Goethe-Jahrbuch

This article reconstructs Johann Wolfgang von Goethe’s first stay in Karlsbad in the summer of 1785, a formative moment in the development of his lasting attachment to Bohemia. Drawing on both German and Polish sources—including Karl Ludwig von Knebel’s diaries, the correspondence of Stanisław Kostka Potocki and Princess Izabella Lubomirska, as well as previously unpublished documents by Jan Potocki and Scipione Piattoli—the study sheds light on the cosmopolitan social fabric of the spa town and on the interactions between the Weimar elite and the Polish–Lithuanian aristocracy. The article shows how Goethe, not yet at the height of his classical period, navigated with ease among social gatherings, literary exercises, readings, and language lessons, influencing and being influenced by an international aristocratic milieu. It further highlights overlooked details, such as Jan Potocki’s presence in Karlsbad, the reception of Werther among Polish nobles, and several convivial episodes that offer fresh insight into the poet’s daily life. Ultimately, the brief but intense spa experience is interpreted as a social microcosm and as a metaphor for life itself, where individual paths intersect briefly before parting again.