Goethe Monument

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Chicago is known for being a diverse city. With numerous cultures and ethnicities in one place, it isn’t uncommon for groups of people to build monuments to show appreciation for their culture. Chicago has 300 fountains, monuments, and sculptures, 5 of those in dedication of the German writers: Goethe, Schiller, Humboldt, Lessing, and Fritz Reuter. Goethe’s statue stands at 25 feet tall, emphasizing the large importance he had in German history and his worldwide fame. Goethe contributed various compositions and would be a leader in the the strum und drang literary movement and weimar classicism. In this paper I will be focusing on the Goethe monument located in Lincoln Park.
Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe was born on August 28, 1749 to Johann …show more content…
During this time he would explore theater and would write numerous anonymous poems for his love Anne Catharina Schoenkopf. While recovering from tuberculosis, he moved to Strassburg in 1770 to continue studying law. Here he would encounter Johann Gottfried Herder who would introduce Goethe to literature by Homer, Ossian, and Shakespeare. Herder was known for his work in the Sturm und Drang movement, which would soon include Goethe with his work “Gotz von Berlichigen” and “The Sorrows of Young Werther”. The sturm und drang literary movement emphasized raw human emotion, stress, and nature/aesthetics and went against social standards. Strum und drang literature focuses on drama and poetry and its intent was to encourage the audience to think about their emotions rather than ignore them. “The Sorrows of Young Werther” depicts the story of hopeless love and torment; the main character behaves irrationally and acts on his emotions rather than thinking of a solution for his problems. While practicing law, and poetry on the side, Goethe became a Licentitatus Juris in 1771 and started his own law practice. He didn’t feel fulfilled from …show more content…
In 1871 the Chicago fire occurred, prompting the reconstruction of of city, including Lincoln Park. By the 1890’s, Chicago’s population reached a million. German immigrants and German-Americans made up a majority of the population and therefore had the biggest influence on the economy and held cultural significance in the history of Chicago. The German population consisted of skilled workers such as bakers, carpenters, and shoe makers. A group of German-Americans had decided to honor Goethe and his important milestones in German literature. The committee wanted a monument that present Goethe in a literal portrait rather than figurative. To decide who would be constructing the monument, a competition was held between nine sculptors and the winning entry was chosen by the Art Institute of Chicago. Herman Hahn, a professor and sculptor from Munich won and the eight other entries were exhibited in the Art Institute of Chicago. Hahn has other sculptures in Germany and is known for his neoclassical style he incorporates into his art. The Goethe monument is located in Lincoln Park and stands 25 feet tall across from another monument dedicated to Johann Christoph Friedrich von Schiller. Schwaben Verein ,who sponsored the Schiller monument, decided to also sponsor a monument for Goethe. The group of people assigned to the job raised $50,000 to sponsor the construction. In the monument, Goethe is depicted as
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