Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832) is regarded as the most important German poet and head of the literary epoch of German Classicism. He was a multi-talented man, as he dealt scientifically with botany, anatomy, zoology, mineralogy, meteorology, optics and colour theory and, last but not least, he was also a wine expert. Goethe wrote the following short memorial to wine and women: "A girl and a glass of wine alleviate all distress, and anyone who doesn't kiss and drink is long dead!" Wine and wine culture played a major role in his life.
His grandfather Friedrich Georg Göthe (1657-1730) was the owner of the renowned inn "Zum Weidenhof" and built up an extensive wine business. His father Johann Caspar Goethe (1710-1782) had the extensive wine cellar of Goethe's birthplace built in the "Großer Hirschgraben" in Frankfurt am Main, where Goethe later kept and regularly added to his extensive collection. According to tradition, it was also thanks to the wine that he survived the difficult labour. When the child was born after three days of labour, it showed no signs of life, was blue-black in colour and threatened to suffocate. The baby was then bathed in an arden (wooden trough) with warm wine by the midwife, who "massaged the pit of his heart" and ultimately saved his life.
Goethe's parental home
In his father's house, wine and wine drinking were part of everyday life. Goethe's father also owned his own vineyards, which Goethe describes as follows in "Dichtung und Wahrheit 1/IV": "My father owned a vineyard outside the Friedberg gate, where rows of asparagus were planted and maintained with great care between the rows of vines. In the good season, almost no day went by without my father going out there, as we were usually allowed to accompany him and thus had pleasure and joy from the first products of spring to the last of autumn."
This vineyard was located on today's Friedberger Landstraße between Bethmannpark and Friedberger Platz. Goethe's maternal grandfather was the town sheriff Dr Johann Wolfgang Textor (1693-1771). He was head of the judiciary in Frankfurt, as well as an innkeeper and wine merchant. From him, Goethe's mother inherited a considerable number of wine barrels from the excellent vintages of 1706, 1719, 1726 and 1748, which were stored in the cellar of the Goethe House on Hirschgraben. When his mother moved into a new flat on Roßmarkt in 1795 and sold the house to the wine merchant Blum for 22,000 guilders, Goethe received a share of 1,000 guilders from the proceeds of the wines and a collection of excellent crescents.
Goethe's wine consumption
Goethe drank wine regularly from an early age, which also explains why he drank so much and was hardly ever drunk. However, in a letter dated 16 October 1767, at the age of 18, he writes "that he was drunk as a beast". However, he rejected excessive drinking with the (then customary) subsequent smashing of glasses. His preferred wine was Franconian wine (Riesling), which he also tolerated best and enjoyed a bottle of lighter calibre at lunchtime. His favourite wines included a Würzburger Stein, but also wines from Hochheim vineyards and Schloss Johannisberg.
During a 30-day spa holiday in Karlsbad in 1820, he took a cask of Würzburger (volume of 80 bouteilles) with him. According to surviving invoices, he regularly purchased wine from all over Europe from a total of 40 wine merchants in Frankfurt, Worms, Erfurt and Reims. These are listed: Tokaj, Erlauer, Ofner (Hungary), Melniker (Czech Republic), Lacrima Christi (Italy), Malaga, Tinto de Rota (dessert wine from Spain), Champagne, Graves, Alsace, Languedoc, Burgundy (France) and Ruster (Austria). Friedrich von Schiller (1759-1805), a friend of Goethe's, ordered wine through him from the Erfurt merchant Ramann and also took advice from Goethe and listened to his recommendations.
In a letter to the wine merchant Ramann dated 2 May 1816, he ordered "half a bucket of Würzburger and half a bucket of Elsasser, because filling the missing gaps in my wine stock is more necessary than ever this time" (a bucket was around 60 litres). The famous 1811 was a particularly good vintage (not only in Germany). Goethe often raved about the "Eilfer", which he ordered by letter from the Bassermann-Jordan winery. There is a report of a dinner at the home of the poet Clemens Brentano (1778-1842): "He could drink an awful lot of good Rhine wine, especially the Elfer".
Goethe favoured wine above all; he rarely drank beer because he could not tolerate it. His wife Christiane shared his passion for wine. In many of his letters and writings, the topics of wine, viticulture and wine enjoyment appear again and again. He was also very interested in the art of winemaking and the phenology of the vine and made many surviving drawings about it. Goethe obviously drew inspiration for his immortal works from his enjoyment of wine. In this context, he remarked: "Others sleep off their intoxication, with me it is on paper!" And in a letter dated 25 January 1781, he wrote: "Last night I finished a bottle of champagne and helped literature along".
Quotes about wine
Goethe found a kindred twin soul across the centuries and cultures in the Persian poet and Koran scholar Mohammed Shams ed-Din, known as Hafiz (1324-1390), who, like him, loved wine and women and wrote many verses about them. Incidentally, his poems inspired him to write his most extensive collection of poetry, the "West-Eastern Divan". Goethe criticised the Islamic ban on alcohol (as did Hafez) and wrote effusively about the Persian poet:
"They have called thee, holy Hafiz, the mystic tongue, and have not recognised the word-scholars, the value of the word. They call you mystical because they think foolish things about you and give away their impure wine in your name. But you are mystically pure because they do not understand you, who are blessed without being pious! They do not want to grant you that".
Many verses and quotations from Goethe (see further examples there) about wine and the enjoyment of wine have been preserved. During a visit to Lake Zurich on 15 June 1775, he wrote in his travel diary: " Without wine, we can never be like three hundred on earth. Without wine and without women, the devil will take our bodies". Another verse reads: "Man learns to drink first, much later he learns to eat, so he should not forget to drink out of gratitude!"
Goethe as a wine connoisseur
Goethe was also a wine connoisseur, as a story tells of a dinner hosted by Grand Duke Carl August (1757-1828). A red wine was served and the guests were asked where it came from. Only Goethe gave the correct answer: "It is unknown to me, but I think it is a Jenenser (from Jena) that has been in a Madeira barrel for a while".
He also thought a lot of drinking culture. He remarked indignantly to a guest who diluted his wine with water: "Where did you learn this nasty custom? Goethe drank up to one or two bottles of (mostly light, low-alcohol) wine almost every day. This was considered normal consumption at the time, as one of Goethe's contemporaries wrote of this amount "that this was a modest portion for a strong man born and raised in the land of wine".
It was not until later in life that Goethe reduced his consumption of wine in favour of mineral water. But on the day of his death on 22 March 1832, he is said to have asked for wine and water at nine o'clock in the morning and finished his glass in three gulps. Goethe died shortly afterwards at half past eleven. See also under Literature and Winegrowing Personalities.
Goethe: by Joseph Karl Stieler, public domain, link
Monument: by E. Thevis and F. Rabsch, Own work, Copyrighted free use, Link
both edited by Norbert. F. J. Tischelmayer
