Goethe

I was back to my home town on Saturday evening; Vivian was waiting for me in the airport.

On our way home, the radio in my wife's Golf GTI was tuned to a talk show on copycat suicide after von Goethe's The Sorrows of Young Werther was published.

I was amazed to find such a philosophical program in a local channel.

"My dear, we should salute to the producer! It is something more than calculation and kitsch," I said, "But I must say von Goethe was more than upset when he saw young persons killed themselves following his young Werther. Our great German author loved life as much as anyone - inspite of his remarkable medical history."

Here is a brief summary:

• 1768 (age 19): massive hemoptysis with neck tumor (It was probably lung tuberculosis with collar stud abscess.)
• 1801 (age 52): erysipelas of face
• 1805 (age 56): kidney stone with recurrent renal colic
• 1823 (age 74): heart attack, which was probably complicated by Dressler's syndrome
• 1830 (age 81): massive hemoptysis, presumably the result of post-tuberculous bronchiectasis
• 1832 (age 83): recurrent heart attack

The first episode of coughing out blood actually happened when he was a college student, and it took him nearly two years to recover. It was fortunate to lovers of art and literature that the disease did not take over the later-to-be great author, and he did not give up himself either.