Most of the essays in this collection are the fruit of work done for the Goethe Museum Frankfurt/Main (Freies Deutsches Hochstift). While Goethe is not always in the forefront of the studies, they ultimately all revolve around him. The spectrum ranges from a discussion of some essential preconditions for the flowering of German classicism and the environment in which Goethe's youthful works took shape to the epoch of the "West-Ostlicher Divan." Common to all is the aim of proceeding from philological interpretation and reconstruction to broader perspectives on the history of ideas, the history of literary motifs and Goethe's biography."

In its capacity as administrator of Stefan George's heritage, the Stefan George Foundation not only looks after the poet's literary estate but also coordinates and promotes all the activities and academic research concerned with him. The present brochure has been prepared to mark the 50th anniversary of the Foundation's existence; it contains a collection of papers by notable George researchers on its history.