A few months after the closure of the only Goethe Institute in Iceland in March 1998, Wolfgang Müller opened a "private Goethe Institute" in Reykjavik as an installation at the Nylistsafn Museum. Three years later, in March 2001, the legal department of the Goethe Institute headquarters suddenly threatened with high fines if Müller continued to call himself the director of a Goethe Institute. To avoid burdening the financially struggling Goethe Institute with a lawsuit, Müller renamed his project after Goethe's last grandson to the Walther von Goethe Foundation. The foundation has now enabled the first translation and publication of Goethe's first scientific text into Icelandic. Additionally, the original German text from 1790 is included in its unchanged orthography. The book also features a text on the history of the Walther von Goethe Foundation. The Metamorphosis of Plants is considered one of Goethe's major scientific works. He aimed to demonstrate an organic structure of natural phenomena and a processual development. With this work, Goethe can be regarded as one of Darwin's most significant precursors, and it is considered groundbreaking for Darwinian evolutionary theory. During Goethe's time, "The Metamorphosis of Plants" received only very reserved reception. Compared to purely experimental and rationalistic modern natural science, Goethe's investigations contain speculative elements. However, his holistic perspective has retained its increasing significance in light of today's fragmentation into ever more specialized disciplines.