English Goethe Society

The Society was founded in 1886 for the purpose of promoting the study of Goethe’s work and thought. It is the oldest learned society devoted to German studies in the UK, and the third of all Goethe societies. In 1891 the Society’s scope was extended, so that, while always keeping Goethe as its main focus, the attention of its members might also be directed to other fields of German culture.
Many of the most distinguished German scholars of their time have addressed the Society. It has also attracted eminent speakers from outside the profession, including Ernst Cassirer (1935), Dorothy Sayers (1945), Thomas Mann (1950), and Alfred Brendel (2021).
The Society meets five or six times a year in London and other parts of the UK. It welcomes as members all of those who support its aims, academics and non-academics alike. Its membership is drawn from all parts of the UK and Ireland; it also has members in Germany, France, the USA, and Australia. As part of their entitlement members receive the thrice-yearly Publications of the English Goethe Society (PEGS), which publishes the lectures and prize-winning essays that are first presented to its members as well as unsolicited papers and conference proceedings on subjects of interest to members.