WRITER

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

1749 - 1832

Photo of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Icon of person Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (28 August 1749 – 22 March 1832) was a German polymath and writer, who is widely regarded as the greatest and most influential writer in the German language. His work has had a profound and wide-ranging influence on Western literary, political, and philosophical thought from the late 18th century to the present day. Read more on Wikipedia

Since 2007, the English Wikipedia page of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe has received more than 7,571,843 page views. His biography is available in 184 different languages on Wikipedia (up from 179 in 2019). Johann Wolfgang von Goethe is the 4th most popular writer, the 7th most popular biography from Germany (up from 8th in 2019) and the most popular German Writer.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe is most famous for his novel, Faust. The novel tells the story of a man who sells his soul to the devil in exchange for power and knowledge.

Memorability Metrics

  • 7.6M

    Page Views (PV)

  • 88.54

    Historical Popularity Index (HPI)

  • 184

    Languages Editions (L)

  • 16.33

    Effective Languages (L*)

  • 4.62

    Coefficient of Variation (CV)

Notable Works

Götz von Berlichingen
Drama, German language books
1773
Elective Affinities
1809
The Sorrows of Young Werther
Translations into English, Travel, German fiction
1779
Gedichte (Poems)
Translations into English, German poetry, German Erotic poetry
1700
Venetian Epigrams
German Epigrams, German Erotic poetry
1846
Faust
Drama, Illustrations, Magicians
Faust is a tragic play in two parts by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, usually known in English as Faust, Part One and Faust, Part Two.
1800

Among WRITERS

Among writers, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe ranks 4 out of 7,302. Before him are Homer, Dante Alighieri, and William Shakespeare. After him are Edgar Allan Poe, Fyodor Dostoevsky, J. R. R. Tolkien, Lord Byron, Voltaire, Hans Christian Andersen, Leo Tolstoy, and Victor Hugo.

Most Popular Writers in Wikipedia

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Contemporaries

Among people born in 1749, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe ranks 1. After him are Pierre-Simon Laplace, Edward Jenner, Christian VII of Denmark, Honoré Gabriel Riqueti, comte de Mirabeau, Nicolas Appert, Yolande de Polastron, Domenico Cimarosa, Lorenzo Da Ponte, Marie Thérèse Louise of Savoy, Princesse de Lamballe, Daniel Rutherford, and Adélaïde Labille-Guiard. Among people deceased in 1832, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe ranks 1. After him are Napoleon II, Jean-François Champollion, Évariste Galois, Walter Scott, Jeremy Bentham, Georges Cuvier, Nicolas Léonard Sadi Carnot, Jean-Baptiste Say, Muzio Clementi, Rasmus Rask, and Friedrich Kuhlau.

Others Born in 1749

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Others Deceased in 1832

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In Germany

Among people born in Germany, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe ranks 7 out of 7,253. Before him are Ludwig van Beethoven (1770), Charlemagne (748), Albert Einstein (1879), Johann Sebastian Bach (1685), Martin Luther (1483), and Karl Marx (1818). After him are Carl Friedrich Gauss (1777), Johannes Gutenberg (1394), Henry Kissinger (1923), Friedrich Nietzsche (1844), Otto von Bismarck (1815), and Johannes Kepler (1571).

Others born in Germany

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Among WRITERS In Germany

Among writers born in Germany, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe ranks 1. After him are Anne Frank (1929), Friedrich Schiller (1759), Hermann Hesse (1877), Thomas Mann (1875), Heinrich Heine (1797), Bertolt Brecht (1898), Erich Maria Remarque (1898), Charles Bukowski (1920), Novalis (1772), Heinrich Böll (1917), and Eckhart Tolle (1948).

German born Writers

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