Johann Wolfgan von Goethe was born August 28, 1749 in Frankfort Germany. A lot is known about his early years from the autobiography he wrote later in his life, From My Life: Poetry and Truth.

In his writings, Goethe was trying to understand his own life. And at the same time hoping to help others understand theirs.

Goethe found fame as a writer at the age of twenty-five when his novel The Sorrows of Young Werther was published in 1774. With this novel he became the best-known German writer across Europe.

Remembered and known as a literary genius Goethe's writings are still meaningful today. Ranging from the poetical to the philosophical his insights are still useful to the reader today. One can still grow through the insight and depth into the human condition Goethe saw, wrote about, and shared with his readers.

Goethe became famous with The Sorrows of Young Werther, but his most famous literary work was Faust, a two-part poetic drama. Goethe worked most of his life on Faust beginning it at the age of twenty-three and finishing part two of it just before his death.

He died March 22, 1832 in Weimar, Germany. He is buried with Schiller (who died a quarter of a century earlier) in a mausoleum in the ducal cemetery. The statues of these two literary giants stand outside the National Theatre.