Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Das Drama der Deutschen (the drama of the Germans), written in two parts published decades apart, would stand as his most characteristic and famous artistic creation. Followers of the twentieth-century esotericist Rudolf Steiner built a theatre named the Goetheanum after him—where festival performances of Faust are still performed.

Goethe was also a cultural force. During his first meeting with Napoleon in 1808, the latter famously remarked: "Vous êtes un homme (You are a man)!"^[93] The two discussed politics, the writings of Voltaire, and Goethe's Sorrows of Young Werther, which Napoleon had read seven times and ranked among his favorites.^[94][95] Goethe came away from the meeting deeply impressed with Napoleon's enlightened intellect and his efforts to build an alternative to the corrupt old regime.^[94][96] Goethe always spoke of Napoleon with the greatest respect, confessing that "nothing higher and more pleasing could have happened to me in all my life" than to have met Napoleon in person.^[97]

Germaine de Staël, in De l'Allemagne (1813), presented German Classicism and Romanticism as a potential source of spiritual authority for Europe, and identified Goethe as a living classic.^[98] She praised Goethe as possessing "the chief characteristics of the German genius" and uniting "all that distinguishes the German mind."^[98] Staël's portrayal helped elevate Goethe over his more famous German contemporaries and transformed him into a European cultural hero.^[98] Goethe met with her and her partner Benjamin Constant, with whom he shared a mutual admiration.^[99]

In Victorian England, Goethe exerted a profound influence on George Eliot, whose partner George Henry Lewes wrote a Life of Goethe.^[100] Eliot presented Goethe as "eminently the man who helps us to rise to a lofty point of observation" and praised his "large tolerance", which "quietly follows the stream of fact and of life" without passing moral judgments.^[100] Matthew Arnold found in Goethe the "Physician of the Iron Age" and "the clearest, the largest, the most helpful thinker of modern times" with a "large, liberal view of life."^[101]

Goethe memorial in front of the Alte Handelsbörse, Leipzig

It was to a considerable degree due to Goethe's reputation that the city of Weimar was chosen in 1919 as the venue for the national assembly, convened to draft a new constitution for what would become known as Germany's Weimar Republic. Goethe became a key reference for Thomas Mann in his speeches and essays defending the republic.^[102] He emphasized Goethe's "cultural and self-developing individualism", humanism, and cosmopolitanism.^[102]

The Federal Republic of Germany's cultural institution, the Goethe-Institut, is named after him, and promotes the study of German abroad and fosters knowledge about Germany by providing information on its culture, society and politics.

The literary estate of Goethe in the Goethe and Schiller Archives was inscribed on UNESCO's Memory of the World Register in 2001 in recognition of its historical significance.^[103]

Goethe's influence was dramatic because he understood that there was a transition in European sensibilities, an increasing focus on sense, the indescribable, and the emotional. This is not to say that he was emotionalistic or excessive; on the contrary, he lauded personal restraint and felt that excess was a disease: "There is nothing worse than imagination without taste". Goethe praised Francis Bacon for his advocacy of science based on experiment and his forceful revolution in thought as one of the greatest strides forward in modern science.^[104] However, he was critical of Bacon's inductive method and approach based on pure classification.^[105] He said in Scientific Studies:

We conceive of the individual animal as a small world, existing for its own sake, by its own means. Every creature is its own reason to be. All its parts have a direct effect on one another, a relationship to one another, thereby constantly renewing the circle of life; thus we are justified in considering every animal physiologically perfect. Viewed from within, no part of the animal is a useless or arbitrary product of the formative impulse (as so often thought). Externally, some parts may seem useless because the inner coherence of the animal nature has given them this form without regard to outer circumstance. Thus...[not] the question, What are they for? but rather, Where do they come from?^[106]

Schiller, Alexander and Wilhelm von Humboldt, and Goethe in Jena, c. 1797

Goethe's scientific and aesthetic ideas have much in common with Denis Diderot, whose work he translated and studied.^[107][108] Both Diderot and Goethe exhibited a repugnance towards the mathematical interpretation of nature; both perceived the universe as dynamic and in constant flux; both saw "art and science as compatible disciplines linked by common imaginative processes"; and both grasped "the unconscious impulses underlying mental creation in all forms."^[107][108] Goethe's Naturanschauer is in many ways a sequel to Diderot's interprète de la nature.^[108]

His views make him, along with Adam Smith, Thomas Jefferson, and Ludwig van Beethoven, a figure in two worlds: on the one hand, devoted to the sense of taste, order, and finely crafted detail, which is the hallmark of the artistic sense of the Age of Reason and the neo-classical period of architecture; on the other, seeking a personal, intuitive, and personalized form of expression and society, firmly supporting the idea of self-regulating and organic systems. George Henry Lewes celebrated Goethe's revolutionary understanding of the organism.^[107]

Thinkers such as Ralph Waldo Emerson would take up many similar ideas in the 1800s. Goethe's ideas on evolution would frame the question that Darwin and Wallace would approach within the scientific paradigm. The Serbian inventor and electrical engineer Nikola Tesla was heavily influenced by Goethe's Faust, his favorite poem, and had actually memorized the entire text. It was while reciting a certain verse that he was struck with the epiphany that would lead to the idea of the rotating magnetic field and ultimately, alternating current

Hallo Leute!

Das ist doch mal ein Topic nach meinem Geschmack. Für mich ist Musik wirklich sehr sehr wichtig. Ohne Musik könnte ich einfach nicht leben, es wäre Alles trostlos und langweilig...

Musik beeinflusst mein Leben in zweierlei Hinsicht. Einerseits brauche ich Musik zum Hören, zum Entspannen und zum Abreagieren wenn mal wieder alles schief läuft. Dabei bin ich vielen Stilrichtungen aufgeschlossen, solange es handwerklich gute Musik ist. Für mich ist Rock, Hard Rock, Heavy Metal, Nu Metal, Punk, Grunge und Crossover ein absoluter Hochgenuss. Dass es Perlen in diesen ganzen Stilrichtungen gibt, dürfte jedem bekannt sein, der sich intensiver mit Rock und Metal beschäftigt.

Was ich allerdings absolut nicht leiden kann, sind Techno und Hip Hop. Ich habe nichts gegen Leute, die diese Sachen hören, aber ich finde es absolut bescheiden, dass hirnlose Rapper andauernd über Geld, Chicks und Autos rappen und sich in ihren Musikvideos mit herumwirbelnden Geldscheinen und Silikontrophäen selbst produzieren. Genauso verhält es sich für mich mit Techno, Trance und wie das ganze Zeug noch so heißt. Damit kann ich einfach nichts anfangen, dieser schrille Computer Lärm ist doch keine Musik mehr! :wink: Aber zum Glück ist Musik ja Geschmackssache! :dodo:

Auch wenn ich eher die etwas härtere Gangart bevorzuge, bin ich aber auch durchaus von softerer Musik sehr angetan. Erwähnt wurde hier schon der "Eiskalte Engel" - Soundtrack. Ebenfalls sehr schöne Lieder kann man während "Dawson's Creek" hören... Spanische Musik ala "Soraya" ist sehr geil, die Sachen von Phil Collins, Genesis, Bruce Springsteen, Bryan Adams oder Mark Knopfler sind auch immer wieder hörenswert. Herbert Grönemeyer ist ebenfalls ganz groß.

Wie gesagt, ich kann mit allem was ausfangen, höre auch gerne mal Klassik oder Scores bekannter Filme... es darf nur kein Hip Hop oder Techno sein! :wink:

Der zweite Punkt, warum ich Musik brauche ist die Tatsache, dass ich damit viele Emotionen und Erinnerungen verbinde und zusätzlich auch noch in meiner eigenen Band als Schlagzeuger akitv Musik selber mache. Hätte ich dieses Ventil nicht und könnte ich mich nicht 1 - 2 mal die Woche mit meiner Band Stundenlang im Proberaum austoben, würde mir es wahrscheinlich kaum so gut gehen... :D

Hello guys!

This is a topic to my taste. For me, music is really very important. Without music I simply could not live, it would all be dreary and boring...

Music influences my life in two ways. On the one hand, I need music to Listen to, to Relax and to React when everything goes wrong. I am open to many styles, as long as it is good music. For me rock, hard rock, heavy metal, nu metal, punk, grunge and crossover is an absolute delight. That there are pearls in all these styles, should be known to everyone who is more intensively engaged with rock and metal.

But what I absolutely don't like is techno and hip hop. I don't mind people hearing these things, but I find it absolutely humbling that brainless rappers keep rapping about money, chicks and cars and producing themselves in their music videos with swirling bills and silicone trophies. It's the same for me with techno, trance and all that stuff. I just can't do anything with it, this shrill computer noise is not music anymore! : wink: But luckily music is a matter of taste! :Dodo:

Although I prefer the slightly harder gait, I am also very fond of softer music. The "Ice - cold Angel" soundtrack was already mentioned here. Also very nice songs can be heard during "Dawson's Creek"... Spanish music ala "Soraya" is very cool, the stuff of Phil Collins, Genesis, Bruce Springsteen, Bryan Adams or Mark Knopfler are also worth listening to again and again. Herbert Grönemeyer is also very tall.

As I said, I can do with anything, I also like to listen to classics or scores of well-known films... it just can't be hip hop or techno! :wink:

The second point, why I need music is the fact, that I connect many emotions and memories with it and also make music myself in my own band as drummer akitv. If I didn't have this valve and couldn't let off steam with my band for hours in the rehearsal room once or twice a week, I probably wouldn't be doing so well... :D

Musik zu hören bedeutet mir sehr viel. Ich mag eigentlich jede Musik-Richtung. Es muss mir einfach gefallen. Dabei spielt es keine Rolle, ob es Techno, Trance, R&B, Punk, Nu-Metal, Pop, Oldies (v.a. 80's) oder sonst was ist. Es muss einfach ins Ohr gehen. Ich bin froh, nicht an eine handvoll Stile gebunden zu sein. Gerade für Achtziger-Musik habe ich sehr viel übrig. Daher gefallen mir die OSTs von Labyrinth, Over the Top, Scarface usw. sehr. Ich habe mir erst letztens wieder einen weiteren 80's Sampler gegönnt. Ich verbinde damit einfach viele Kindheits-Erinnerungen von damals. Selbst die dumpfe Techno-Musik der Neunziger kann mich in Erinnerungen schwelgen lassen, wo ich ein Teenager war.

Listening to music means a lot to me. I actually like any music direction. I just have to like it. It doesn't matter if it's techno, trance, R&B, punk, nu-metal, pop, oldies (especially 80's) or anything else. It just has to go in the ear. I'm glad not to be tied to a handful of styles. Especially for eighties music I have a lot left. So I really like the ots of Labyrinth, Over the Top, Scarface etc. I just recently enjoyed another 80's sampler again. I simply associate with it many childhood memories from back then. Even the dull techno music of the nineties can make me revel in memories where I was a teenager.