Conversations with German Refugees

The text follows a group of upper-class Germans who have fled westward after their estates were threatened or overrun by French forces. Isolated in a rural retreat near the Rhine, the group—composed of nobles, clergy, and professionals—attempts to pass the time through storytelling, reflection, and cautious conversation. Rather than treat political events directly, Goethe offers a setting in which people of different backgrounds must negotiate polite speech, emotional distance, and the reordering of their private world in response to public upheaval.

The narrative frame allows Goethe to insert a series of short stories told by the characters, including fairy tales, moral anecdotes, and ironic tales of love, duty, and deception. Among them is the much-anthologized The New Melusina, blending fantasy with social satire. As in The Decameron or The Arabian Nights, the outer story serves to link the inner tales, but Goethe’s emphasis lies on restraint, civility, and the possibility of holding society together through refined exchange even in crisis. The work is marked by its elegant tone and deliberate refusal to dramatize revolution directly; instead, it offers a controlled literary space where narrative and conversation offer temporary shelter from political fragmentation.

This critical reader's edition offers a modern translation of the original manuscript in Fraktur (the old German script), designed to help any curious reader delve into Goethe's works, using clear, contemporary language and straightforward sentences to illuminate his complex ideas. It includes supplementary material providing autobiographical, historical, and linguistic context to this 18th century work- including an afterword by the translator discussing Goethe’s history, impact, and intellectual legacy, alongside an index of the philosophical concepts he explored—with a focus on Romanticism and Classicism. Included is a comprehensive chronological list of his published writings and a detailed timeline of his life, highlighting the personal relationships that profoundly influenced his philosophy.