Goethe at 250: A Celebration
1999 saw the 250th anniversary of the birth of Johann Wolfgang
von Goethe, Germany's greatest writer and poet, which attracted a
great deal of attention throughout the German-speaking world and
internationally. Goethe's works form a particular area of
specialism within the Department of German at Cambridge. Members
of the Department have published many works on him, including
numerous articles for journals and periodicals, a recent new
translation for Penguin of his Maxims and Reflectionsand a
major new biography which has been successfully translated into
German. In 1982, to mark the 150th anniversary of Goethe's
death, the Department brought out a collaborative volume of
essays on his poetry.
The Department planned an extensive series of events for
1999:
- in the Lent Term (January-March) there was a series
of lectures and recitals, inaugurated
on Wednesday, 20 January 1999 by Professor Patrick Boyde with a
slide-lecture on Goethe's Journey to Italy;
- an exhibition was mounted in the University
Library;
- on 29 and 30 January the University Opera Society in
conjunction with the Univesity Chamber Orchestra put on the first
modern performance of the setting of Goethe's operetta Erwin & Elmire by Anna Amalia,
Dowager Duchess of Saxe-Weimar;
- on 23 and 24 September, an academic conference was
held at Sidney Sussex College entitled Goethe and the
English-speaking World. The proceedings were subsequently published.
- a Goethe limerick competition for schools
attracted some excellent entries, the main winners being awarded book tokens along with a copy of
the Hamburger Ausgabe of Goethe's works for their school library.
Last updated: 7th September 2000
