'Vermächtnis'

‘Vermächtnis’, a poem written by Goethe in 1829 and first printed with Wilhelm Meisters Wanderjahre in 1829. The poem takes as its point of departure the last two lines of ‘Eins und Alles’, written eight years earlier: ‘Denn alles muß in Nichts zerfallen, /Wenn es im Sein beharren will’. These lines had been lifted out of context at a scientific conference, and Goethe felt impelled to write a further poem beginning: ‘Kein Wesen kann zu Nichts zerfallen!/Das Ew'ge regt sich fort in allen’.

‘Vermächtnis’ justifies the role of the individual in the scheme of things. The title is to be understood as a repository of wisdom bequeathed by the octogenarian poet.