Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

The diary entry for 18 February 1777, written at Weimar in his own hand, reads in full: "Alles in Duft. Conseil. Die Bergwercks Sache. Sehr kalt." Two years later the entry for 5 January 1779 opens "Conseil die Kriegs Commission übertragen." The manuscript is the interleaved 1779 almanac now held as GSA 27/5. The museum that keeps his mining papers records that mining in Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach fell under his offices from 1777, that he struck the first blow with a pick at the shaft opening of 1784, that a gallery collapsed in 1796 and ended the work, and that the shafts were filled in 1814. Writing to Herder on 27 March 1784 he reported a finding in comparative anatomy: "das os intermaxillare am Menschen! Ich verglich mit Lodern Menschen- und Thierschädel". A full text search of the same diary edition on 29 July 2026 returns 268 entries containing the word Farbenlehre, spread over thirty-one separate years from 1797 to 1832, and 113 entries containing Metamorphose, from 1786 to 1832. The colour theory reached print in 1810 at Tübingen, from the J. G. Cotta bookshop, in a copy now scanned from the Getty Research Institute's holdings at 795 images. Even the ennoblement is a document with a shelfmark. The Goethe- und Schiller-Archiv files GSA 30/520 as "Adelsdiplom für Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, ausgestellt von Kaiser Joseph II. Wien, 1782 April 10", among his Akten under honorary memberships and diplomas. The estate is held today by the Goethe- und Schiller-Archiv of the Klassik Stiftung Weimar, in about 500 archive boxes, and its core is the archive he began himself. That archive is the oldest literary archive in Germany, and it left the family in 1885: by the will of the last Goethe grandson the papers passed on 15 April 1885 to Grand Duchess Sophie of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach.

1. 1749

   Frankfurt am Main

   The institution that keeps the birth house quotes his own account of the date: "AM 28. AUGUST 1749, MITTAGS MIT DEM GLOCKENSCHLAGE ZWÖLF, KAM ICH IN FRANKFURT AM MAIN AUF DIE WELT."

2. 1774

   Die Leiden des jungen Werthers

   Printed at Leipzig by Weygand. The scanned copy is the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek's, shelfmark Rar. 138, with a title vignette to each part and an errata list at page 224.

3. 1777

   The mining business in Conseil

   The diary for 18 February 1777, at Weimar: "Alles in Duft. Conseil. Die Bergwercks Sache. Sehr kalt." The manuscript is GSA 27/3.

4. 1779

   The war commission

   The diary for 5 January 1779, at Weimar: "5 Conseil die Kriegs Commission übertragen. Aufs Eis essen." The manuscript is GSA 27/5, an interleaved printed almanac for 1779.

5. 1782

   The house at the Frauenplan

   Moved in as a tenant in 1782 and lived and worked there for nearly fifty years. The house took his manuscripts, his books and his growing art and scientific collections; eighteen rooms of it are still shown.

6. 1782

   The patent of nobility

   The Goethe- und Schiller-Archiv holds it as GSA 30/520 (ÜF 87): "Adelsdiplom für Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, ausgestellt von Kaiser Joseph II. Wien, 1782 April 10", eight leaves, thirty digitisates.

7. 1784

   The intermaxillary bone

   Reported to Herder from Jena on 27 March 1784: "das os intermaxillare am Menschen! Ich verglich mit Lodern Menschen- und Thierschädel". Justus Christian Loder was the Jena anatomist.

8. 1790

   Versuch die Metamorphose der Pflanzen zu erklären

   Printed at Gotha by the Ettingersche Buchhandlung in 1790. The scanned copy is Oxford University's, at 95 images.

9. 1808

   Faust. Eine Tragödie

   Printed at Tübingen by Cotta. The scanned copy is the Staatsbibliothek Bamberg's, shelfmark MvO.L.g.o.149, at 321 images.

10. 1809

    The colour wheel

    A disc 69 millimetres across, drawn and watercoloured in November 1809 and lettered in its outer segments Phantasie, Vernunft, Verstand and Sinnlichkeit. Acquired by the institution in 1963.

11. 1810

    Zur Farbenlehre

    Printed at Tübingen in 1810 by the J. G. Cotta'schen Buchhandlung. The scanned copy is the Getty Research Institute's, at 795 images.

12. 1817

    The mineral cabinet

    The neighbouring Treuter plot was bought in 1817 and the garden extended eastward. The pavilion at the Ackerwand came with the purchase, and the mineral collection was housed in it.

13. 1819

    West-oestlicher Divan

    Printed at Stuttgard by Cotta and catalogued as the first edition. The scanned copy is the Staatliche Bibliothek Regensburg's, shelfmark 999/Germ.3645a, at 567 images.

14. 1820

    The intermaxillary essay reaches print

    Printed at last in the second issue of Zur Naturwissenschaft überhaupt, besonders zur Morphologie, Stuttgart and Tübingen, Cotta, under a dateline giving the year 1786. It offers "eine kleine Entdeckung vorzulegen die ich glaube gemacht zu haben".

15. 1885

    The papers leave the family

    By the will of the last Goethe grandson, Walther, the estate passed on 15 April 1885 into the possession of Grand Duchess Sophie of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach. The archive building went up between 1893 and 1896.

16. 1991

    Into the foundation

    In October 1991 the Goethe- und Schiller-Archiv, by then holding more than 110 personal and institutional estates, was transferred into the Stiftung Weimarer Klassik, today the Klassik Stiftung Weimar.

17. 2001

    The estate enters the Memory of the World register

    Inscribed as "Goethes literarischer Nachlass", held at the Klassik Stiftung Weimar, Jenaer Str. 1. About 500 archive boxes holding several thousand letters, diaries, writings on scientific subjects and treatises on art theory.