Dichtung und Wahrheit

Dichtung und Wahrheit, form in which the title of Goethe's autobiography Aus meinem Leben. Dichtung und Wahrheit is usually quoted. It deals with Goethe's early life up to his departure for Weimar in November 1775. It is divided into twenty numbered Books, which are grouped in four Parts, each of five Books. Part One, written 1810-11, was published in 1811; Part Two, written 1811-12, followed in 1812; Part Three, written 1812-14, appeared in 1814; Part Four is a later contribution, written 1824-31 and published posthumously in Nachgelassene Werke, vol. 8, 1833.

The contents of the four Books, briefly summarized, are as follows: Pt. I, Bk. 1: Birth, ancestry, parentage, early impressions (including the marionette theatre—Puppentheater—and the Lisbon earthquake of 1755), Frankfurt, and the paternal house. Bk. 2: Experiences of childhood, including further parental details, and the outbreak of the Seven Years War (see Siebenjähriger Krieg). Bk. 3: The requisitioning of part of the house for the French military commandant, Count Thoranc, the clash between the Count and Goethe's father, and an account of watching artists at work in the house. Bk. 4: Boyhood, with language study and theological comments, and an account of Goethe's earliest attempts at writing. Bk. 5: Account of the coronation of the Emperor Joseph II in Frankfurt, and Goethe's first love-affair (see Gretchen, Frankfurter).

Pt. II, Bk. 6: Youth, including early impressions of Leipzig University. Bk. 7: A review of German literature of the 18th c. up to the 1760s, Goethe's love-affair with Käthchen Schönkopf, and the writing of Die13 Laune des Verliebten and Die Mitschuldigen. Bk. 8: Goethe's early artistic interests, his illness and return home, consequent tension in the family, and the influence of Fräulein von Klettenberg. Bk. 9: Strasburg University, the experience of Gothic architecture, the passage of the Archduchess Maria Antoinette (the future Queen of France) through Strasburg. Bk. 10: Klopstock, Gleim, and Goethe's contact with Herder, Goethe's initial interest in Götz von Berlichingen and Faust, and his love for Friederike Brion.

Pt. III, Bk. 11: Continuation of the relationship with Friederike and Goethe's return to Frankfurt. Bk. 12: The end of the love-affair, the months at Wetzlar, with Goethe's love for Charlotte Buff. Bk. 13: Review of German drama in the 1770s, Götz von Berlichingen, Die Leiden des jungen Werthers. Bk. 14: Sturm und Drang, J. M. R. Lenz, H. L. Wagner, F. M. Klinger, Lavater, Merck, Basedow, and F. H. Jacobi's interest in Spinoza, and the plan for a play about Mahomet. Bk. 15: Preoccupation with the Wandering Jew (see Ewiger Jude) and with Prometheus, visit of Duke Karl August of Sachsen-Weimar, Clavigo.

Pt. IV, Bk. 16: Influence of Spinoza, first meeting with Lili Schönemann, Jung-Stilling (see Jung, H.). Bk. 17: Engagement to Lili Schönemann. Bk. 18: Beginning of the Swiss journey with the brothers Stolberg, Karlsruhe, further meeting with Karl August, Zurich, walking in the Alps. Bk. 19: Alpine tour, including St Gotthard, parting from Stolbergs, return to Frankfurt and Lili Schönemann, latent conflicts. Bk. 20: Work on Egmont, end of engagement, invitation to Weimar, crucial passage on ‘das Dämonische’, apparent failure of Weimar to proceed with invitation, Goethe's departure for Italy, arrival of the belated envoy from Weimar.

Goethe's ambiguous title indicates that his autobiography is a stylized formulation and presentation of his early life, not an exact record. Forty years separate even the latest of the events from the time of writing. Remoteness enabled the recollections to be presented as a rounded and consistent whole with the qualities of a work of literary art.

Goethe used the title Aus meinem Leben (omitting ‘Dichtung und Wahrheit’) for the first publication of the Campagne in Frankreich and Die Belagerung von Mainz, which he regarded as the Fifth Part (1822), and for his Italienische Reise, vols. 1 and 2, which appeared as Second Section (Abteilung), First and Second Parts (1816-17). The Third Part of this section of Aus meinem Leben was published as vol. 29 of the Ausgabe letzter Hand, and described as Zweyter Aufenthalt in Rom (1829). Other autobiographical works by Goethe are the Sankt-Rochus-Fest zu Bingen (1817) and the Annalen or Tag- und- Jahreshefte (Ausgabe letzter Hand, vols. 31 and 32, 1830).

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