structural:summarization, information:highlighting, structural:expansion, information:classification
Goethe

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe was born in August 1749, in Frankfurt. He wrote his first important play, Götz von Berlichingen in 1773, in Shakespearean style, a defining characteristic of the Sturm und Drang movement (Wilson and Goldfarb 287). Shakespeare was considered a genius among German playwrights, and was idolized for his “shattering of the dramatic unities of time, place and action; and his sharply individualized, emotionally complex characters” (Waterhouse v). Goethe was well known for his staging as well as his long dramatic poem Faust (Goethe's Faust) (Wilson and Goldfarb 287). Goethe was the director of theatre at the Weimar Theatre where he eventually ran the entire company. He went to Italy for two years to collect himself and while there discovered the beauty of the Greek and Roman ruins. After this trip he returned with interest in classical ideas and writing, and a new form of writing emerged called Weimar Classicism.