There were later experiences--notably his Italian journey and his intercourse with Schiller--which profoundly influenced him, but none of these experiences penetrated his being so permanently as the atmosphere of Weimar, which he daily breathed for more than half a century.
As Goethe himself has said, the first twenty-six years of his life are essentially the period of his "development." During that period we see him as he came from Nature's hand.

His words, his actions have then a stamp of spontaneity which they gradually lost with advancing years as the result of his social and official relations in Weimar.

He has told us that it was one of the painful conditions of his position there that it made impossible that frank and cordial relation with others which it was his nature to seek, and from which he had previously derived encouragement and stimulus; as a State official, he adds, he could be on easy terms with nobody without running the risk of a petition for some favour which he might or might not be able to confer.
For the portrayal of the youthful Goethe materials are even superabundant; of no other genius of the same order, indeed, have we a record comparable in fulness of detail for the same period of life.
And it is this abundance of information and the extraordinary individuality to whom it relates that give specific interest to any study of Goethe's youth.

From month to month, even at times from day to day, we can trace the growth of his character, of his opinions, of his genius.

And the testimonies of his contemporaries are unanimous as to the unique impression he made upon them.