Goethe Seminar

On 8 October 2023 the Sabah Ülkesi Culture & Art Association hosted a lecture at the IGMG headquarters led by literary scholar Ahmet Aydın. The talk explored Johann Wolfgang von Goethe’s influence on his era and his fascination with Islam and Mevlana, illustrated with passages from the West–Eastern Divan.

A lively Q&A followed, continuing over refreshments served at the association’s premises. Participants reflected on Goethe’s literary legacy, his dialogue with Eastern thought and the bridge he built between cultures.

Born in Frankfurt in 1749, Goethe spent most of his life in Weimar alongside close friends such as Friedrich Schiller. Together with Wieland and Herder he envisioned a distinctly German literary language—an ambition realised in seminal works including The Sorrows of Young Werther, Faust, Wilhelm Meister’s Apprenticeship, the West–Eastern Divan and The Theory of Colours.