Right after the publication of Goethe’s The Sorrows of Young Werther in 1774, the literary world of Europe was gripped by a kind of Werther-fever. It was a bizarre cultural phenomenon never before witnessed: Copies flew off the shelves, pirated editions started to come out within a few years, scenes from the novel were being painted on to porcelain.
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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).
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