Date Time
Work and pleasure are not contradictory
Johann Wolfgang Goethe paused his professional obligations in Weimar in 1786 in order to travel to Italy. There he hoped to find freedom for intellectual activities, as he himself explained. Prof. Dr. Peter Philipp Riedl from the Department of German at the University of Freiburg has examined Goethe’s works that were written as a result of his trip to Italy. According to the German scholar, Goethe also reflected on the complex relationship between leisure (otium), work and enjoyment with valuations that are as astonishing as they are consequential. Riedl has published his analysis in the book Gelassene Teilnahme. Formen urbaner Muße im Werk Goethes (Serene Participation. Forms of Urban Leisure in Goethe’s Work).