Johann Wolfgang Goethe

Goethe Johann Wolfgang

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832) is considered the most important German poet and head of the literary epoch of German classicism. He was an all-rounder, because he worked in the fields of scientific botany, anatomy, zoology, mineralogy, meteorology, optics and color theory, and he was last but not least, a wine expert. Goethe has put the wine and the women (as one example of many) in a short and concise manner the following memorial: "A girl and a glass of wine, which alleviate any hardship, and who does not kiss and who does not drink, which has long been dead! "wine and wine-Kulturn has played in his life are very important. His father, Johann Kaspar was the son of an innkeeper and was also the extensive wine cellar of Goethe's birth house in the "Great Hirschengraben" in Frankfurt am Main, built, and later in the Goethe kept his extensive collection and added regularly. According to tradition, it should also be owed at all the wine that Goethe has survived the difficult birth. When it was born after three days of the child labor, there was no sign of life, blue-black discoloration and threatened to suffocate. The baby was then bathed in a tub of the midwife (a meat Arden) with warm wine, so it "gebäht the pit" (massage) and eventually you saved my life.

In his father's house wine and wine drinking was part of everyday life. Goethe's father was also a "vineyard before Friedberger gates, where, between the rows of vines planted rows of asparagus with great care and serviced. It passed in the fine season, hardly a day that my father went out, as we usually were allowed to accompany him because of and so were the first products of the spring to the last of the autumn pleasure and joy "(Goethe -. Seal and 1/IV truth). These vineyards can be thought of today's highway between Friedberger and Friedberger Bethmannpark place. Goethe's maternal grandfather was the Mayor, Dr. Johann Wolfgang Textor. He was head of the judiciary in Frankfurt for life, and restaurateur and wine merchant. From him Goethe's mother inherited a considerable number of barrels of wine from the excellent vintages 1706, 1719, 1726 and 1748. They camped in the basement of the house on Goethe Hirschengraben. When the mother moved in 1795 into a new apartment on the horse market and sold it for 22,000 florins to the wine merchant Blum, Goethe received from the proceeds of the wines still accounted for 1,000 guilders, and it also has a sizable collection of wines.

Since early youth Goethe regularly drank wine and also explains that he adjourned a lot and almost never was drunk (in a letter dated 16/10/1767 - So at age 18 - but he writes "that he had been drunk as a beast "). With excessive drinking (usual time) a feast followed the smashing of the glasses, he refused. Preferred wine was Riesling (Franconian wine) from its nearest home (today's region francs), he also adjourned for lunch and enjoyed the best bottle of lighter caliber. To his absolute favorite wine was one of a Würzburg Stone (single location, Germany) , as well as wines from the layers Hochheim and Schloss Johannisberg . For a 30-day cure in Karlsbad in 1820 he took a keg of Würzburg (volume of 80 bottles) with. According to surviving accounts he received regular wine from all over Europe from a total of 40 wine traders from Frankfurt, Worms, Erfurt and Reims: Tokaj, Eger, Buda (Hungary), Melnik (Czech Republic), Lacrima Christi (Italy), Malaga, Tinto de Rota ( dessert wine from Spain), Champagne, Graves, Alsace, Languedoc, Burgundy (France) and Rust (Austria). Of his friend Friedrich von Schiller (1759-1805) ordered on him at Erfurt Ramann wine dealer and also sought advice from Goethe or listened to his recommendations.

In a letter to the wine merchant from 05/02/1816 Ramann he ordered "half a bucket of Würzburg and a half bucket Elsasser, because to fill the missing gaps in my wine storage, this time more than ever need doing" (a bucket at the time was about 60 liters ). The year 1811 in the medical literature often mentioned famous 1811er was (not only in Germany) is a very good Year . Goethe often gushed from "Eilfer" which he received a letter at the famous winery Bassermann-Jordan ordered. By a banquet at the home of poet Clemens Brentano (1778-1842) is reported: "From the good Rhine wine he could drink quite awful lot, especially from the penalty." Goethe drank beer often, because he does not agree with him. His wife Christiane shared a passion for wine with him. In many of his (surviving) and writing letters (to his wife, friends and acquaintances) are constantly faced with the issues of wine, viticulture and wine enjoyment. He was also very interested in the art of winemaking and the Phenology the vine and made it to many surviving drawings. Goethe was inspired by his immortal works for wine enjoyment. In this context, he remarked: "Other sleep off their hangovers, with me standing on the paper!" And in a letter dated 01.25.1781, he wrote: "Last night I drank a bottle of champagne and helped up the literature."

In the famous Persian poet and Koranic scholar Hafiz (1324-1390), Goethe found across a kindred soul twin over the centuries and cultures, just as he loved wine and women and also wrote many verses. Whose poems he suggested to his "West-Eastern Divan" of. Goethe criticized (as well as Hafiz), Islamic Alcohol ban and wrote about the Persian poet with effusive words: "They made ​​you holy Hafez, called the mystic tongue, and have learned the word, the value of the word is not recognized. Mystical your name to them because they feel foolish for you, and give away their impure wine in your name. But you're purely mystical, because they do not understand that you have to be pious without, are blessed! They want you not concede. "Again and again Goethe has written about wine verses (see also under Citations ). During a visit to the Zürchersee he wrote on 15 June 1775 in his travel diary: "No wine can` s us on earth, never to be like three hundred. Without wine and without women, our bodies get the hell "is another example."! The drinking man learns first, much later, the food, therefore he should not forget to drink out of gratitude "

Goethe was not only a wine connoisseur, wine connoisseurs but also, it tells a story at a dinner, hosted the Grand Duke Carl August. It was a red wine served and guests encouraged to recognize this. Only Goethe gave the right answer: "He is unknown to me, but I think it's a Jena (from Jena), who has lain for a time in a Madeira barrel." He was also a lot of wine culture. Compared to a guest who is dilute his wine with water, he said angrily: "What have you learned this evil custom." Goethe drank almost every day until one or two bottles (mostly light, low-alcohol) wine. This was considered at the time as a normal consumer, as a contemporary of Goethe writes of this amount, "that this is a strong, in the land of wine born and raised a modest man was serving." Only at a later age restricted Goethe a wine drinking in favor of mineral water. But even at his death on 22nd March 1832 he asked for nine clock early for wine and water, and drained his glass with three sips. Goethe then died shortly thereafter at half past twelve.