GOETHE -the CHEMIST ALBERT JOHN GEHRT University of Illinois, Urbana, Illinois
To the world i n general Goethe is well known as a man of letters, but the fact that he was also a scientist of considerable ability i s seldom realized because his literary fame completely eclipsed his scientific skill. Goethe's signijkance to chemistry i s based upon two considerations: first the act& experimental work whuh he did, and second the references to chemistry which appear i n his immortal works. The experimental investigations of Goethe and his coworker Dljbereiner were among the first to be carried out i n the field of synthetic chemistry and are of historical importance from this standpoint. Goethe's first scientific interest was i n alchemy, but later centered on technological chemistry, and all his imfirtant experiments were i n this field.
Gomne AT THE AGE OF FORTY-TWO From a pastel sketch by Lips. 1791.
tress, and conditions of turmoil and depression were prevalent. As an escape from the problems of the day people sought refuge in philosophy or religion. The natural philosophical school developed, and with it sprang up many mystic scientific societies. One of the most important of these was the Orden der Rosenkreuzer, the object of which was to promote thinking toward a HE NAME of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe is general idealistic reformation. Alchemy was an imknown and revered throughout the world, not portant feature of this movement, for belief in the existonly by lovers of literature, hut by everyone of ence of the "elixir of life" and the "philosopher's stone" ordinary education. To all these people the name was directly linked with the religious ideas of the organiGoethe is synonymous with literary greatness, but t o zation. Doctors, lawyers, and religious men contrihonly a very few does it suggest anything connected uted hooks on such subjects as "A Chemical Garden with the science of chemistry. Nevertheless, Goethe of Eden." Some people grew so confident in the sucwas of considerable importance t o chemistry from two cess of alchemy that they prophesied that soon the standpoints. First, he was an ardent experimenter and transmutation of metals would be the common knowltheorizer-in other words, a good chemist--and second, edge of all chemists. by his literary references to chemistry he awakened It was under such conditions that the young Goethe a great interest in that science. Why, then, should began his life as a student. He went to Leipzig in 17G5, Goethe not have been recognized as a chemist of note? where he studied law and became interested in alchemy. The answer can only be that though he was a great However, in 1768 he returned to Frankfurt to recuperchemist, his literary work so totally overshadowed his ate from an illness, and during the period of his convascientific investigations that when we think of Goethe lescence his interest in alchemy took an active turn. we think of Goethe, the writer. However, as many The start was a mere groping. I n the beginning he was historians of literature have remarked, it is the duty influenced by his mother, his physician, and his acof any historian of chemistry to place Goethe's name quaintance, Katherine von Klettenberg, all of whom were members of one of the mystic religious organizain the list of i m ~ o r t a n chemists. t Goethe was born in Frankfurt-am-Main in Germany tions. The physician was a devout admirer of ~ a r a c e l in 1749, the son of a public official. His family was sus, the firstgreat physiological chemist, who had introwell-to-do and he received a very good elementary edu- duced the medical use of opium and mercury salts. Fraulein Klettenberg was the grandniece of the famous cation. Although his home environment was a good one, the alchemist, John Hector von Klettenberg. general economic conditions in which he lived were During his convalescence Goethe studied works on not so favorable. At the middle of the eighteenth alchemy and the great work of Paracelsus, "On the century Germany was experiencing economical dis- nature of things." He even went so far as to fit out a 543
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natural resources in Germany. Here he saw the glass factories, smelters, and coal mines. As he says in "Dichtzmng und Wahrheit," "Here I was initiated into the problems of the mountain and mining districts, and the interest in economic and technical affairs,which have since occupied such a g e a t portion of my lie, was first aroused." In Strassburg he continued the study of Paracelsus, but now entirely from the standpoint of the technologist. He also took up the study of physics. In the eighteenth century the court a t Weimar, with its pomp and ceremony, constituted one of the cultural centers of Germany. I n 1775 Goethe went there as a public administrator and was a t first very much impressed by his new environment. He had graduated in law, and had already achieved fame as a writer. As public administrator he was responsible for supervision of the natural resources, forestry, highway maintenance, and the military equipment of the province of SaxeWeimar. I n this capacity he was called upon to visit the mines, forests, and other places linked with his work. This was exactly the impetus needed to further his interest in technological chemistry, and to banish entirely the thought of alchemy. In the course of his inspections he personally made technical tests of which records are still preserved in his day-book. In 1786 when Goethe made his Italian trip he visited places of scientific interest, among them the arsenal FRAULEINK A T H E R I NV OEN KLETTENBERG in Venice. On his return to Weimar he seems to have She introduced Gwthe to alchemy and so indirectly aroused seriously considered giving up literature for chemistry. his interest in chemistry. However, he continued his writings in connection with the duties of his position a t Weimar. small laboratory a t his home, with a hood, sand bath, Throughout this period he realized the importance of and other simple equipment in order to undertake minor chemistry in the study of mineralogy, and wrote of alchemical investigations. These were of little value this in letters to some of his friends. Goethe's position in themselves, but were of the utmost significance in a t Weimar made it necessary for him to be both a practhat they showed him the importance of experimental tical chemist and a good theorist. He used the same chemistry. Likewise he learned the alchemical sym- thoroughness of observation and theorizing which bols which he used throughout his experiments. It was have been characteristic of Liebig, Faraday, and other a t this time that he prepared his first compound, great scientists. sodium silicate, by heating silica from the Main River In 1799 Goethe became interested in the problem of with sodium hydroxide. extraction of sugar from the sugar beet and worked Goethe's interest in iatrochemistry also began with a German chemist, Gottling, on the commercial through his illness when his attention was directed to aspects of this process. the universal medicine used by the physicians of that Most of Goethe's actual experimental research was time, the so-called "Luftsalz." Subsequent analysis carried out in coiiperation with J. W. Dobereiner. The has shown this remedy to be a mixture of magnesium two men had the same technical advisor, Dr. W. H. S. and sodium sulfates. With the help of Katherine von Bucholtz, a prominent scientist of his time. Goethe Klettenberg he studied the works of Basil Valentine and was advised by him for over twenty years. Dobereiner, van Helmont, two early physiological chemists. taught by Bucholtz, became professor a t the University When Goethe went to Strassburg in 1770 to continue of Jena, and was called a second Faraday because of his his study of law he did not abandon chemistry, but took work in electrochemistry. At the beginning of Dobecourses in i t and in anatomy under a famous physician, reiner's career as professor in Jena, Goethe, because of pharmacist, and botanist, J. R. Spielmann. A letter his administrative position, was called upon to fit out to his friend Katherine a t this time declares his feeling Dobereiner's laboratory, and from this beginning the for chemistry by saying that it is his secret love. It two men became ardent co-workers. The continental was in Strassburg that a great change took place in blockade of German ports from 1806 to 1812 cut GerGoethe's chemical ideas. Up to this time alchemy had many off from many of the chemical products of Engbeen his principal interest, but in June, 1770, he visited land and, as a result, caused German investigators to the Saar district, one of the most important deposits of look for means of synthesis for their chemical necessi-
ties. This increased Gaethe's scientific interest. Such stimulation coming a t the time he became acquainted with Dobereiner led to their work on an astonishingly varied group of chemical processes. Among the more important of their investigations were studies of the preparation and uses of water gas and illuminating gas; the formulation of new alloys of manganese and silicon with iron; the preparation of strontium and the determination of the equivalent weight and specific gravity of strontium sulfate. At this stage in the history of chemistry, chemists bad gathered sufficient data to justify attempts a t classification of the elements. The foundations for the periodic table were laid a t this time, and the strontium experiments of Goethe and Dobereiner contributed significantly to that end. Inorganic chemists still repard Dobereiner's system of triads as an important step in the evolution of the periodic table of today. In the field of organic chemistry they were not idle. They synthesized oxalic acid from carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide, studied the destructive distillation of wood, and investigated the preparation of sugar from alcohol and carbon dioxide, using platinum suboxide as a catalyst. The orieinalitv of their work in oreanic svnthesis " may be better appreciated when we consider that most of Goethe's work in this field was done before 1830, or a t the time when organic chemistry was just becoming a distinct branch of the science. It was only in 1828 that Wohler synthesized urea from ammonium cyanate, proving that organic compounds could be made in absence of life. Incidentally, Dobereiner was the first to prepare sulfur trioxide directly from sulfur dioxide by means of a platinum catalyst, and hence was really the father of the contact process for the manufacture of sulfuric acid, although he made little attempt to commercialize the reaction. Practically all of these processes were merely investigated by Goethe and Dobereiner, with no attempt a t commercialization. While other great chemists, notably Berzelius, were attacking chemical problems from the analytical side, Goethe and Dobereiner were among the first to see the importance of the synthesis of the products needed a t that time. They realized that they were forerunners in synthetic work, and consequently investigated as many reactions as possible, leaving the perfection of the processes to their followers. It should be apparent from the foregoing brief sketch that Goethe was more than a saentific dilettante. If further evidence were needed we might point to the esteem with which he was regarded by such chemical ~~
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contemporaries a s Rose and Berzelius. Anaturally occurring crystalline form of hydrated ferric oxide found in many parts of the world, especially in St. Just, Cornwall, a n d a t Siegeninwestphalia, has been named goethite in his honor. Goethe's optimistic spirit and interest i n experimental chemistry continued until the end of his life in 1832. The JOHANN WOLFGANG DOBEREINER 1780-la9 scientific Goethe was Gwthe did most of his expericompletely sub- mental work with this discoverer of merged in the more triads. famous literary Goethe. Various phases of chemistry are mentioned in Faust, Wilhelm Meister, and Dichtung und Wahrheit. A well-known example is found in the second scene of Act I1 of the second part of Faust, where an alchemist's laboratory and his experiments are minutely described. No lover of literature can find it in his heart to wish that Goethe had abandoned writing for science. Had he done so, however, there is good reason to believe that he might have ranked among the greatest chemists of his time. * Reproduced by courtesy of Dr. Fritz Chemnitius. BIBLIOGRAPHY
K. BRAUER."Gwthe und die Chemie." Z. anaew. Chem.. 37, 1924). l8%9 (~pr., E. 0 . VON LIPWNN. "Der Stein der Weisen und Homunculus. zwei alchemistischeProhleme in Goethes Faust," Chem.-Zlg.,44, 213-14 (Mar., 1920). G. LOCKEMANN. "Goethes Beziehungen zur Chemie," iM., 56. 225-8 (Mar., 1932). P. WALDEN,"Goethe und die Chemie," Z. nngew. Chem., 43, 792-7, 847-50, 864-8 (1930). P. HWMEBROWN,"Life of Gwthe," H. Holt & Co.. New York City, 1920, Vol. 1, p. 261. M. GEITEL,"Entlegene Spuren Goethes," R. Oldenberg, Munich and Berlin. 1911.215 oo. J. W. YON &.OETE~E,"@&st," Translated by BAYARD Tamon. Houghton, Osgood & Co., Boston, 1879, Vol. 2, pp. 94-102. H. KOPP,"Die Alchemie in alterer und neuerer Zeit." Karl Winter, Heidelberg, 1886, Part I, p. 174; Part 11, p. 13. R. MAGNUS,"Goethe als Naturforscher," J. A. Barth, Leipzig. 1906, pp. 32,246,267,302. J. ZEITLER,"Gwthe Handhuch." J. B. Metzlersche Bnchhandlung, Stuttgart, 1916, Vol. 1, p. 315. Encyclopedia Britannica. 14th Ed., Encyclopedia Britannica. Inc., New York City, 1929, Vol. 10, p. 475.
