Welt (World)

Goethe uses the word Welt (world) repeatedly in his writings, especially in his poetry, both singularly and in compounds, to establish a rich constellation of nature, divinity, and subjectivity, managed discursively at the intersection of economics, science, and literature. The most widely discussed example is Weltliteratur (world literature), but his understanding of Welt is equally evident in such compounds as Weltgeschichte (world history), Weltseele (world soul), Weltgeist (world spirit), Weltensumpf (world morass), Weltregiment (world regime), Weltwirrwesen (tumultuous world essence), Weltenschöpfer (world creator), Weltbürger (world citizen), Weltfrömmigkeit (world piety), and many more. I will focus in this lexicon entry on Goethe’s cosmological and phenomenological understandings of Welt, with the aim of showing how he enables the latter by his treatment of the former. Welt is such a widespread concept that it is not possible to do justice to all aspects of its use. As a result, the main textual references used in this entry are Faust, the Wilhelm Meister novels, and the poem “Auf dem See” (1775/89; On the Lake).