That the Weimar appointments were an honorary literary post.
The diary says otherwise in his own hand. 18 February 1777: "Alles in Duft. Conseil. Die Bergwercks Sache. Sehr kalt." 5 January 1779: "Conseil die Kriegs Commission übertragen." [A5]Tagebucheintrag GT I, 5.1.1779, Weimar, ed. Wolfgang Albrecht and Andreas Döhler. Manuscript GSA 27/5, an interleaved printed almanac for 1779. Printed as GT I 1, Stuttgart 1998.PROPYLÄEN. Goethes Biographica, published by the Klassik Stiftung Weimar with the Sächsische Akademie der Wissenschaften zu Leipzig, the Akademie der Wissenschaften und der Literatur Mainz and the Freies Deutsches Hochstiftclass A · read 2026-07-29
Checked: The two entries at the PROPYLÄEN edition of the diaries, with their manuscript shelfmarks GSA 27/3 and GSA 27/5 at the Goethe- und Schiller-Archiv.
That he said the colour theory was worth more than his poetry.
The printed sentence is not a ranking of works and is not a dated statement. Eckermann introduces it as something Goethe "pflegte er wiederholt zu sagen", and it reads: "Auf Alles was ich als Poet geleistet habe ... bilde ich mir gar nichts ein. Es haben treffliche Dichter mit mir gelebt, es lebten noch Trefflichere vor mir, und es werden ihrer nach mir seyn. Daß ich aber in meinem Jahrhundert in der schwierigen Wissenschaft der Farbenlehre der Einzige bin, der das Rechte weiß, darauf thue ich mir etwas zu gute". The claim is priority in one science, not the value of one shelf against another. The phrase calling the colour theory the greatest and hardest of all his works belongs to Eckermann, in the narration around it. [A16]Johann Peter Eckermann, Gespräche mit Goethe in den letzten Jahren seines Lebens: 1823 bis 1832, second part, Leipzig: Brockhaus, 1836. The first edition. Read in the archive's full text export for the entries of 19 and 20 February 1829. The Fraktur setting is transcribed in modern letterforms where it is quoted on this page, and the wording was cross-checked against the sixth edition of 1885.Staatsbibliothek Bamberg (shelfmark Bg.o.221(2), digitized by the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek), via the Internet Archiveclass A · read 2026-07-29
Checked: The Brockhaus first edition of 1836, second part, under 19 February 1829, read in the Internet Archive full text export of the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek scan of the Staatsbibliothek Bamberg copy. The Fraktur setting is transcribed here in modern letterforms.
That he never gave ground on the colour theory.
The same book records him giving ground the following day. On 19 February 1829 Eckermann told him the derivation of the blue shadows on snow was not confirmed by observation and was called a heretic for it. The entry for 20 February 1829 opens: "Mit Goethe zu Tisch ... In der Farbenlehre tritt er etwas herüber zu meiner Meinung, hinsichtlich der blauen Schatten im Schnee." [A16]Johann Peter Eckermann, Gespräche mit Goethe in den letzten Jahren seines Lebens: 1823 bis 1832, second part, Leipzig: Brockhaus, 1836. The first edition. Read in the archive's full text export for the entries of 19 and 20 February 1829. The Fraktur setting is transcribed in modern letterforms where it is quoted on this page, and the wording was cross-checked against the sixth edition of 1885.Staatsbibliothek Bamberg (shelfmark Bg.o.221(2), digitized by the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek), via the Internet Archiveclass A · read 2026-07-29
Checked: The consecutive entries for 19 and 20 February 1829 in the Brockhaus first edition of 1836, second part.
That his last words were "Mehr Licht".
The record declines to state last words. His attending physician printed the sentence as hearsay and said he was not in the room: "Die Sprache wurde immer mühsamer und undeutlicher. „Mehr Licht“ sollen, während ich das Sterbezimmer auf einen Moment verlassen hatte, die letzten Worte des Mannes gewesen seyn, dem Finsterniss in jeder Beziehung stets verhasst war." Fifteen pages later in the same issue the editor drops the hedge and prints it flat: "Er endete mit den Worten: „Mehr Licht“." [A17]Carl Vogel, Die letzte Krankheit Goethe's, in Journal der practischen Heilkunde, volume LXXVI, second part, February 1833, Berlin: G. Reimer, pages 3 to 32, with a postscript by C. W. Hufeland at pages 30 to 32. Vogel was Goethe's attending physician. The sentence on the last words stands at page 17, Hufeland's at page 32.Boston Medical Library, in the Medical Heritage Library, via the Internet Archiveclass A · read 2026-07-29
Checked: Carl Vogel, Die letzte Krankheit Goethe's, in the Journal der practischen Heilkunde for February 1833, read in the Internet Archive full text of the Boston Medical Library copy, page 17, with C. W. Hufeland's postscript at page 32; the wording and both page numbers confirmed against the Gießen transcription.
That he discovered the intermaxillary bone.
The finding of 27 March 1784 is documented and it was not first. The anatomical literature records that Broussonet in 1779 and Vicq d'Azyr in 1780 had reached the same result by other methods, and that Coiter had already illustrated the sutura incisiva in the human in 1573. What the letter documents is an independent finding made with an anatomist's skulls, not a priority. [B1]K. Barteczko and M. Jacob, A re-evaluation of the premaxillary bone in humans, in Anatomy and Embryology. Cited only for the priority history of the os intermaxillare, which no primary source of the 1780s settles on its own.U.S. National Library of Medicine, National Center for Biotechnology Informationclass B · read 2026-07-29
Checked: The letter to Herder at the PROPYLÄEN critical edition, against the priority history in Barteczko and Jacob, A re-evaluation of the premaxillary bone in humans, Anatomy and Embryology 207(6), 2004, at page 418.
That there is one settled date for the intermaxillary paper.
The record leaves the dates as it finds them. The finding was written to Herder on 27 March 1784. The essay reached print only in 1820, in the second issue of Zur Naturwissenschaft überhaupt, besonders zur Morphologie, and the dateline printed under its heading there gives the year 1786. Both stand; neither is chosen here. [A15]Zur Naturwissenschaft überhaupt, besonders zur Morphologie: Erfahrung, Betrachtung, Folgerung, durch Lebensereignisse verbunden. Band 1, Heft 2. Stuttgart and Tübingen, Cotta, 1820. Digitized from the Staatsbibliothek Bamberg copy, shelfmark Physiol.o.70(1. This is the issue in which the intermaxillary essay stands, under the heading "Dem Menschen wie den Thieren ist ein Zwischenknochen der obern Kinnlade zuzuschreiben." and a printed dateline giving the year 1786. Read in the Internet Archive full text export of the same scan, item 11846254bsb.Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, Münchener DigitalisierungsZentrumclass A · read 2026-07-29
Checked: The heading and dateline of the essay in the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek scan of the Staatsbibliothek Bamberg copy, read in the archive's full text export, against the dated letter at the PROPYLÄEN critical edition.
