Is Goethe the German Shakespeare?

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (28 August 1749 – 22 March 1832) was a German poet, playwright, novelist, scientist, statesman, theatre director, and critic.

Who lived at the same time as Shakespeare?

We regularly stage plays by Shakespeare’s contemporaries – playwrights who lived and worked at the same time as Shakespeare. Writers and playwrights working in the same era as Shakespeare included Christopher Marlowe, Thomas Middleton, John Webster, Ben Jonson and Thomas Dekker.

What is Goethe known for?

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe is perhaps best known for The Sorrows of Young Werther (1774), the first novel of the Sturm und Drang movement, and for Faust (Part I, 1808; Part II, 1832), a play about a man who sells his soul to the Devil that is sometimes considered Germany’s greatest contribution to world literature.

Did Goethe read Shakespeare?

In his essay Literary Criticism (1771), Goethe gives tribute to William Shakespeare stating, “The first page I read made me a slave to Shakespeare for life. And when I finished reading the first drama, I stood there like a man blind from birth… I realized and felt intensely that my life was infinitely expanded” (163).

Is the contemporary to William Shakespeare *?

Throughout, Shakespeare’s plays are shown to be intimately associated with those of his contemporaries, notably Christopher Marlowe, Thomas Kyd, George Chapman, Ben Jonson, John Marston, and John Fletcher.

Who was alive when William Shakespeare was alive?

Shakespeare was survived by his wife Anne and by two daughters, Susanna and Judith. His son Hamnet had died in 1596. His last surviving descendant was his granddaughter Elizabeth Hall, daughter of Susanna and John Hall.

Is there a German equivalent of Shakespeare?

It’s not really accurate since German has no exact equivalent of a “Shakespeare”. Goethe is probably the most famous author of German classical literature. The period of the Weimarer Klassik is shaped by him and Schiller.

Is Goethe the most famous German author in history?

Goethe is probably the most famous author of German classical literature. The period of the Weimarer Klassik is shaped by him and Schiller. In terms of language influence, maybe not as much as Shakespeare.

How were Shakespeare’s works viewed in Germany?

The German Shakespeare is a Shakespeare on paper; the English Shakespeare is full of life and represented a kind of irritation for our German bourgeoisie. They simply ignored it. He wasn’t viewed as Shakespeare, but as a Schlegel-Tieck author from the German Weimar Republic. How were Shakespeare’s works read and performed during his lifetime?

When was hamlet translated into German?

In 1916, exactly 100 years ago, on the 300th anniversary of Shakespeare’s death, he sat down as a 22-year-old student and decided to translate Shakespeare’s entire oeuvre into a modern, performable German. Today, his translation of “Hamlet” is being performed in Karlsruhe.