'Die-Zeit-des-Schoenen-ist-voruber' -: Wilhelm!Meister's path to the profession of surgeon in Goethe's novel 'Wilhelm Meisters Wanderjahre oder Die Entsagenden'

The essay discusses two central aspects that are decisive for Wilhelm's choice of profession in Wilhelm Meister's Journeyman Years. It focusses on the possibilities of reacting to the conditions of the modern age in a positive way in contrast to the negative reactions shown in Faust II. In Wilhelm Meister's Apprenticeship the protagonist acts according to the idea that by being an actor he can develop himself fully. This idea is ironically contrasted with the events of the novel. In Wilhelm Meister's Journeyman Years, however, the protagonist acts to benefit common welfare and becomes a surgeon. The study concentrates on those traumatic experiences in Wilhelm's youth, which were suppressed for a long time due to his ambitions to be an actor. These traumatic experiences caused him to stop concentrating on the beautiful and to focus on the useful. This study also explores how this development is reflected in Goethe's concept of a plastic anatomy.