40. Robert Saitschick: “Goethe's Character”

Stuttgart 1898, Fromanns Verlag

Anyone writing a book about Goethe today must be careful not to do anything unnecessary. We know far too much about Goethe. But we know little about the depths of his being. For Goethe was a man whose feelings and passions were intimately connected to his world view. Goethe could only be happy insofar as the deepest secrets of the world were revealed to him. Anyone who does not understand this should never pick up a pen to write a word about Goethe. Robert Saitschick has done so, without even having the slightest idea of the connection between Goethe's world view and his nature. That is why his book “Goethe's Character” is the most miserable, wretched piece of work in the whole of Goethe literature. Such Goethe admirers must be told: “Hands off” an object that is as foreign to you as anything can be. I was outraged by this book because of its great phraseology and the [pretentiousness] with which it appears.