Faust: A Folkloric Figure

Faust, which is German for “fist”, is the central character of a well known German Legend in which he makes a pact with the devil. The legend is unclear as to whom the legend was built around or if there even was a Dr. Georg Johannes Faustus. There is also and argument as to whether he sold his soul in order to gain infinite knowledge and wisdom, youth, and the pleasures of having flesh or for magical powers. There are a few people who may be the actual Faust from the legend, such as Georg Johannes Faustus, who received a degree in divinity from Heidelberg University in 1509. Faust’s infamy became legendary while he was in jail when he had told a chaplain that he could remove hair from his face without using a razor in exchange for a bottle of wine. The arsenic that Faust provided him removed the hair from his face along with his skin. A Georg Faust received a degree at the University of Erfurt. Later in his life, he practiced alchemy and was destroyed by the devil at a rural inn in Wurttemberg. Another theory that was brought to everyone’s attention is that both of the Faust’s could have been brothers or even twins.

When looking over the legend of Faust, people must realize the age in which the character was living in. It was an age of schism and anyone with unorthodox ideas was said to be dangerous. Public opinion was often dangerous for religious and scientific innovators and certainly for those who were accused of witchcraft. There are many humorist scholars who say that his magical features were “petty” and “fraudulent”, but there are also a few, such as Martin Luther and Phillipp Melanchthon, who took him very seriously. Faust’s achievements made him a symbol of the wrong scientific, religious, and philosophical thoughts of his time.

There have been so many stories about Faust and whether or not the legend is true.