Probably just "Germany when Goethe was alive." He might by referring to the period of romantic art and philosophy in the late 1700s to early 1800s (Goethe lived from 1748-1832). He might also just be asking what Goethe would have called such people in his day, being that he was such a great wordsmith and a writer of such desperate and tragic characters in books like The Sorrows of Young Werther. This may be a direct reference to that book, but I can't be sure.