| 1749 | 28 August: Johann Wolfgang Goethe born into a well-to-do family, Johann Kaspar Goethe and Katharina Elisabeth Goethe née Textor, in Frankfurt am Main. |
| 1750–7 | December: birth of his sister Cornelia. |
| 1752–65 | Goethe is privately educated. He has tutors in French, Hebrew, Italian, English. |
| 1755 | Lisbon earthquake. |
| 1756–63 | Seven Years’ War. |
| 1765–8 | Studies law at the University of Leipzig. Early love affairs (Käthchen Schönkopf). |
| August 1768–March 1770: mostly at home in Frankfurt, often ill. Associates with Pietists under the guidance of Susanna von Klettenberg. | |
| 1770–1 | Studies in Strasbourg. Love-affair with Friederike Brion. Friendship with Herder. Reads Shakespeare, Ossian, Homer. |
| 1771–4 | Works as barrister in Frankfurt and Wetzlar. |
| 1771 | First version of Götz von Berlichingen. |
| 1774 | First version of The Sorrows of Young Werther published. |
| 1775 | Engaged to Lili Schönemann. Journey to Switzerland. Begins Egmont. Invited to Weimar as companion to the young Duke Carl August. Breaks off his engagement. Arrives in Weimar on 7 November. |
| 1776 | Becomes a member of the Privy Council which governs Weimar. Visits the silver mine at Ilmenau, which over the years he will try to reopen. |
| 1776–86 | Increasingly involved in administrative duties. Relationship with Charlotte von Stein. Works for the Weimar theatre; makes scientific studies, especially in geology; begins work on Wilhelm Meister, Iphigenie in Tauris (in prose), Torquato Tasso. |
| 1777 | 8 June: death of his sister Cornelia. |
| November and December: visits the Harz Mountains; climbs the Brocken. | |
| 1782 | Ennobled with the predicate ‘von’. |
| 1786 | Feeling confined in Weimar, and frustrated by his relationship with Charlotte von Stein, leaves secretly for Italy on 3 September. |
| 29 October: arrives in Rome. | |
| 1786–8 | Stays in Rome, Naples, Sicily, and Rome again. Much contact with artists and work of art. Completes Egmont. Revises Iphigenie in verse. |
| 1788 | 18 June: back in Weimar. Relieved of most of his official duties. |
| 12 July: begins relationship with Christiane Vulpius. | |
| 1789 | Completes Tasso. |
| 14 July: fall of the Bastille, beginning of French Revolution. | |
| 25 December: birth of August, the only child of Goethe and Christiane to survive. | |
| 1790 | March–June: second Italian journey, this time to Venice. |
| Partial publication of Faust as Faust: A Fragment. | |
| 1792 | Accompanies Prussian forces to France and witnesses their defeat at the Battle of Valmy, 20 September. |
| 1793 | 21 January: execution of Louis XVI. |
| May–July: Goethe present at the siege of Mainz. | |
| 1794 | Begins correspondence with Schiller, who lives in nearby Jena. |
| 1795 | Roman Elegies published in Schiller’s journal Die Horen (The Hours). |
| 1796 | Publishes Wilhelm Meister’s Apprenticeship. |
| 1797 | Publishes Hermann and Dorothea. |
| 1799 | Schiller moves to Weimar. |
| 1803 | Publishes The Natural Daughter. |
| 1805 | Death of Schiller. |
| 1806 | Goethe marries Christiane Vulpius. |
| 18 October: Battle of Jena, in which Napoleon’s forces defeat Prussia. French troops enter Weimar and invade Goethe’s house. | |
| 1808 | 2 and 6 October: meetings with Napoleon in Erfurt. |
| Faust Part I published | |
| 1809 | Publishes Elective Affinities. |
| 1811 | Begins work on his autobiography, Poetry and Truth. |
| 1812 | Napoleon’s retreat from Moscow. |
| 1814–18 | Friendship with Marianne von Willemer; writes poems of the West-Eastern Divan. |
| 1816 | 6 June: death of Christiane. |
| 1816–17 | Publishes the Italian Journey. |
| 1821 | Publishes first version of Wilhelm Meister’s Journeyman Years. |
| 1823–4 | In love with Ulrike von Levetzow; writes the poems forming the ‘Trilogie der Leidenschaft’ (‘Trilogy of Passion’). |
| 1823–32 | Many conversations recorded by his secretary Johann Peter Eckermann. |
| 1825–31 | Continues work on Faust II. |
| 1832 | 22 March: Goethe’s death. |