Faust in his study with Black Dog by Franz Stassen Faust (Latin Faustus) is the protagonist of a popular German tale of a pact with the Devil, assumed to be based on the figure of the German magician and alchemist Dr. Johann Georg Faust (approximately 1480-1540). It has been used as the basis for many different fictional works, most notably by Christopher Marlowe, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Klaus Mann, Thomas Mann, and Mikhail Bulgakov.