Der Atem der Welt: Johann Wolfgang Goethe und die Erfahrung der Natur

by Stefan Bollmann

Goethe der Naturforscher – die große Biographie
Einfühlsam und mit großer Erzählkunst zeichnet Stefan Bollmann ein überraschend neues Bild des Dichterfürsten und entdeckt den Naturforscher und Naturschriftsteller Goethe. Eine glänzend geschriebene Biographie, in deren Zentrum seine lebenslange Naturerfahrung und ihre hohe Aktualität für unsere Zeit stehen.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749–1832) war nicht nur als Dichter und Schriftsteller ein Kristallisationspunkt seiner Zeit. Sein umfangreiches literarisches Werk bezeugt eine eingehende Beschäftigung mit Naturforschung und sein Leben ist von einem ununterbrochenen, intensiven Erleben der Natur in allen Erscheinungen tief geprägt und geformt. Souverän erschließt Stefan Bollmann in dieser Biographie dieses lange Zeit vernachlässigte Naturverständnis und vermittelt uns ein überraschend neues Goethebild. Auf einer spannenden Entdeckungsreise durch Goethes Landschaften, seine Texte und Gedanken begleiten wir ihn in Italien, in der Schweiz, beobachten ihn bei seinen Forschungen in Thüringen und im Harz. Wir nehmen teil an seinen geologischen, anatomischen, botanischen und optischen Untersuchungen, werden Zeuge seiner Freundschaft mit Alexander von Humboldt – und verstehen unsere eigene tiefe Sehnsucht nach der Natur neu. Goethe kann uns lehren, unsere Stellung in der Natur neu zu verorten. Eine große Geschichte der Naturwahrnehmung und zugleich ein hochaktuelles Buch, das zeigt, wie Goethes sinnlich anschauliche Erfahrung der Natur auch heute noch Grundlage unserer Humanität und Lebendigkeit sein kann.

657 pages, Kindle Edition

Published March 13, 2021

About the author

Stefan Bollmann (born March 21, 1958 in Dusseldorf) is a German editor and author.

Reviews

[Freymuth Sommer]

I picked this one up in interested to know more about the relationship between Alexander von Humboldt and why Goethe was such an inspiring figure in his life. Contrary to my superficial knowledge about Goethe he seemed to be a rather important character in the history of natural sciences. I knew more about him as a literary legend of the past but it seems that his mana for literary inspiration came from his nearest sources, an eagerness for knowledge and a passion for wandering.

This book is written in chronological order throughout his life. Each chapter representing major chunks of important life events he went through.

What touched me most on a personal level is that he had similar difficulties on his journey as I do on my own right now. His father sent him to university to study Law. Goethe had major difficulties going through this. His passion laid more in the questions of life answered by science. In writing and expressing his feelings and the pursuit of love. Still he needed to succeed in his studies because this would be his source of bread and butter. He got lucky at the end when he was employed with a very good life sustaining salary by a German Duque. Here he worked on several major projects but further on the book his Law background get mentioned less and less.

In his time the theory of evolution was still in the making. Darwin came three generations after Goethe with Alexander von Humboldt in between being the connecting link. Still, Goethe was obsessed with the question of the primordial life organism or primordial plant. He studied anatomy in depth and went to several biopsies to better understand the human architecture. He was under the impression that we and other animals have the same and very similar bone structures.
To further his comprehension on the primordial plant he went to Italy and studied the botany there. He thought that he would find this plant there. He observed that the biodiversity, as we would call it today, is spread far wider in southern regions than the temperate regions of the north. He did not find the primordial plant but those thoughts would never quite leave him.

During his time Newton made important breakthroughs in physics but Goethe was never very fond of his explanation on the nature of light. Goethe has a more esoteric and stubborn approach towards this nature. He explores the colours of shades extensively and even setup some interesting experiments to prove his argumentation. He grew plants in caves, removed from the sunlight, to observe their colours. Well it turns out to be that these became white and turned green once exposed to sunlight again. An early sign for chloroplasts. Still, in this time the visual spectrum plus infrared and ultraviolet where discovered through experimentation.

This biography made me curious about Faust. Faust is said to be a reflection of Goethe’s wandering lust, his questions towards nature with a subtle hint towards magic that becomes true through the pact with the devil. The world was in rapid change towards industrialization and here can be found some visions that became true years after. This inspires to write a visionary work myself. I’ll want to keep this in the back of my head.

I was relieved that his death came relatively easy. He sat down and went to sleep. Rest in peace grandmaster of nature scientists.

I would suggest this book to anyone with interest to the background of Goethe. Either nature enthusiasts or literature fanatics. Its amazing to know that nature can be such a huge inspiration for art that remains over the centuries. Also read this to better understand on which status quo we live on today. On the hundreds of experiments that tell us how the world works.
This made me curious to read some of his writings now.

[Elena · Rating 5 out of 5]

OK, we know Goethe is considered the greatest German poet and writer. Poetry came naturally to him, almost child's play, he apparently considered his greatest achievements to be his scientific research, which absorbed much of his time and was the subject of long fruitful discussions with a younger Alexander von Humboldt. I remember going to the Goethe Haus in Weimar back in 1976 and marveling at drawer after drawer of mineral samples, a collection on the order of 18,000. What was going on with all the rocks? Bollmann, author of amusing and enlightening books about women readers and women writers, now boldly takes on Goethe himself, viewed the way he wanted himself to be seen. There are glints of the usual Bollmann whimsy, but he reads the scientific works with intensity, and tries to envision how Goethe's science, long rejected as unscientific, actually anticipated many modern discoveries such as genetic code, could that be the concept behind the much maligned Urpflanze? And his concept of the inter-connectedness of nature anticipates contemporary notions of ecology. It certainly influenced Humboldt. Goethe wanted to write a novel about the universe, but never quite figured out how to do it. Humboldt wrote "Kosmos." Is there a connection? Well, they both thought everything was Wechselwirkung...

[Olga Kuplivanchuk · Rating 3 out of 5]

Dieses Buch überrascht nicht einmal mit den interessantesten Fakten über Goethes wissenschaftliche Forschung, sondern mit einer Beschreibung der europäischen Gesellschaft im späten 18. - frühen 19. Jahrhundert. Die Zeit, in der die Menschheit anfängt, über die kontinuierliche Entwicklung der Natur nachzudenken, wenn der Mensch nicht mehr als Zentrum aller Lebewesen, sondern nur als Teil eines komplexen Systems lebender Organismen betrachtet wird, wenn Wissenschaftler versuchen, das Alter von die Erde zu zahlen, wenn sich die Botanik entwickelt. Die Fakten, die uns heute aus der Schulprogramm klar sind, stammen aus genau dieser Zeit.

Und dass Goethe gerade in dieser Zeit lebte und von den besten Köpfen Europas dieser Zeit umgeben war, gehörte zu dieser „Menge“, glaube ich, bestimmte seine Interessen weitgehend.

Diese Ära erscheint mir aus dem Buch näher und moderner, und manchmal sogar ehrlicher als die heutige.

[annika · Rating 5 out of 5]

i really enjoyed reading this book, though it took me long to get through it.