Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Goethe had been well-educated and was good at organizing and getting on with important people. For eleven years he worked at the court of Weimar for a young Duke called Karl August. He became a member and later the president of the Duke’s cabinet. He had to organize road-building projects, and look after parks and buildings. He studied geology, mineralogy, botany and anatomy. He fell in love with a woman called Charlotte von Stein who was married and had several children. He wrote love letters to her, and she inspired him to write many poems. At this time he felt that a man’s task in life was to be useful. The heroes of his books at this time were often ordinary people instead of geniuses.