Johann Georg Faust

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Dr. Johann Georg Faust (approx. 1480 - 1540) was a German alchemist who was born in the village of Knittlingen, Württemberg.

Martin Luther's friend Melanchthon stated that Faust studied magic at the University of Kraków, in Poland ^{[citation needed]}. He was accused of practicing black magic; additionally, there are reports of Faust disparaging Jesus' miracles and boasting that he could do the same as often as he liked.

Although feared and hated by Luther and Melanchthon (who claimed that the devil accompanied Faust in the form of a dog), the doctor nevertheless found popularity among a band of followers who induced him to teach. After being accused of molesting his students, he had to flee to escape punishment. Other reports show that he was active in Erfurt's university. Apparently while he lectured on Homer he confronted his students--in order to entertain them--with Homer's heroes in the flesh.

It was in Erfurt that Faust, while confronted by a Franciscan monk named Konrad Klinge, said "I have gone further than you think and have pledged myself to the devil with my own blood, to be his in eternity, body and soul." ^{[citation needed]}

Another story has him riding out of a Auerbach's Keller in Leipzig on a barrel (1525) [See Goethe's Faust, Part One, lines 2329-2330] ^{[citation needed]}. In 1534, the German adventurer Philipp von Hutten asked Faust to foretell his future before exploring the region around Venezuela; six years later he wrote his brother that everything had happened exactly as Faust foretold.

Faust was put to death in Staufen, Germany, Breisgau in 1540. According to folklore, he was found in a pile of dung with his eyes stuck to the wall. ^{[citation needed]}

[edit] Cultural effect

A German chapbook about his sins, popularly known as the Faustbuch (Faust book), was translated into English in 1587, where it came to the attention of Christopher Marlowe. Marlowe's The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus, in turn, was studied by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (though Goethe did not read Marlowe's play until after Faust Part One was published), and as such the fictional Faust came to overshadow the historical Faust, about whom little is known.