Despite being the
German word for
fist, Faust is together with the
Nibelungenlied (not
Der Ring des Niebelungen by
Wagner, but the
Saga, which is
the Germanic epic dealing with
betrayal and
disloyalty) the most important work of (German) Literature available. The story behind Faust was not made up by
Goethe, but is a story of a man living nearly 300 years before him (if he really lived):
Doctor Faustus. The story of this man was mixed together with older stories about
sorcerers to the first Faust story "Historia von D. Johann Fausten" (
1587) by J. Spies. Because this story is lost
The tragical history Doctor Faustus is the oldest readable Faust story. Several other versions were released ,but the most important ones were Goethes three versions. During
1772-
1775 Goethe wrote the
Urfaust, a mainly forgotten work (because the two part version was better). The most frequently read version is the first part of
Goethes two part version: "Faust, der Tragödie erster Teil". The second part "Der Tragödie zweiter Teil" continues were the first ends and is nearly never played in
theatres as it is considered unplayable. Recently during the
Expo in
Hannover a production of both parts together was made, lasting round about 20 hours.
The reasons why the story of Faust is more important today than ever in history, are, that the basic problems dealt with in this story are still unsolved (and maybe stay unsolved till the The Second Coming, or something similar) : What is a scientist allowed to do? (Faust, a godfearing man, sells his soul to the devil.) When is a person unique and important? (Faust does not feel like he reached anything important, so he thinks he is unimportant and longs for self-realization). A work basing on these two fundamental questions, what are humans are allowed to do and what the humans are here for, can never be outdated, especially when written by such a genius like Goethe, making reading this book real fun (exceptionally Mephistopheles).