I just recently read Goethe's Faust I again and, as I read the scene Studierzimmer I (Study), I could not ignore the feeling that this

'... Who then art thou?

MEPHISTOPHELES

Part of that power which still Produceth good, whilst ever scheming ill.

FAUST

What hidden mystery in this riddle lies?

MEPHISTOPHELES

The spirit I, which evermore denies!

And justly; for whate'er to light is brought

Deserves again to be reduced to naught;

Then better 'twere that naught should be.

Thus all the elements which ye

Destruction, Sin, or briefly, Evil, name,

As my peculiar element I claim.'

(Source: The Project Gutenberg Etext of Faust Part 1, by Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe - http://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/3023/pg3023.html)

could be one of the first "notions" of the "creative power of destruction" that probably influenced Friedrich Nietzsche, Karl Marx and ultimately Joseph Schumpeter. While I have only read about Marx and Sombart and also Nietzsche explicitly writing about this topic and thus (maybe) influencing Schumpeter to write about that which is now widely known (in an economic context) as Creative Destruction, I would argue that Goethe's depiction of "Mephistopheles" is probably one of the first and one of the most influential notions of "creative destruction". This is due to the fact that almost certainly every single one of the aforementioned scholars had been reading Goethe's Faust as it has been and still is a basic cultural asset in German literature.

Does anyone else see this parallel or am I imagining connections where there are none?