Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (; ; 28 August 1749 – 22 March 1832) was a German writer and
statesman. His body of work includes
epic and
lyric poetry written in a variety of
metres and styles;
prose and
verse dramas; memoirs; an autobiography;
literary and
aesthetic criticism; treatises on
botany,
anatomy, and colour; and four novels. In addition, numerous literary and scientific fragments, more than 10,000 letters, and nearly 3,000 drawings by him are extant. A literary celebrity by the age of 25, Goethe was
ennobled by the Duke of
Saxe-Weimar,
Karl August in 1782 after first taking up residence there in November 1775 following the success of his first novel,
The Sorrows of Young Werther. He was an early participant in the
Sturm und Drang literary movement. During his first ten years in Weimar, Goethe served as a member of the Duke's
privy council, sat on the war and highway commissions, oversaw the reopening of silver mines in nearby
Ilmenau, and implemented a series of administrative reforms at the
University of Jena. He also contributed to the planning of Weimar's botanical park and the rebuilding of its
Ducal Palace, which in 1998
were together designated a
UNESCO World Heritage Site.