herder and later Schiller joined the circle there.

The Italian journey

In 1786 Goethe travelled to Italy for nearly two years (check), and the experience of classical art turned his work towards the ideals of order, clarity and harmony. Plays such as Iphigenie auf Tauris belong to this turn.

Goethe and Schiller

From 1794 the two writers were close friends and collaborators until Schiller's death in 1805 (check). They exchanged letters, criticised each other's work and edited periodicals together. Schiller's late plays include Wallenstein and Wilhelm Tell (1804; check), and his "Ode to Joy" was later set by Beethoven (see German Music).

Weimar Classicism

  • The label. "Weimar Classicism" is a critics' term for roughly 1786 to 1805 (check), and not all the writers' work fits it.
  • The ideals. Harmony of form and content, models from ancient Greece, and the shaping of the whole person (Bildung).
  • Against the extremes. It reacted to both the excesses of Sturm und Drang and the cold rationalism of the Enlightenment (Chapter 4).
  • Overlap with Romanticism. The two movements were contemporary, and the Romantic circle at Jena was often critical of Weimar (Chapter 6; check).

The Bildungsroman

A German form Wilhelm Meisters Lehrjahre (Wilhelm Meister's Apprenticeship, 1795 to 1796) follows a young man from a merchant's family who joins a theatre company and searches for a role in life. It is usually named as the model of the Bildungsroman, a novel of formation in which the hero develops through experience (check; the term itself was applied later). The pattern shaped many later German novels, among them Thomas Mann's The Magic Mountain (Chapter 8).

Faust

Stage (check each)Note
SourceThe Faust book of 1587 (Chapter 3), and Marlowe's English play; Goethe knew the puppet-theatre versions too.
Early draftsThe so-called Urfaust, from the 1770s, includes the story of Gretchen.
Part OnePublished in 1808. Faust, a scholar dissatisfied with learning, makes a wager with Mephistopheles. He seduces Gretchen, who is destroyed.
Part TwoFinished in 1831 and published after Goethe's death in 1832. A larger, stranger, more symbolic drama of politics, classical myth and Faust's last activity.
  • The wager. Faust does not sell his soul for pleasure. He bets that Mephistopheles can never give him a moment so fulfilling that he will want it to last. This differs from the 1587 book's simple pact and warning.
  • The Prologue in Heaven. The play opens with a scene in the manner of the Book of Job, in which God allows the devil to test Faust (check).
  • Redemption. Faust is saved at the end, which departs from the older legend and is much debated (check how the last scene is read).
  • Reading Faust. It is long, uses many verse forms and is hard to translate. Several English versions exist, and choosing one affects what you meet (check which).
A British comparison The nearest British parallel is the way Shakespeare is held to be the national poet, or Milton's Paradise Lost as a poem on the same themes of temptation and free will. Marlowe's Doctor Faustus (about 1592; check) tells the older Faust story as a plain tragedy of damnation, which makes a useful contrast with Goethe.
Check the details Dates, the labels "Weimar Classicism" and "Bildungsroman", and readings of Faust's ending are from general knowledge and are debated. Verify with a literary history and the edition you use, and note that for both parts the translation matters greatly.

Exercises

Exercise 1

Describe the ideals of Weimar Classicism and how they reacted to Sturm und Drang.

→ Solution
Exercise 2

Define the Bildungsroman using Wilhelm Meister, and name one reason to treat the label with caution.

→ Solution
Exercise 3

Compare Goethe's Faust with the Faust book of 1587 in terms of the bargain, the hero's fate and the message.

→ Solution

Quick Reference

  • Weimar: Goethe from 1775, Schiller friendship 1794 to 1805 (check)
  • Ideals: harmony, ancient models, Bildung
  • Novel: Wilhelm Meister, the Bildungsroman model
  • Faust: Part One 1808, Part Two 1832 (check)
  • The caution: labels are later; translations differ widely