(1775-1786)

Charlotte von Stein ( = ‘Lida')

• 7 years older than Goethe
• married (with 4 children)
• Platonic love affair
• assists Goethe to overcome over-subjective tendencies in his writing (NB. poems addressed to Charlotte von Stein often reflect the quest for a sense of balance, peace, harmony)
  

Philosophical poems

‘Jägers Abendlied’ (1775)
[but is the ‘Du’ Lili Schönemann or Charlotte von Stein??]

'Wandrers Nachtlied I’ (1776)
'Wandrers Nachtlied II’ (1780)
'Rastlose Liebe’ (1776)
'An Charlotte von Stein: “Warum gabst du uns tiefe Blicke’’ (1776)

‘Harzreise im Winter’ (1777)

'An den Mond’, 1. Fassung (1778)
'An den Mond’, Letzte Fassung (1789)

‘Grenzen der Menschheit’ (1781)
'Das Göttliche’ (1783

November 1775-1786: Goethe moves to Weimar

1775 (November): meets Charlotte von Stein

1777: death of Goethe’s sister Cornelia

1779-80: Travels to Switzerland with the Herzog. On the return journey visits Lili von Türkheim (née Schönemann) and Friederike Brion (in Sesenheim)

1782: death of Goethe’s father

1782: Goethe enobled