# Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach issues its 1816 constitution while Goethe is senior Geheimrat

Date: 1816

## The fact

On 5 May 1816 Carl August issued a constitution for Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach, among the first in the German Confederation. Goethe was a senior official of that court, not the sole drafter. The Fact stores the dated constitution with his complex office-role.

## Context

A small-duchy constitution is a resilience gain of limited franchise. It does not convert 1776 council service into liberalism by back-dating.

[Johann Wolfgang von Goethe](/people/johann-wolfgang-von-goethe) is not the sole author of every later object, law, or museum label that uses the name. Shared work with courts, excavators, printers, spouses, officials, and later states does not erase a documented role, and it does not make an ancient person the signer of a twentieth-century statute.

## Evidence and sources

Official archive/museum/agency pages and an independent publisher independently describe this instrument.

Official or archival record: Klassik Stiftung Weimar — Goethe institutions (https://www.klassik-stiftung.de/; Klassik Stiftung Weimar).

## Significance

A constitution can be real and still sit beside serfdom’s last years. Split those signs.

A constitution can be real and still sit beside serfdom’s last years. Split those signs.

## What is established and what is not

Established as a dated public record of this instrument.

What would change the picture: a contradictory original with a different date or name, or a measured series that can be argued, with lag and alternatives, as a consequence of this instrument rather than of later institutions.

The date is the date of this instrument, not a licence to back-date every later harm or benefit.
Later competitions, monuments, translations, UNESCO listings, and museums are not converted into extra lifetime acts. The attached driver is [democratic-resilience](/drivers/democratic-resilience). The welfare reading used in this dossier is improving. That reading is an impact-path choice, not a property stored on the Fact itself. Confidence is stated on the impact path. A later English edition is not a recovered autograph. If a number is not in the two records named above, it is not supplied here.

## People

- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe: https://factrail.ai/people/johann-wolfgang-von-goethe

## Drivers

- Democratic Resilience: https://factrail.ai/drivers/democratic-resilience

## Sources

- https://www.britannica.com/biography/Johann-Wolfgang-von-Goethe
- https://www.klassik-stiftung.de/

## Methodology

https://factrail.ai/methodology

Canonical: https://factrail.ai/facts/go-saxe-weimar-constitution-1816