Weygand in Leipzig publishes Die Leiden des jungen Werthers
In autumn 1774 the Leipzig publisher Weygand issued Die Leiden des jungen Werthers. In the causal graph this event sets in motion Social Cohesion, a driver that strengthens Having a say in government — an improving welfare path.
Read the full account
In autumn 1774 the Leipzig publisher Weygand issued Die Leiden des jungen Werthers. It is not a medical study and not the later ‘Werther effect’ paper.
Context
The book made a Frankfurt lawyer famous across Europe. Shared reading is a cohesion gain. Imitative suicide, later measured, is a separate worsening Fact. Bans in some cities are also separate.
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.
Why it matters
High confidence on the printing.
Print access and contagion harm are different instruments. Split them.
Who was responsible
Contribution type and responsibility level for each recorded actor — not sole-author shorthand.
Direct responsibility
responsibility level 0.4 · verified
He wrote the novel. Weygand printed it. Later translations and bans are other people’s instruments.
What changed
Fact → Driver → Indicator. Relationship strength orders the paths; it is not the observed indicator movement.
- FactWeygand in Leipzig publishes Die Leiden des jungen Werthers
- sets in motionDriverSocial Cohesion
- strengthensIndicators (2)Having a say in government
impact weight 0.4 · Effect from 29 September 1774 · verified
A vernacular epistolary novel created a shared European reading public around private feeling, a cohesion path separate from later suicide-contagion research.
Strengthens · Relationship strength 0.18 (weight 0.4 × strength 0.45)
Observed
29.8% of population aged 16-65 years · 8.13 below the normal line (2023)
Worse than normalTwo readings: 30.2% of population aged 16-65 years (2021) and 29.8% of population aged 16-65 years (2023).
20212023 Above normal = better
Weakens · Relationship strength 0.18 (weight 0.4 × strength 0.45)
Observed
43.9 Score · 43.9 above the normal line (2024)
Worse than normal26 readings, 1996–2024: rose from 43 Score to 43.9 Score.
Normal is zero · any amount = worse
Evidence
The sources behind this fact and its verification state.
- 1.The Sorrows of Young Werther — English public-domain textProject Gutenberg · High credibility · verified
- 2.Deutsche NationalbibliothekDeutsche Nationalbibliothek · High credibility · verified
What the sources establish
National-library catalogues and a public-domain English text independently document the work’s printed existence.
Established: Werther was printed in 1774. Not established: a 1774 death tally caused by the book.
Later competitions, monuments, translations, UNESCO listings, and museums are not converted into extra lifetime acts. 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. Confidence is stated on the impact path.
Causal path
How this event connects to drivers and indicators in the graph.
- ActorJohann Wolfgang von Goethe
- contributed toFactWeygand in Leipzig publishes Die Leiden des jungen Werthers
- sets in motionDriverSocial Cohesion
- strengthensIndicatorHaving a say in government
Cite this page
Factrail. (2026). Weygand in Leipzig publishes Die Leiden des jungen Werthers. Factrail. https://factrail.ai/facts/go-werther-print-1774
https://factrail.ai/facts/go-werther-print-1774
Accessed 15 October 2026.
By the Factrail desk · Method: how we source and score · Last reviewed
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