Der Atem der Welt

Goethe the naturalist - the great biography

Sensitively and with great narrative art Stefan Bollmann draws a surprisingly new picture of the poet prince and discovers the naturalist and nature writer Goethe. A brilliantly written biography, which focuses on his lifelong experience of nature and its high relevance for our time.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832) was a focal point of his time not only as a poet and writer. His extensive literary oeuvre testifies to an in-depth preoccupation with nature research, and his life was deeply influenced and shaped by an uninterrupted, intense experience of nature in all its manifestations. In this biography, Stefan Bollmann sovereignly opens up this long-neglected understanding of nature and provides us with a surprisingly new image of Goethe. On an exciting journey of discovery through Goethe's landscapes, his texts and thoughts, we accompany him in Italy, in Switzerland, and observe him during his research in Thuringia and the Harz Mountains. We participate in his geological, anatomical, botanical and optical investigations, witness his friendship with Alexander von Humboldt - and understand anew our own deep longing for nature. Goethe can teach us to re-locate our place in nature. A great history of the perception of nature and at the same time a highly topical book that shows how Goethe's sensually vivid experience of nature can still be the basis of our humanity and vitality today.