The Sorrows of Young Werther in the context of "German literature"

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (28 August 1749 – 22 March 1832) was a German polymath who is widely regarded as the most influential writer in the German language. His work has had a wide-ranging influence on literary, political, and philosophical thought in the Western world from the late 18th century to the present. A poet, playwright, novelist, scientist, statesman, theatre-director, and critic, Goethe wrote a wide range of works, including plays, poetry and aesthetic criticism, as well as treatises on botany, anatomy, and colour.

Goethe took up residence in Weimar in 1775 following the success of his first novel, The Sorrows of Young Werther (1774), and joined a thriving intellectual and cultural environment under the patronage of Duchess Anna Amalia that formed the basis of Weimar Classicism. He was ennobled by Karl August, Duke of Saxe-Weimar, in 1782. Goethe was an early participant in the Sturm und Drang literary movement. During his first ten years in Weimar, Goethe became a member of the Duke's privy council (1776–1785), sat on the war and highway commissions, oversaw the reopening of silver mines in nearby Ilmenau, and implemented a series of administrative reforms at the University of Jena. He also contributed to the planning of Weimar's botanical park and the rebuilding of its Ducal Palace.

Maximiliane Brentano (4 May 1756 – 19 November 1793) was a German woman who is known for her friendship to the young Johann Wolfgang von Goethe and as the mother of the Romantic writers Clemens Brentano and Bettina von Arnim. Born in Mainz, she was the daughter of the Protestant author Sophie von La Roche and the Catholic civil servant and court official Georg Michael Frank von La Roche [de]. From 1771, they lived in Ehrenbreitstein [de] near Koblenz, where her father served at the court of the Electorate of Trier. Her mother published her first novel and became a famous author, and the family residence became a literary salon visited by many notable writers of the era. These visitors included the poets Goethe and Johann Georg Jacobi, both of whom fell in love with Maximiliane, who was described as graceful and charming.

In 1774, she married an Italian-born businessman from Frankfurt, Peter Anton Brentano [de]. Between 1775 and 1793, they had twelve children, of which eight survived to adulthood. In the same year as the birth and death of her twelfth child, Brentano died. She is remembered as part of the inspiration for Goethe's novel The Sorrows of Young Werther, where the dark eyes of the female protagonist Lotte are based on hers, and through the writings of her children.

Karl Wilhelm Jerusalem (21 March 1747 – 30 October 1772) was a German lawyer. His suicide in Wetzlar became the model for that of The Sorrows of Young Werther by Goethe.

The Last Letters of Jacopo Ortis (Italian: Ultime lettere di Jacopo Ortis) is an epistolary novel written by Ugo Foscolo between 1798 and 1802 and first published later that year. A second edition, with major changes, was published by Foscolo in Zurich (1816) and a third one in London (1817).

The model was Goethe's novel The Sorrows of Young Werther (1774). Another influence is Rousseau's Julie, or the New Heloise (1761). Foscolo's work was also inspired by the political events that occurred in Northern Italy during the Napoleonic period, when the Fall of the Republic of Venice and the subsequent Treaty of Campoformio forced Foscolo to go into exile from Venice to Milan. The autobiographic elements reflect into the novel.