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It is all too easy, when one is working on a subject that requires attention to a mass of details, to lose sight of the forest because of the many trees.
Thus after having finished a biographical study (1955) that centered in a detailed investigation of the decade that Goethe spent in Weimar before his departure for Italy, I raise the question whether in the environment in which Goethe grew up as a boy, features are observable that can be brought into meaningful connection with Goethe's later geniushood. In the following I wish to present summarily those which impressed me as the most significant. The reader may, however, consider that each group of features I list would require in itself a detailed discussion in order to demonstrate its full effect upon the growing child. That such a discussion cannot be presented here is obvious.
1A reality factor which, though not unique, was still rare enough and undoubtedly of import to the boy's development was his father's freedom from any professional obligations. Johann Kaspar Goethe (1710-1782) was the third son of his father, Friedrich Georg Goethe (1657-1730), a tailor who after the death of his first wife in 1700 had married a wealthy widow, Cornelia Schellhorn (1668-1754). It may be noteworthy that his parents were relatively old (the father fifty-three, the mother forty-two) when he was born.2
In view of Johann Kaspar's later relationship to his son it may be worth while to spend a few words on his own father's relationship