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WRITER

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

1749 - 1832

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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. Goethe was a German poet, playwright, novelist, scientist, statesman, theatre director, and critic. Read more on Wikipedia

Since 2007, the English Wikipedia page of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe has received more than 7,321,402 page views. His biography is available in 179 different languages on Wikipedia (up from 176 in 2019). Johann Wolfgang von Goethe is the 4th most popular writer, the 8th most popular biography from Germany 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

  • 7.3M

    Page Views (PV)

  • 88.78

    Historical Popularity Index (HPI)

  • 179

    Languages Editions (L)

  • 15.89

    Effective Languages (L*)

  • 4.47

    Coefficient of Variation (CV)

Notable Works

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Among WRITERS

Among writers, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe ranks 4 out of 5,755Before him are Homer, William Shakespeare, and Dante Alighieri. After him are Fyodor Dostoevsky, J. R. R. Tolkien, Hans Christian Andersen, Voltaire, Edgar Allan Poe, Sophocles, Leo Tolstoy, and Franz Kafka.

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Contemporaries

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

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Others Deceased in 1832

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In Germany

Among people born in Germany, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe ranks 8 out of 6,142Before him are Albert Einstein (1879), Johann Sebastian Bach (1685), Martin Luther (1483), Karl Marx (1818), Charlemagne (748), and Johannes Gutenberg (1394). After him are Friedrich Nietzsche (1844), Carl Friedrich Gauss (1777), Johannes Kepler (1571), Otto von Bismarck (1815), Max Weber (1864), and Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (1770).

Among WRITERS In Germany

Among writers born in Germany, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe ranks 1After him are Anne Frank (1929), Hermann Hesse (1877), Friedrich Schiller (1759), Bertolt Brecht (1898), Thomas Mann (1875), Heinrich Heine (1797), Charles Bukowski (1920), Erich Maria Remarque (1898), Heinrich Böll (1917), Novalis (1772), and Friedrich Hölderlin (1770).