Johann Caspar Goethe

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Johann Caspar Goethe

Johann Caspar Goethe (born July 29, 1710 in Frankfurt am Main ; † May 25, 1782 ibid) was a wealthy lawyer and imperial councilor in Frankfurt am Main. His son Johann Wolfgang is considered one of the most important German-speaking poets and an outstanding figure in world literature.

Life

Goethe family in shepherd's costume ( Johann Conrad Seekatz 1762)
Goethe's birthplace before renovation in 1755
Goethe's birthplace after renovation in 1755

Johann Caspar Goethe was born in Frankfurt am Main as the youngest son of Friedrich Georg Göthe (1657 to 1730) and Cornelia Walther (1668 to 1754). He attended the Casimirianum in Coburg from 1725 to 1730 . From 1730 he studied law in Gießen and from 1731 in Leipzig . In 1739 he was again awarded his doctorate in both rights in Gießen and then worked at the Imperial Court of Justice in Wetzlar . In Regensburg and Vienna he got to know the working methods of the Perpetual Reichstag and the Reichshofrat , two other important institutions of the Holy Roman Empire.

From 1740 to 1741 he went on an educational trip to Italy and wrote a travel book about it in Italian (Viaggio per l'Italia) . At the end of 1741 Goethe returned to Frankfurt, where he and his widowed mother had owned two half-timbered houses next to each other on the Großer Hirschgraben since 1733 . He was not allowed to take on the desired political office in his hometown because his half-brother Hermann Jacob , a master pewter from his father's first marriage, was already a member of the council. Direct relatives could not be city councilors at the same time .

On May 16, 1742 he acquired the title of Real Imperial Councilor under Emperor Charles VII for around 300 guilders , who lived in Frankfurt for a long time during his reign. The emperor held Goethe in high esteem, but died as early as 1745, so that Goethe's hoped-for career as an imperial diplomat was also closed to him.

Goethe then stayed in Frankfurt and from then on lived as a private citizen, as the income from his property allowed him to run a household in line with his status and he did not need to earn a living. Apart from a few excursions into the surrounding area, he never left the city limits. On August 20, 1748, the now 38-year-old Imperial Councilor married Catharina Elisabeth Textor , the eldest daughter of the city ​​schoolmaster Johann Wolfgang Textor, in the Katharinenkirche . The wedding ceremony was performed by the pastor of the Katharinenkirche, Johann Philipp Fresenius , a friend of the family.

On June 25, 1749, Goethe acquired Frankfurt citizenship. From then on he devoted himself exclusively to his private studies, building up a collection of precious books and works of art and bringing up his children. The eldest son, Johann Wolfgang , was born on August 28, 1749. He was followed by five other children, of whom only Cornelia, born in 1750, reached adulthood.

After his mother's death on April 1, 1754, Goethe had the houses in the Großer Hirschgraben redesigned into a spacious new building with 20 rooms and a representative staircase modeled on the Roman Imperial Staircase. He declared the project to be a renovation to the municipal building authorities. The new house offered enough space for Goethe's books and collections. According to the directory drawn up on the occasion of its auction in 1795, the library comprised around 2,000 volumes, including legal and historical works, ancient and contemporary literature in several languages, travelogues, as well as theological works and edification literature. The painting collection consisted exclusively of contemporary works by Frankfurt artists; no directory of the collection is preserved. In addition, Goethe, like his son later, collected plaster casts of ancient sculptures and minerals.

Grave in the Peterskirchhof

In 1759, French troops occupied Frankfurt in the Seven Years' War . The city commandant, Count Thoranc , stayed in the Goethesche Haus for several months . The relationship was tense, since Goethe not only perceived the billeting as a nuisance, but was also a supporter of Prussia, the French opponent of the war. On Good Friday 1759, after the Battle of Bergen , which was victorious for the French , there was an argument in the stairwell when Thoranc triumphed and Goethe replied I wish they had chased you to the devil. It was only thanks to the mediation of his wife that Goethe was not thrown into prison.

From around 1770 he gradually lost his intellectual abilities and gradually became a nursing case. In 1779 he suffered a first stroke , followed by a second in October 1780. Johann Caspar Goethe was completely paralyzed since then and died on May 25, 1782. His grave is in the Peterskirchhof in Frankfurt am Main. He left his son the considerable fortune of around 90,000 guilders .

Act

In the literature, Johann Caspar Goethe is mostly described as an orderly and Protestant-stiff pedant. This characterization probably doesn't do him justice. What is certain is that he was an unusually educated person with a wide range of interests. His collection of contemporary painting, his natural history cabinet and his library of around 2000 volumes show this very clearly. He also ran a hospitable household and was open to the social and cultural developments of his time.

Although his considerable fortune gave him economic independence, he saw himself as a social outcast. He was unable to realize his political ambitions. He was excluded from the aristocracy of Frankfurt, the patriciate , although he was formally equal as an imperial council. Perhaps this explains the ambition with which he designed the life plan for his son Johann Wolfgang. This should achieve the final social advancement, which the father was still denied.

On his 300th birthday in 2010, the exhibition Johann Caspar Goethe. Father, lawyer, collector, Frankfurt citizen shown.

Works

  • Johann Caspar Goethe, Cornelia Goethe [married locksmiths], Catharina Elisabeth Goethe [b. Textor]: Letters from the parental home. Edited by Wolfgang Pfeiffer-Belli. with three introductions by Ernst Beutler. Zurich and Stuttgart, 1960.
  • Johann Caspar Goethe: Journey through Italy in 1740. Viaggio per l'Italia. Published by the German-Italian Association eV Frankfurt am Main. Translated from Italian and commented by Albert Meier with the assistance of Heide Hollmer. Illustrations by Elmar Hillebrand . DTV, Munich 1986, ISBN 3-423-12680-9 .

literature

  • Reinhard Breymayer: An unknown Koran explanation in the library of Goethe's father: "Elias with the Alcoran Mahomeds ". About the rediscovered work of the radical pietist Johann Daniel Müller from Wissenbach (Nassau). A find report. Heck, Tübingen 2004, ISBN 3-924249-43-1 .
  • Wilhelm Flitner:  Goethe, Johann Caspar. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 6, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1964, ISBN 3-428-00187-7 , p. 545 ( digitized version ).
  • Richard Friedenthal: Goethe - his life and his time. DTV, Munich 1980.
  • Franz Götting: The library of Goethe's father. In: Nassau Annals. 64, 1953, pp. 23-69
  • Doris Hopp, Joachim Seng (ed.): Goethe Pater. Johann Caspar Goethe (1710–1782). Imperial Councilor - Jurist - Collector - Citizen of Frankfurt. Free German Hochstift, Frankfurt am Main 2010.
  • Doris Hopp, Joachim Seng: Goethe, Johann Caspar in the Frankfurter Personenlexikon (article as of September 7, 2015), also in: Wolfgang Klötzer (Hrsg.): Frankfurter Biographie . Personal history lexicon . First volume. A – L (=  publications of the Frankfurt Historical Commission . Volume XIX , no. 1 ). Waldemar Kramer, Frankfurt am Main 1994, ISBN 3-7829-0444-3 , p. 257-261 .
  • Hellmut von Maltzahn: Books from the father's possession in Goethe's Weimar library. In: Yearbook of the Free German Hochstift. 1927, pp. 363-382.
  • (Christoph Perels :) “Bey Herr Rath Göthe on the Grosen Hirschgraben: A numerous exquisite library.” Johann Caspar Goethe's book collection. Exhibition by the Free German Hochstift / Frankfurt Goethe Museum from August 27 to October 28, 2001. Conception of the exhibition: Doris Hopp, Christoph Perels. Design: Waltraut Grabe, Heike Herrmann, Doris Hopp. Free Deutsches Hochstift / Frankfurt Goethe Museum, Frankfurt am Main 2001.

Web links

Commons : Johann Caspar Goethe  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Remarks

  1. ↑ According to other sources, the wedding took place in the Landhaus Auf der Windmühle at the gates of Frankfurt, which at that time belonged to the bride's uncle, Michael von Loën.
  2. ↑ Johann Wolfgang Goethe described the incident in his autobiography From my life. Poetry and truth
personal data
SURNAME Goethe, Johann Caspar
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Frankfurt lawyer and father of Johann Wolfgang Goethe
DATE OF BIRTH July 29, 1710
PLACE OF BIRTH Frankfurt am Main
DATE OF DEATH May 25, 1782
Place of death Frankfurt am Main