Johann Wolfgang von Goethe is one of my favorite classical writers. We read parts of his magnum opus, Faust in high school and Goethe's conception of good and evil really resonated with me. I have an especial fondness for this work because I decided to do a research paper on it for my Advanced Placement English class, which was interesting and a lot of fun, and then on the actual Advanced Placement exam one of the essay questions dealt with the nature of evil. I was able to pretty much transplant chunks of my paper in their entirety for this essay. It must have been well received, as I got a score of 5 on the test (the highest possible)!

Leipzig was home to Goethe for a time, but he spent most of his later life in Weimar. Also he set some of the early scenes of Faust in Leipzig, which are commemorated in the statues seen here.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe