Who Was Alive

Were Gotthold Ephraim Lessing and Johann Wolfgang von Goethe alive at the same time?

Yes. Gotthold Ephraim Lessing and Johann Wolfgang von Goethe were alive at the same time for 31 years, from 1749 to 1781.

Gotthold Ephraim Lessing was 20 when Johann Wolfgang von Goethe was born.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe was 31 when Gotthold Ephraim Lessing died, aged 52.

Gotthold Ephraim Lessing

German writer, philosopher, publicist, and art critic

Born 22 January 1729 · died 15 February 1781, aged 52

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

German writer, artist, natural scientist and politician

Born 28 August 1749 · died 22 March 1832, aged 82

  1. Gotthold Ephraim Lessing
  2. George Washington
  3. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
  4. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
  5. Ludwig van Beethoven
  6. Napoleon
  7. Abraham Lincoln
  8. Charles Darwin
  9. Karl Marx
  10. Leo Tolstoy
Gotthold Ephraim Lessing and Johann Wolfgang von Goethe in bold, with some of their best-known contemporaries. Drag across to see the age each reached in any year. Faded ends mark uncertain dates.