Napoleon was fighting wars all over Europe at this time. Germany, which was still made up of lots of small countries, was an enemy of France. Goethe always thought of Napoleon as a hero. His ideas about politics were still based on 18th century ideas. He hated war and so he did not take part in politics but concentrated on science and literature. He wrote a book called "Die Wahlverwandtschaften" ("Elective Affinities") which is about a divorce problem. Some of his scientific ideas are used in the story as he talks about the way that two chemical compounds can break up and form new unions. He compares this to the people in his story. His poems in "Westöstlicher Divan" are some of his greatest. He uses ideas from Persia and other Eastern countries together with ideas from the West. It has a lot of parables about human life.