The world that originated from Faust´s pact with the devil in Faust II anticipates the reality surrounding us nowadays, a reality characterized by a flood of data, electronic media and the hectic pace of everyday life, - a fact vouching for the play´s striking modernity.
This thesis explores the trends of socio-political developments during the period of historical changes in Germany around 1830 that can be deduced from Act V of Goethe´s Faust II.
Profound political, technical, economic and cultural changes at the beginning of the nineteenth century had an impact on Goethe as a contemporary and appear in his late literary work. Thus specific constants and developments of his time are also presented in and can be deduced from one of the great literary works of the aged poet, Faust II.
This paper shows that the final act of Faust II Goethe reveals profound changes in human mentality that took place at the beginning of the nineteenth century and partly even before: Secularization and ruthless rationality with a tendency to acceleration, de-humanization and unscrupulous submission of human beings and nature.
The world that originated from Faust´s pact with the devil in Faust II anticipates the reality surrounding us nowadays, a reality characterized by a flood of data, electronic media and the hectic pace of everyday life, - a fact vouching for the play´s striking modernity.