Goethes Zeitschrift. Ueber Kunst und Alterthum

The first issue of Goethe's journal 'Ueber Kunst und Alterthum' was published 200 years ago. Goethe had received the impetus for this undertaking during his stays at the Wiesbaden spa in 1814 and 1815 and his subsequent visits to Frankfurt and the Rheingau, where he had come into contact with Catholic popular piety and so-called old German art. In order to make his impressions accessible to a wider circle of interested people, he founded the irregularly published periodical 'Ueber Kunst und Alterthum in den Rhein und Mayn Gegenden'.

However, it was not long before the regional restriction fell away and Goethe expanded the focus to the entire German-speaking countries and soon to the whole of Europe. The special feature of this journal, which was continued until his death, is that Goethe himself was its most important contributor. Despite declining sales figures, he used it as a preferred means of communication for friends and followers, but also as an organ of articulation for his aesthetic convictions. Here, for example, he developed the pioneering concept of "world literature".

edited by Hendrik Birus, Anne Bohnenkamp and Wolfgang Bunzel

published: 2016

scope: 136 pages, colour throughout

size: 24 × 30 cm / 9.4 × 1.8 inch

flap brochure, thread stitching

ISBN 978-3-945869-03-1

Sample