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Abegg
Abegg
Abegg’s relevance comes from his visit to Königsberg in the summer of 1798 (May 29-July 9), collecting many anecdotes in conversation with Kant and his acquaintances. He stayed with his older brother, a Königsberg merchant.
Born (30 November 1765) in Roxheim (by Kreuznach) and died (16 December 1840) in Heidelberg, he was the sixth of nine children. He matriculated at the university in Halle (1784), studying theology and philology for five semesters, worked as a Hofmeister, then received the position of associate rector at the gymnasium in Heidelberg (1789), then the director, and later that year was also made an associate professor at the university, and married in 1790. Suffering from an excess of work, he accepted in 1793 the position as inspector of the gymnasium in Boxberg (by Wurzburg), and it was during this time that he was invited by his older brother, the wine merchant and ship builder/owner Georg Philipp Abegg (1761-1833), to visit him in Königsberg (1798), of which more below. Abegg later served as the second pastor of St. Peter’s in Heidelberg (1808), then in 1814 became the second, and in 1823 the first pastor at the main church in Heidelberg – the Heiligen Geistkirche – also lecturing as a Full Prof. of Theology at Heidelberg since 1816.
Abegg travelled from Heidelberg to Königsberg in the summer of 1798, filling a travel diary with his many experiences and conversations along the way, including his encounters with Fichte (in Jena), Goethe and Herder (in Weimar), Markus and Henriette Herz (in Berlin), Kant (in Königsberg) – the nominal occasion for his visit was to witness the June 5 coronation of Friedrich Wilhelm III there – and Wieland (Osmanstadt) on his return home. He began the trip on 25 April 1798 visiting Königsberg (May 29 to July 9) and arrived back home August 10. [Sources: Abegg 1976, 5-12]
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Adickes
Erich Adickes was born (29 Jun 1866) in Lesum (near Bremen) and died (8 Jul 1928) in Tübingen, where he had been professor of philosophy since 1904.
Adickes studied theology, philosophy, and history at Tübingen, then at Berlin with R. Paulsen, graduating Dr. Phil. with a dissertation on “Kants Systematik als systembildender Faktor.” Habilitating in Kiel in 1895, he became an associate (außerordentiliche) professor there in 1898. In 1902 he moved to Münster as full professor, then in 1904 succeeded Christoph Sigwart at Tübingen.
Adickes’s most significant publications concerned Kant and the Kantian philosophy. He was intimately familiar with Kant’s Nachlaß, and edited volumes of extraordinary scholarship as part of the Berlin Academy of Sciences Kant’s gesammelte Schriften (see vols. 14-19).
Christian Gottlieb Arndt was a student of Kant’s and a friend of Hippel and Hamann. Enrolled at the university at Königsberg on 3 June 1760, studying first theology and then law; since 1764 he was in the Russian service, later the Imperial Russian Hofrat and Knight of the Wladimirordens. From 1797 he lived in Heidelberg. [Source: Goldbeck 1783, 120-22] [last update: 5 Jun 2007]
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Arnoldt
Friedrich Traugott Emil Arnoldt was born 6 February 1828 to Friederich Wilhelm Arnoldt (1789-1855; a pastor) and Charlotte Romanowsky, in Plibischken/Insterburg, about 80 km east of Königsberg. He died 31 May 31 1905 in Königsberg as a Privatdozent at the university, having never been promoted to professor, despite having been often nominated by the university. He is remembered primarily for his research on Kant’s life and ideas.
Arnoldt attended the Gymnasium in Gumbinnen, then enrolled in the fall of 1846 at the university in Königsberg, studying history and philosophy with Rosenkranz and Schubert, but he was especially drawn to Julius Rupp, and an essay that he wrote in 1850 for Rupp’s Volksboten won him a prison sentence, after which he was deported from Königsberg (1852) and worked for a time as a private tutor. He received his degree in 1853 (with a dissertation on Herder’s philosophy of history), but didn’t habilitate until 1874. He married Ernestine von Keudell (1832-1906) in 1860, but they had no children.
Arnoldt claimed to have read the Critique of Pure Reason 150 times. Much of his writing appeared in the Altpreußische Monatsschrift, and after his death it was edited by Otto Schöndoerffer in ten volumes. In understanding Kant’s teaching career and many of the student notes, his 1892-93 publication (see Arnoldt 1908-9) is indispensible, as he had access to many records that are now unavailable. [Sources: APB; Mühlpfordt 1962]
1771: Matriculates at the Collegium Fridericianum (Königsberg).
1772 (Apr 4): Matriculates at the university (Königsberg).
1776 (Feb): Leaves Königsberg.
1782: Returns to Königsberg.
1799: Professor of History at the Military Academy (Königsberg)
Ludwig Franz Adolf Josef von Baczko was born (8 Jun 1756) in Lyck, and died (27 Mar 1823) in Königsberg. He was a prolific author (primarily of histories, poems, and plays), and a former student and acquaintance of Kant’s. Baczko was a Catholic of Polish/Hungarian descent. His father was an officer in the Austrian, and later Prussian army, who distinguished himself during the Seven Years War under Frederick the Great.
Baczko attended the Collegium Fridericianum, describing in his autobiography his entrance exam in 1771 at the age of 15: Inspector Domsien “first gave me Cornelius, then Cicero’s Speeches, finally Freier’s Fasciculus and a small French book with the title Poesies sacrees. My translating strengths seemed to win his approval. He gave me some questions from history and geography, had me describe something from memory, and put me in the second class of Latin, and the first in most of the others. […] Back then there was weekly a letter, a Chrie, or a speech, and a poetical exercise, over which we worked first for a week in German, then a week in Latin” [1824, 160-61].
Baczko matriculated at the Albertina (4 April 1772) and attended Kant’s lectures, beginning with the metaphysics lectures, which he didn’t understand, and eventually came to realize that many of the other students attending the lecture knew even less than he, but attended so as to put on airs; from this experience he decided that all philosophy was useless (see the account from his autobiography). He had better luck with anthropology, and may have attended Kant’s first set of lectures in WS 1772/73.
Baczko was blinded as a young man at the age of 21, having just completed his law studies.
This apparently happened in stages, losing one eye to small pox, and then the other to a cyst, as we might infer from Hamann’s 13 Aug 1780 letter to Herder: “von Baczko, Unternehmer des preuß. Tempe, hält sich seit langer Zeit im Kanterschen Buchladen auf, wo er sich ein Gewächs zm Auge operiren laßen, das andere hat er schon in den Pocken verloren; soll wenig Hofnung haben zum Widersehen.” [Hamann, Briefwechsel, 4: 210]
Kant encouraged him to continue his studies in Königsberg, and he would have taught anthropology at the university except that his religious affiliation (Catholicism) disqualified him.
See Hamann’s letter of 12 November 1786 to the publisher Hartknoch:
“Three new professors are expected here, with foreigners having the advantage. Herr v Baczko wanted to graduate with a Magister, but the statutes are opposed to his religion.” [Briefwechsel, 7: 59]
He took a post in 1799 at the Military Academy, where he taught history for many years. Johann Abegg met Baczko in 1798: “Someone described this remarkable blind man as very ugly, but he did not seem so to me. He is about 40 years old, has a good and honest wife, and two very healthy, beautiful boys who were bouncing around him in the garden.” [Sources: Baczko 1790, 594-95 (bibliography); Abegg 1976, 207; ADB; NDB; Baczko 1824; Studer 1994] [last update: 13 Feb 2007]
Select Publications:
Handbuch der Geschichte und Erdbeschreibung Preussens, 2 vol. (Dessau/Leipzig, 1784), 482 pp.
Versuch einer Geschichte und Beschreibung der Stadt Königsberg (Königsberg, 1787-90). 2nd and fully revised edition: 1804.
Geschichte Preußens, 6 vols. (Königsberg: G. L. Hartung, 1795-1800).
Die Mennoniten: Ein Familiengemälde im drei Aufzügen (Königsberg: Heinrich Degen, 1809).
Geschichte meines Lebens, 3 vol. (Königsberg: A. W. Unzer, 1824).
Baggesen was a major Danish poet, librettist, critic, and comic writer, with strong sympathies for the intellectual culture of Germany, eventually studying in Göttingen where he learned of Kant’s philosophy. Known as the “Danish Wieland,” in late July 1790 he and his wife Charlotte Sophie travelled to Weimar to visit his German counterpart for a few weeks (Wielands Briefwechsel, letter of 2 August 1790), and it was here he met Reinhold teaching at nearby Jena, and the two became close friends. He briefly held an appointment (1811-13) as professor of Danish language and literature at the university in Kiel, where Reinhold had relocated, and the two are buried near each other there. [Source: NDB]
Georg Friedrich Bauch was a student of Kant’s, from whom a set of logic notes is extant. Königsberg matriculation records have an entry for 29 Oct 1792: “Bauch Georg. Frdr. Bircksdorf ad Vratislaviam Siles., theol. cult.” The Polski Slownik Biograficzny contains an article on the Silesian pastor Jerzy Fryderyk Bauch, with “1771-1826” given as the life dates. This is inconsistent with the death date given on the title-page (of the Bauch logic notes), but the article explicitly mentions the lecture notes, so there is little doubt that they stem from him. The grandson to whom the notes were presented was Dr. Gustav Bauch.
Lazarus Bendavid was born (18 Oct 1762) and died (28 Mar 1832) in Berlin. He is best known as a mathematician and early advocate of, and commentator on, the Kantian philosophy. He studied at Halle, and then later at Göttingen, where he made the acquaintance of G. C. Lichtenberg. Like his co-religionist Spinoza, Bendavid supported himself grinding glasses, at least in his early years, and he also broke with his synagoge. In 1791 he moved to Vienna and began work as a Hofmeister, and soon began holding lectures on Kant’s three critiques (which he also published in Vienna in 1795/96). In the end he wrote nine books and various essays on Kant’s philosophy – Rosenkranz described him as “the only teacher of Kant’s philosophy in Vienna.” Feiner writes that his view of religion was entirely Kantian, “seeking in the Jewish religion its inner moral essence and totally rejecting its rituals. Precisely ten years after Mendelssohn, in his Jerusalem, had stated that the unique essence of Judaism lay in the obligation to observe the practical commandments, Bendavid was the first Jewish intellectual to publicly put forth [1793] the radical idea of totally annulling the commandments as an essential step to ensure the existence of the Jews in the modern world” [Feiner 2002, 309].
Kant’s ideas were, on the whole, unwelcome in Austria; and in any event Bendavid found himself expelled from Vienna in 1797 (along with many other foreigners). He returned to Berlin, supported himself with editing and writing (the Berlin Academy of Science prize essay for 1801 was his “On the Origin of Knowledge”), and eventually became director of the Jewish Free School in 1806, a school founded in 1778 by David Friedländer and Daniel Itzig, and which flourished under his direction, although it closed in 1826. Heinrich Heine memorialized him thus: “Er war ein Weiser nach antikem Zuschnitt, umflossen vom Sonnenlicht griechischer Heiterkeit, ein Standbild der wahrsten Tugend, und pflichtgehärtet wie der Marmor des kategorischen Imperativs seines Meisters Kant.” [Sources: Meyers Konversationslexikon, 1888; Vorländer 1924, ii.244; Fromm 1997; Schulte 2000, 94-95; Feiner 2002, 308-10]
Select Publications:
Über die Parallellinien (Berlin 1786).
Etwas zur Charackteristick der Juden (Leipzig 1793).
Versuch über das Vergnügen, 2 vols. (Vienna 1794).
Vorlesungen über die Kritik der reinen Vernunft (Vienna 1795).
Vorlesungen über die Kritik der praktischen Vernunft (Vienna 1796).
Vorlesungen über die Kritik der Urteilskraft (Vienna 1796).
Über den Ursprung unsrer Erkenntnis (Berlin 1802).
Johann Adam Bergk was born in Hainichen (near Zeitz, in Saxony) and died (Oct 27) in Leipzig, where he had pursued a successful and productive career as a translator, author, and publisher, especially of his own books on psychology, legal philosophy, and philosophy of religion, and under both his own name and various pseudonyms such as Friedrich Christian Starke and Dr. Heinichen. Three sets of anthropology notes (1826 [text], 1831 [text], 1831 [text]) and one set of physical geography notes (1833) [text] were published in part or in full by him (all designated as an-Starke).
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Biester
(1795)
1767: Matriculation (Göttingen).
1771: Returns to Lübeck.
1773: Dr. of Law and lecturer (Bützow).
1775: Travels to Berlin.
1777: Private secretary to von Zedlitz (Berlin).
1783: Founds the Berlinische Monatsschrift with F. Gedike.
1784: 2nd Librarian at the Royal Library (Berlin).
1794: Director of the Royal Library (Berlin).
1798: Member of the Berlin Academy of Sciences.
Johann Erich Biester was born (17 Nov 1749) in Lübeck, and died (20 Feb 1816) in Berlin. He was a librarian in Berlin and co-founder of the Berlinische Monatsschrift, publishing many of Kant’s essays. Davidson [1798, 21] remarked of him that “no prejudice, no superstition escaped his biting wit.”
Biester grew up in a wealthy home (his father, Ernst August, was a silk merchant). He studied law, history, and languages in Göttingen from 1767-71, returned to Lübeck and wrote for several journals until 1773, when he began lecturing on history at the Pietist university in Bützow (1773-75). He then worked briefly as a private tutor in Berlin (1775) before being appointed (with the help of Nicolai) as private secretary to Karl Abraham von Zedlitz [bio], the Prussian minister of culture and education. He also served as secretary of the Berlin Wednesday Society.
Biester first learned of Kant while attending Marcus Herz’s lectures in Berlin. There is considerable correspondence between Biester and Kant, primarily regarding Kant’s publications. Biester became sole editor of the Berlinische Monatsschrift [available online] in 1791,
Biester would have made Kant’s personal acquaintance at about this time. Kant’s old school friend Wlömer, now living in Berlin, wrote to Kant on 17 April 1791 that…
“In a few weeks our Biester, who is keeping company with Privy Councilor von Struensee on his journey to Prussia, will make your personal acquaintance and upon his return will tell us many pleasant and interesting things about you.” [AA 11: 251]
which ceased publication in 1796 (publication run: January 1783-December 1796), after which Biester published a successor journal, the Berlinische Blätter (July 1797-April 1798; total of four volumes), and then the Neue Berlinische Monatsschrift (1799-1811). Biester naturally viewed the Blätter as a continuation of the Monatsschrift which, in this looser sense, enjoyed a 28 year run from 1783 to 1811. Apart from the explanatory notes given by Biester in the closing pages of the appropriate issues of these runs, see also his letter to Kant, dated 5 August 1797 (#771, AA 12:193-94). [Sources: NDB, 2:234] [last update: 7 May 2007]
Heinrich Ulrich Freiherr von Blomberg, a contemporary of Herder, matriculated 22 April 1761 at Königsberg, and left the university in 1764. He may well have attended Kant’s lectures, but the logic notes associated with him stem from the 1770s. See the an-Blomberg (logic).
1762 (Sep 27): Matriculation at the university (Königsberg).
1766-69: Lawyer (Königsberg).
1772: Kammersekretär (Marienwerder).
1793: Rat with the Commerzien- und Admiralitätscolleg (Königsberg).
1803: Kriegsrat (Könïgsberg).
Karl Gottlieb Bock was born (24 May 1746) in Friedland, and died (12 Jan 1829) in Königsberg. He was a student of Kant's, a friend to Herder and Reichardt, and practiced law and held various government posts in Königsberg.
Karl was the son of Daniel Reinhold Bock (died 1747), the youngest child of the family of George and Barbara Bock; other sons included Johann Georg Bock [bio] and Friedrich Samuel Bock [bio], both of whom became professors at the university, and with whom Karl, their nephew, is occasionally confused in the literature.
Karl was a fellow student at the university with J. G. Herder [bio], with whom he attended Kant’s lectures, and he also studied law under Funk [bio]. He practiced law in Königsberg, but gave this up after two years and later filled various government posts.
He was married twice, first to Luise Weitenkampf (with whom he had a son, Raphael Bock, 1779-1837, a librarian), and then to Sophie Reichardt, the favorite sister of his good friend J. F. Reichardt, the famous composer. He was a full member of the German Society in Königsberg, and a lecture of his on genius appeared in its publication for 1767. Bock published poems in various periodicals, including the Teutsche Merkur, Lyrischen Blumenlesen, and the Königsbergsche Gelehrte und Politische Zeitungen. He is mentioned frequently in J. F. Abegg’s travel diary from 1798. [Sources: Goldbeck 1781, 1: 12; APB; Olfers-Batocki 1968; DLL] [last update: 12 May 2007]
Select Publications:
Ueber einige seltnere Phänomene des Genies (1767).
Gedichte eines Preussen (Königsberg, 1774).
1746 (Easter): Enrolled at the Collegium Fridericianum (until St. Michael’s, 1754).
1755 (Mar 20): Matriculated at the university (Königsberg).
1755 (Apr 14): Matriculated with the theology faculty.
1758: Hofmeister in the home of General von Knobloch.
1762 (Jul 5): Ordained by Süssmilch (Berlin).
1762-63: Field chaplain (Freiberg). Rhesa [1834, 2] claims he began his first work as a field chaplain at Bartenstein, called on 8 May 1762, entering the field on September 2 by Sora (near Leipzig), and after the peace returned to Prussia, to Hubertusburg, in 1763.
1763-70: Field chaplain (garrisoned at Bartenstein).
1770 (Apr 6): Pastor (Schaaken).
1782 (Jan 24): Neuroßgarten Church (Königsberg).
1793 (Feb 5): Church and school advisor.
1805 (Aug 29): Consistory advisor.
1809 (Feb 27): Higher Consistory Advisor.
1811 (Jul 28): Dr. of Theology (Königsberg).
1812 (Jun 29): General Superintendant.
1814: Founded the Prussian Bible Society.
1815 (Mar 21): 1st Court Chaplain at the Castle Church.
1816: Bishop of the Lutheran Church.
1829: Archbishop of the Lutheran Church in Prussia.
1831: Raised to the nobility.
Ludwig Ernst Borowski was born (17 Jun 1740) and died (10 Nov 1831) in Königsberg. He was an important churchman in Prussia, but he is best known in philosophy circles as one of Kant’s early biographers [1804]; while a student at the university, Borowski attended Kant’s first lectures, and then after returning to Königsberg in 1782 interacted with him socially and became one of his regular dinner guests. As Borowski indicates in the preface, his biography of Kant was finished in 1792, at which time Kant also read and lightly annotated the manuscript, but it was published only after Kant’s death in 1804.
Stemming from a well-to-do Polish family that emigrated to Königsberg for religious reasons, Borowski grew up in more modest circumstances, the son of a paint manufacturer who also rang the bells at the Castle Church in Königsberg. This side job brought the young Borowski into early contact with J. J. Quandt [bio], the head pastor of the church. Borowski also grew up in the shadow of the university – Professor D. H. Arnoldt [bio], a pietist theologian, was his godfather, and young Borowski spent nearly every day at the Arnoldt home. He matriculated at the university while not quite fifteen, enrolled with the theology faculty, and was present at Kant’s first lecture in 1755. [more] Borowski clearly made a good impression on Kant, who recommended him to General Karl Gottfried von Knobloch as a Hofmeister to accompany his son at the university (1758-62). His good work and intellectual and oratorical gifts were soon noticed, and he was offered a position as military chaplain. He wrote fondly of this period in a letter of 10 August 1805:
“I was at the time in Freiberg in the Ore Mountains (Erzgebirge), where I lived from the winter 1762 until 1763, and was quite happy. The regiment for which I was chaplain was billetted there for the winter. I lived in the suburbs, and traveled daily into the city where I was able to converse with excellent and noble people.” [Herder 1846, 130]
With the close of the Seven Years War, his regiment returned to Prussia, to Bartenstein (about 60 km. south of Königsberg), and then in 1770 he moved to Schaaken (about 25 km. north of Königsberg) to fill a pastorate, finally returning to his hometown in 1782 to pastor at the Neuroßgarten Church, where he soon acquired a reputation as the best preacher in town. The Napoleanic Wars forced King Friedrich Wilhelm III and his family eastward to Memel, and then eventually to Königsberg in 1807, where they remained until December 1809. During this time Borowski grew close to the royal family, and his consolation of the King over Queen Luisa’s death strengthened this relationship still more. He eventually was named Archbishop of the Lutheran Church, the only individual to have held that rank in the history of Prussia.
Borowski married Maria Charlotte Hartung, a daughter of the Königsberg publisher and printer Johann Heinrich Hartung [bio] (1699-1756), on 29 Apr 1766; she died 25 Aug 1783 at the young age of 39 after a long illness. Together they had seven children – two sons and five daughters – although only two of the daughters survived their father. The oldest child, Hanna Regina Carolina (1767-1789) died early in her marriage (6 Feb 1786) to Field Chaplain Berdau of Elbing On Berdau, see Stark [2004a, 372-75]. after giving birth to a second child. Another daughter – Dorothea Elisabeth (born 14 Mar 1778) – married Johann Wilhelm Volckmann [bio] (1766-1836), a student of Kant’s from whom we have several sets of notes from Kant’s lectures and who assumed the same pastoral position in Schaaken held by Borowski thirty years earlier. A sister of Borowski’s wife was the mother to Elisabeth Stägemann [bio].
Borowski was in some sense a good friend of Kant, but he appears also to have attended rather closely to his own career. He was bothered by Kant’s relationship to organized religion, for instance, and perhaps because of these unorthodoxies Borowski did not attend his friend’s funeral. On Borowski’s biography of Kant, see Kuehn [2001a, 9-12]. The 1784 Address-Calendar reports him as the pastor of the Neu-Roßgärtsche Kirche and living in the parsonage there (the Prussian term used was Pfarr-Widdem). Johann Wilhelm Volckmann [bio], a student of Kant’s from the 1780s and from whom we have four sets of notes, married a daughter of Borowski. [Sources: Baczko 1790, 596-97; Rhesa 1834, 2; Reusch 1848, 24-26; APB; ADB; Wendland 1910, 19-20; NDB; Gause 1996, 2: 257; Stark 2004a, 372-75] [last update: 6 Jan 2023]
Select Publications:
Neue Preußische Kirchenregistratur, die neuern Verordnungen und Einrichtungen in Kirchen- und Schulsachen im Königreich Preussens enthaltend. Nebst einigen zur Kirchengeschichte Preussens gehörigen Aufsatzen (Königsberg, 1789).
Cagliostro, einer der merkwürdigsten Abentheurer unsres Jahrhunderts. Seine Geschichte, nebst Raisonnement über ihn und den schwärmerischen Unfug unsrer Zeit überhaupt (Königsberg: Gottlieb Lebrecht Hartung, 1790).
Biographische Nachrichten von dem denkwürdigen preußischen Theologen (Königsberg, 1794).
Darstellung des Lebens und Charakters Immanuel Kants, Von Kant selbst genau revidirt und berichtigt (Königsberg, 1804).
Karl August Böttiger was a German archaeologist, philogist, and author, and an important figure in Goethe’s Weimar. He enjoyed a wide circle of acquaintances. He studied in Schulpforta (1772) then attended university at Leipzig (1778) and Wittenberg, where he received his Magister degree (1784). He left behind a two-volume memoir – Literarische Zustände und Zeitgenossen in Schilderungen aus Karl Aug. Böttiger’s handschriftlichem Nachlasse (1838) which is the source of many sketches and acute observations of his contemporaries, including of Kant, although not the most reliable. He apparently designed the obverse of the 1804 Loos medallion commemorating Kant’s death, which the anonymous author of the notice in the Freimüthige (28 Aug 1804) suggested that it was designed as a satirical [Sources: Freimüthige (28 Aug 1804, 1804.2: 168); ADB; NDB]
Johann Brahl was born in Königsberg (13 Nov 1753), the son of a needle maker. For twenty-five years until his death he edited Kant’s favorite local newspaper, the Hartungsche Zeitung and often dined at Kant’s table, although this would have been in the 1780’s and 90’s.
Brahl was a published poet, municipal revenue officer [Akziseninspektor] alongside Hamann, and city inspector [Ober-Stadtinspektor] in Königsberg. He also edited the “Hartung Newspaper” – the Königlich privilegierte Preußische Staats-, Kriegs- und Friedenszeitung – published twice-weekly on Monday and Thursday, and which Kant’s servant picked-up and returned for Kant for over thirty years. [Sources: Goldbeck 1781, 15; Baczko 1790, 597-98 (bibliography); Giesecke 1793, 216; Gause 1996, 2: 233, 264, 363; Stark 1987b, 168]
Born (22 Jan 1763) and died (28 Dec 1827) in Königsberg, the son of Professor Friedrich Johann Buck [bio], Kant’s colleague at the university. He may have attended some of Kant’s lectures Buck matriculated 18 Sep 1779: “Buck Sam. Pe. Frdr., Regiomonte-Boruss.” [Erler 1911, 2: 557] but in any event later entered his circle of friends, with Kant helping him secure a position as a city councilor in 1802. He was a close friend to Wasianski [bio], who referred to Buck as “a friend in the full sense of the word” [1804, 77]. They met while they were both studying at the university and became inseparable friends, eventually marrying sisters (with the last name of Ferlein). He worked closely, on behalf of the city, with the occupying Napoleonic forces in 1807. He served as a Burgermeister in 1814. [Sources: Reusch 1948b, 298; Gause 1996, 2: 255, 315, 338; APB 1: 90]
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Kant
(Collin)
Paul Heinrich Collin was born (5 Mar 1748) and died (17 Sep 1789) in Königsberg. He ran a successful porcelain and stoneware factory for nine years, after which he supported himself as an exchange broker. His family belonged to the French Hueguenot community that began arriving in Königsberg in the late 17th century (numbering 500 in 1703). It is not true, however, that “Französischenstraße” was named after the settlers living there, as it was so-named prior to their arrival [Springer 1992, 51]. He died of a gall bladder disorder.
Collin travelled to England in 1769 at the age of 21 as a merchant to buy wares, but soon began a six year apprenticeship in Burslem with Josiah Wedgwood, who had opened his first pottery workshop (the Ivy House Works) ten years earlier and during the years of Collin’s visit was in the process of building his much more ambitious Etruria works nearby as well as developing his Jasperware. [Dolan, Josiah Wedgwood (2004)]
Collin returned in Königsberg in 1775 and the following year opened his own earthenware and stoneware factory with his brother. Not identified; this does not seem to be Johann David Collin (1747?-1780), whose sister Marianne Elisabeth married Kant’s merchant friend Wilhelm Ludwig Ruffman. This business lasted only nine years as they were unable to compete successfully against the flood of less expensive wares from England, but during those years they produce much sough-after ceramics that imitated Wedgwood’s “straw-yellow stoneware and the dark bastaltware.” The portrait medallions are among those he learned from Wedgwood, fashioning these from life of his fellow townsmen – Kant, Hamann, Hippel, An engraving made from Collin’s medallion of Hippel, and appearing in Perthes’ 1801 Hippel biography, was the first image published of Hippel [Hippel 1801, Preface]. Johann Friedrich von Domhardt, Johann Jacob Quandt, the poet Gellert, and others. The basalt clay that he used was so hard that, once fired, it could throw sparks when struck with steel.
In a 3 Feb 1785 to Herder, Hamann referred to “our local artist Collin, a very righteous man and capable mind, of whom it is also said: He is praised and lamented.” “unserm hiesigen Künstler Collin, einem sehr rechtschaffenen Mann und fähigen Kopf, von dem es auch heißt: Laudatur et alget.” [Hamann 1955-79, 5: 347]
And in a second letter to Herder (8 May 1785): “Collin heist der Künstler, welcher die Abgüße macht in terra cotta. Hippel verschenkt blos seine an sehr wenige Freunde, und jeder bewundert die Ähnlichkeit. Den seel. Kreutzfeld fieng er auch an – aber er starb darüber. Jetzt ist die Reihe an meiner runden Perrücke. Ob selbige gerathen wird, weiß ich nicht.” [Hamann 1955-79, 5: 432]
“Collin is the name of the artist who makes the casts in terra cotta. Hippel gives his only to very few friends and everyone admires the resemblance. The late Kreutzfeld, as well, although he died over it. Now it’s my round wig’s turn. I don't know if it will work out.”
Collin was a frequent guest at the Robert Motherby house, dining there on Sundays alongside Kant. The likely connection was that he came from the same Huguenot community as Motherby’s wife, Charlotte, and spoke French. [Sources: Brinkmann 1896, 59-63; Mühlpfordt 1968; Mühlpfordt 1970a, 55-57; Mühlpfordt 1975; Gerlach 2009, 282]
Georg Ludwig Collins, of Scottish descent, was the son of Edward Collins, a Königsberg factory owner whose fortunes collapsed, causing Collins to postpone his university studies and instead move to Riga in 1778 where he took up a position with the silk trade, and where he also had relatives (his uncle, William Collins, was a prominent Riga merchant, and a son of William had married one of Georg’s sisters, both living in Riga). After four years with the silk firm, Georg was able to matriculate at the university in Könïgsberg (9 September 1784) to study theology, remaining a year before continuing his studies in Leipzig in 1785. He returned to Riga in 1787 to work as a Hofmeister to the Scottish family Renny, but the following year accepted a pastorate in the Reformed congregation there (1788). He married the daughter of a prominent citizen in January 1789, and together had 16 children. Collins was a successful and popular church reformer, and on the 25th anniversary of his taking office (1813) was given a doctorate by the university in Dorpat. He was also a prominent member in several Masonic lodges in Riga joining first the Nordstern (founded in 1750, but renamed Zum Schwert when it adopted the Strict Observance), then later Zur kleinen Welt, where he served as Master.
A “Pastor Collins” traveled to St. Petersburg on Kant’s behalf when he was inducted in absentia into the Academy of Sciences (see Kant’s letter to Nicolovius, 7 July 1797 (#758, AA 12:179), and Nicolovius’s letter to Kant of the same day – #759, AA 12:179). A note to the second letter quotes a letter from Hippel to a friend in St. Petersburg that Pastor Collins had traveled to St. Petersburg and married Professor Euler’s daughter; this was Georg’s older brother, Johann David (1761-1833).
A set of notes from Kant’s moral philosophy lectures were once owned by Collins, as was a set of anthropology notes. [Sources: Bartlett 2000] [last update: 2 Sep 2008]
1748 (Oct 17): Matriculates at the university (Königsberg).
1755: Studies at Frankfurt/Oder.
1759: Magister (Frankfurt/Oder).
1760: Prof. of Theology, Philology, and Rhetoric, then also Rector at the Friedrichschule (Frankfurt/Oder).
1772: Hofprediger at the Burgkirche (German reformed).
Crichton was born (16 Jun 1732) and died (28 Apr 1805) Müller [1907, 602]: 18 April. in Königsberg. He was a prolific writer, and as reformed pastor at the Castle Church and inspector of the school there, he had a modernizing influence on the pedagogy and during his leadership tripled the school’s enrollment (from 46 to 120). Kant’s own pedagogical interests, in particular with the Philanthropinum school in Dessau, brought him into contact with Crichton.
Crichton studied theology at the university in Königsberg (matriculating 17 Oct 1748) Erler [1912, 427]. Crichton remembered his matriculation as happening a day earlier in his autobiography, where he offers interesting sketches of various professors under whom Kant had also studied a few years earlier; Knutzen, for instance, was Crichton’s “best teacher.” then at Frankfurt/Oder (1755), served as the Rector of the Reformed Gymnasium in Halle, then was appointed to teach philosophy at the Joachimsthal Gymnasium in Berlin (1764), but this was peremptorily rejected by Friedrich the Great, who wrote: “If C. has studied theology, then he cannot be a philosopher” [Crichton 1806, 22]. Instead he was given a position at the university in Frankfurt, as well as the rectorate of the Friedrichs-Gymnasium there (1758). In 1772 he returned to Königsberg as Hofprediger at the Castle Church, and in 1777 became an editor of Kanter’s Königsbergische gelehrte und politische Zeitungen. Hippel wrote to Scheffner (4 Jan 1778) that the previous editor (Pentzel) had died and that “Herr Crichton is now taking care of the scholarly articles.” Later that year in a letter to Christian Heinrich Wolke (4 Aug 1778), Kant also wrote that Crichton was now in charge of the paper (“Die Kantersche Zeitung, durch welche allein gelehrte Ankündigungen im Publikum verbreitet werden können, ist bald in eines, bald des anderen Hände gegeben worden. Jetzt dirigiert sie der reformierte HE. Hofprediger und Doktor Theol: Crichton.” [AA 10: 237]), adding that Crichton had not been supportive of the Philanthropinum school, of which Wolke was the director (Kant had written to Crichton the previous week about this concern [Letter of 29 Jul 1778; AA 10: 234-35]. During this time he was also serving as the inspector of the Castle Gymnasium and was instrumental in modernising the curriculum. [Sources: Goldbeck 1781, 23-26; Baczko 1790, 599-602 (bibliography); Crichton 1806; Reicke 1860, 69; Müller 1907; ADB; Gause 1996, 2: 269, 287-88; Kant-Lexikon 2015, 1: 335-36] [last update: 7 Jan 2023]
Abbé Carlo Giovanni Maria Denina was an Italian historian living in Berlin (1782-1804) at Friedrich II’s invitation and was a member of the Berlin Academy of Sciences. He included a brief sketch of Kant’s life and writings, the first to be published, in his three-volume La Prusse littéraire sous Frédéric II (1790-91). [Source:Deutsche Biographie]
Johann Ernst Dingelstaedt began his studies in Jena (1793) and later served as a pastor in Dahlen (Livland). A set of anthropology notes was once owned by him.
Count Heinrich Ludwig Adolph zu Dohna-Wundlacken was born in Mohrungen (Poland: Morąg), matriculated at Königsberg on June 15, 1791 and attended classes until 1795. Kant was serving as dean when he arrived, and so would have administered the entrance exam, which took place the day before his matriculation. As noted in Brandt/Stark [1997, lxxi]. Dohna was accompanied at the university by a Hofmeister named Gerlach. Dohna attended various of Kant’s lectures, leaving sets of notes on anthropology, logic, metaphysics, and physical geography. Having just turned fourteen at matriculation, Dohna was among Kant’s younger auditors. He heard Kant’s Anthropology lectures in his first semester (WS 1791/2), lectures on Physical Geography and Logic during the second (SS 1792), and Metaphysics in his third semester (WS 1792/93). Lehmann writes that he appears also to have taken part in Kant’s “Examinatorium Logices Meier (Repetitorium) 1792”. Apart from his notes of Kant’s lectures, we also have class notes from the following: (1) Logic (WS 1791/92) (taught by Poerschke), (2) New European State History (WS 1791/92) (Mangelsdorff), (3) Philosophical Encyclopedia (SS 1792) (Kraus), (4) Old History and History of the Prussian-Brandenburg State (SS 1792) (Mangelsdorff), (5) History of the German Reich (WS 1792/93) (Mangelsdorff), (6) German Staatsrecht (WS 1793/94) (Schmalz), (7) General Statistics (WS 1793/94) (Kraus), (8) Mechanical and Optical Sciences (Schultz), (9) Institutions of the Roman Law (Schmalz), and (10) Jus Digestorum (Schmalz). In later years, Count Dohna-Wundlacken remained interested in Kant’s life and work; Kowalewski reports that the Count belonged to the “Society of Friends of Kant” and that he served as their “Bean King” in 1836. [Sources: Kowalewski 1924, 11-25; Lehmann 1972, AA 28: 1356-57]. [last update: 28 Dec 06]
Dorn was a Königsberg publisher, born (6 Jul 1710) and died (1752) in Königsberg. He printed Kant’s first book, Living Forces (1746) [text], as well as J. G. Hamann and J. G. Lindner’s weekly Daphne (1749-50). [Sources: Meckelburg 1840, 32-33]
Driest pubished a number of Kant’s early pamphlets: Theory of Winds (1756), West Winds (1757), Motion and Rest (1758), Optimism (1759), Funk (1760).
Driest bought Dorn’s publishing business in 1752. [Sources: Meckelburg 1840, 33]
Benno Erdmann was born (May 30) in Guhrau (by Glogau), died (Jan 7) in Berlin. Studied in Berlin and Heidelberg. Privatdozent in Berlin from 1876; called as associate professor to Kiel in 1878, becoming full professor in 1879, and followed by professorships in Breslau (1884), Halle (1890), Bonn (1898), and then back to Berlin (1909).
1782 (Apr 2): Matriculates at the university (Königsberg).
1786-89: University translator of Hebrew and Yiddish (Königsberg).
1789: Moves to Berlin.
Isaac Abraham Euchel (also: Eichel) was born (17 October 1756) in Copenhagen, and died (18 June 1804) Krüger [1966, 96] claims his death date is 14 June 1804. in Berlin. He was a leading member of the Jewish Enlightenment (Haskalah), first in Königsberg, and then later in Berlin as part of Moses Mendelssohn’s circle, and he is especially remembered for his biography of Mendelssohn (1789).
Euchel was one of at least eight Jewish medical students Until the reforms of 1786, Jewish students could enroll only in the medical faculty. who could be called Kant’s students “in the narrower sense of the term” [Richarz 1974, 56]. Euchel had worked as a Hofmeister in the Meier Friedländer house in Königsberg, tutoring David Friedländer’s nephew, Michael Friedländer [bio], and perhaps others, and likely accompanying Michael to the university – they both are among the students who signed a dedicatory poem to Kant on the occasion of his first term as rector (23 April 1786 [AA 12: 404-6]).
Euchel matriculated at the university on 2 April 1782 (inscribed as “Eichel Isaac, Kopenhagen Danus, gente Judaeus.”), enrolling with the medical faculty, and while he did study some medicine while at the university, he never practiced it later, and clearly his interests lay in a rather different direction. For instance, having barely begun his university studies, Euchel helped establish the Chevrat Dorschei Leshon Ever [Association of Friends of Hebrew Literature], a community of young Prussian Jews interested in promoting the Haskalah; it was officially founded on 11 December 1782, and in 1784 he began publication of the Hebrew periodical Hame’asef [The Collector], which ran until 1811.
While serving as dean of the philosophy faculty during winter semester 1785-86, Kant attempted to gain permission for Euchel to teach oriental languages at the university (i.e., obtain a magister degree and to habilitate; see his letter to the philosophy faculty, 20 February 1786 [AA 12: 426-27]). Kant reports that the full professor of oriental languages, J. B. Koehler [bio], was hoping to leave the university that term, and in a letter of 17 December 1785 to the Academic Senate, Koehler recommended that Euchel replace him as an interim appointment: Euchel was
“a very diligent and well-liked citizen of our academy, who not only has diligently occupied himself with the philosophical and mathematical sciences, and in the end also with medicine, but especially with Biblical hermeneutics and Near Eastern literature, and has well beyond the usual insights into the discipline.” [qtd. in Dietsch 1994, 123-24]
Euchel proposed to teach just the basics of the language, and refrain from any textual exegesis, but his petition met with opposition, and in the end Kant also had to oppose the idea, “both on the ground of the statutes which require a profession of the Augsburg Confession, and in order to avoid conflicts between Jewish and Christian students incited by Rabbinical interpretations of the Scripture” [Adickes 1970, 33]. Adickes refers us to Kant’s letter of March 1786 to the Academic Senate and recently published in Friedländer [1882]; see also the sketch of Kant’s letter to Euchel of 24 May 1786 [AA 12: 429-30]. In part as a consolation, Euchel was offered a position as official translator at the university for Hebrew and Yiddish, a position that he held until he left for Berlin in 1789, where he eventually became director of the Jewish Free School (founded in 1776 by fellow Königsberg native David Friedländer, along with Itzig and Wessely). [Sources: Adickes 1970, 33; Richarz 1974, 57; Dietsch 1994; Kuehn 2001, 314; Feiner 2003, 79, 190-92 and elsewhere; http://www.haskala.net] [last update: 15 Jan 2007]
Select Publications:
Toledot rabbenu Mosche ben Menachem (Berlin 1789).
Johann Gottfried Frey was born (28 March 1762) and died (25 April 1831) in Königsberg, whom Reusch describes as “a man of considerable intellect, of scientific knowledge, and serious thought. Already as a member of the city court he had distinguished himself for his thorough work.” He had studied law at the university, matriculating in 1778 (September 23), and was strongly influenced by Kant and Kraus. He began his career in 1785 in local government and soon belonged to Kant’s inner circle of dinner guests. Among his public offices were magistrate, police inspector, war-councillor, and government-director. He belonged to the original “Friends of Kant” society. [Source: Reusch 1848b, 363; Schmidtke 1997, 131 (illus.)].
David Joachim Friedländer was born (6 Dec 1750) in Königsberg and died (25 Dec 1834) in Berlin. He was a son of Joachim Moses Friedländer (1712-1776) and Henriette (Hinde) Lewin Friedländer. Joachim was the first Jew in Königsberg with a Generalprivileg (since 1764). David became the first Jewish city councillor in Berlin, where he had moved and opened several silk factories. The sons of Joachim Moses included: Joachim Wolff (1742-1814; Königsberg merchant), Meyer Joachim (1745-1808; merchant in Königsberg and Hannover), Bernhardt Joachim (1749-1808; Königsberg merchant), Abraham (1752-1820; silk factory owner in Berlin), David (1750-1834), and Simon Joachim (1764-1813; a merchant and banker in Königsberg). Dates are taken from the genealogy provided in Friedlaender [1913]; there are discrepancies in the literature. It was in Joachim Moses’s house that Mendelssohn stayed during his 1777 visit.
David Friedländer moved to Berlin in 1771 where he worked as a merchant and counted Marcus Herz Herz mentions Friedländer in a 9 July 1771 letter to Kant: “My friend Herr Friedländer said to me on his arrival [from Königsberg to Berlin] that you are no longer such a great devotee of speculative philosophy as you used to be.” [bio] and Moses Mendelssohn [bio] among his friends. zgiven the close connection between the Friedländer family in Königsberg and Mendelssohn in Berlin, there is reason to believe that the notes from Kant’s lectures used by Herz in his own lectures given in Berlin were these procurred by Friedländer, These notebooks were owned by Friedländer, but he was not involved in their writing, and presumably never matriculated at the university. A “David Joachim Friedlaender” listed as a Jew from Königsberg is shown as matriculating on 28 September 1786, but Friedländer would have been thirty-six by then, and living for the past fifteen years in Berlin. Presumably this second D. J. Friedländer was a nephew of one of his brothers. of which six are extant: anthropology (two sets), physical geography, moral philosophy, philosophical encyclopedia, and physics. [Sources: Friedlaender 1913; ADB; Wesseling 1999 (Bautz Kirchenlexikon); Fraenkel 1917] [last update: 13 Feb 2007]
1782 (Oct 15): Matriculated at the university (Königsberg).
1791 (Mar 17): Doctorate of medicine (Halle).
1794: Begins a medical practice in Berlin.
1800: Moves to Paris.
Michael Friedländer was born in 1769 Friedlaender [1913, 51] gives 1767 as the birth-year. in Königsberg as the youngest son of the merchant Meier Friedländer (1745-1808), an older brother to David Friedländer. He died on 4 April 1824 in Paris, where he had been living since 1800. He was a gifted and philanthropically-minded physician, who published in both French and German medical journals.
Friedländer received a liberal education at home under the direction of Isaak Euchel [bio], a former student of Kant’s, and then matriculated at the university in Königsberg on 15 October 1782, becoming a favorite student of Kant’s, as well as attending the lectures of C. J. Kraus [bio], Johann Schultz [bio], and Karl Hagen [bio]. In 1787 he left Königsberg to study at Berlin (under Herz and Bloch), Göttingen, and finally Halle, where he graduated in 1791 with a degree in medicine. He made a three year study tour through Germany, Holland, England, Scotland (remaining in Edinburgh for several months), Italy, and Switzerland, finally settling in Berlin in 1794, where he practiced medicine and introduced the new small pox immunization. During this time he often traveled between Berlin and Königsberg, and was likely the conduit for both news and student notes (of Kant’s lectures) from Königsberg to his uncle David Friedländer [bio] in Berlin, who belonged to Moses Mendelssohn’s circle.
Political changes motivated his departure for Paris in 1800, and he soon was facilitating the exchange of ideas between the French and German medical communities, publishing in both languages, including in Hufeland’s Journal der praktische Heilkunde, Gilbert’s Annalen der Physik, Guizot’s Journal d’education, the Dictionnaire des science médicale, the Biographie universelle, and the Revue encyclopedique. He also maintained a medical practice, serving as Madame de Staël’s physician during her last years.
Because he held a doctorate, he is often referred to as “D. Friedländer,” for which reason some have confused references to him with his better known uncle David. [Sources: HM, 22:232-33; Neuer Nekrolog 1824, 2:749-55; Jüdische Biographisches Archiv, 255:122-30; Stark 1993, 235]
Select Publications:
Dissertatio inauguralis medica de calore corporis humani aucto ejusque medela (Halle: Typis Grunertianis, 1791).
Entwurf einer Geschichte der Armen und Armenanstalten nebst einer Nachricht von dem jetzigen Zustande der Pariser Armenanstalten und Hospitäler insbesondere im November 1803 (Leipzig: Göschen, 1804).
De l’éducation physique de l’homme (Paris: Treuttel et Würtz, 1815). Transl. into German by F. E. Oehler (Leipzig, 1819).
Versuch über die innern Sinne und ihre Anomalien, Starrsucht, Entzückung, Schlafsucht und Intelligenzzerrüttung (Leipzig: Baumgärtner, 1826).
Johann Friedrich Goldbeck was born (22 Sep 1748) in Insterburg, was at first a teacher in Klosterbergen, then since 1773 a field chaplain with the Infantry Regiment v. Rohr at Graudenz. He was introduced as the pastor at Schaaken in 1783 (Sep 14), where he died (9 Apr 1812). Schaaken was the same church that L. E. Borowski [bio] had pastored, prior to moving to Königsberg; Goldbeck replaced him, and then J. W. Volckmann [bio] (author of several sets of notes from Kant’s lectures) replaced Goldbeck (Volckmann had also married a daughter of Borowski). Goldbeck is notable for his invaluable histories of the university at Königsberg (1782) and of Prussian letters (1781, 1783). In the first volume of the latter, Goldbeck discussed Kant’s 1755 book on cosmology, writing that “Kant’s Natural History and Theory of the Heavens, published anonymously in 1755, became known only later when certain propositions in it were afterwards advanced by other scholars, namely Herr Lambert in his Cosmological Letters, which came out in 1761; these propositions were attributed to Lambert and therefore their original author did not get credit for his discovery.” Because of this, presumably, he came to Kant’s attention and was mentioned in a few of his letters from 1781. [Sources: Rhesa 1834, 164] [last update: 15 Sep 2013]
Select Publications:
Nachrichten von den königlichen Universität zu Königsberg in Preußen (Dessau, 1782).
Literarische Nachrichten von Preußen, 2 vols. (Berlin, Leipzig, Dessau, 1781-83).
Friedrich August Gotthold was born (2 Jan 1778) in Berlin, and died (25 Jun 1858) in Könïgsberg. Gotthold distinguished himself as a prominent Prussian educator, but it was his extensive library that most interests us here.
Gotthold attended the Grauen Kloster Gymnasium in Berlin, then matriculated at the university in Halle (1798). He began his studies in theology, but soon abandoned these after studying philology under Friedrich August Wolf. He left the university in 1801 and undertook travels through Germany, Switzerland, and northern Italy.
After serving as Prorector at the Gymnasium in Cüstrin (1806), Gotthold moved to Königsberg where he assumed the directorship of the Collegium Fridericianum (1810); here he devoted the remainder of his career, retiring in 1852.
As a scholar and author he was active in the areas of pedagogy, classical philology, metrics, and history. He was also interested in music history. After his death, many of his writings were published by his former student, Friedrich Wilhelm Schubert. Gotthold is perhaps best known because of the 40,000 volume library that he bequethed to the State- and University Library in Königsberg. Eight manuscripts of lecture notes once belonged to the Gotthold library: three anonymous manuscripts (anthropology, and two sets on moral philosophy), all four sets of notes attributed to Vigilantius (geography, logic, metaphysics, and moral philosophy), and an-Korff (metaphysics). [Sources: ADB]
The English shipping merchant Joseph Green was arguably Kant’s closest and most enduring friend; their relationship lasted some 30 years, ending only with Green’s death on 27 June 1786.
Green was born in Hull (England)
Neave writes [2021]:
The Green family had established trading links with Königsberg by the 1730s when John Green, was captaining a ship between Hull and the Baltic port. He may have been in partnership with, or working for, his brother Joseph Green, who had progressed from master mariner to merchant in Hull by 1731. He is probably the Joseph Green who married Ann Smith of Hornsea, East Yorkshire, in 1721. Joseph, merchant, and Ann had a least eight children, of which only five survived infancy, two sons (Joseph and Philip) and three daughters (Ann, Margaret, and Elizabeth). It is probable that Joseph Green, junior, went to Königsberg to act as agent for his father’s firm and other Hull merchant houses by 1750. His brother Philip, Charles Staniforth (their future brother-in-law), and John Chappell were all sailing between Hull and Königsberg.
and as an English merchant travelled to Königsberg in his early twenties (c.1750) where he established a trading company successful enough for him to bring over an associate, the younger Robert Motherby (also from Hull) by 1754 or 1755. Green (and Motherby) met Kant some time before 30 August 1763.
Based on the so-called “Kant Glass” that was passed down in the Motherby family and that bears both Green’s and Kant’s name (among others), along with this date. Jachmann [1804 77-78] provides an account of their first meeting – an argument concerning the behavior of the English towards the Native Americans during the “French and Indian Wars” – I thank Gerfried Horst [2021] for clarifying the identity of the ‘Americans’ mentioned in Jachmann.
Jachmann described Green as Kant’s “most intimate and trusted friend”; he died in Königsberg on 27 June 1786.
While Green & Motherby was a successful company (the money that Kant invested with them did quite well), Green cared as much or more about the life of the mind than the world of business. Apart from the well-known anecdote that Kant passed every line of his Critique of Pure Reason by Green for his approval, Green was also championing, for instance, the translation of various books into German: Kraus translating Arthur Young’s Political Arithmetic (1774; German: 1777) – see Hamann’s letters to Herder (9 Aug and 14 Oct 1776) [Briefwechsel, 3: 242, 260] – and Hamann translating Ferdinando Warner’s A Full and Plain Account of Gout (London 1768; German: 1770), which Hamann dedicated to Green. [Sources: Sembritzki 1892, 238-39; Gause 1996, 2: 192-93]
1746 (March 30): Matriculation (Königsberg).
1752-56: Hofmeister (Livland).
1757: Hamann left Königsberg for Danzig on 1 October 1756, for the first leg of his journey to London [Lindemann-Stark / Stark 2006, 391]. Travels to London on behalf of the Berens firm (Riga).
1758 (Summer): Retuns to Riga.
1759 (March): Returns to Königsberg to live with his father.
1759 (July 24): Meeting with Kant and Berens.
1777-87: Works as inspector of the customs house (Lizent-Packhof).
1787 (June 21): Leaves Königsberg on travels to Germany; dies in Münster one year later.
Johann Georg Hamann was born (27 Aug 1730) in Königsberg, the son of a surgeon (Johann Christoph Hamann, 1679-1766); he died (21 June 1788) in Münster, where he had travelled to visit friends surrounding the Catholic Countess of Gallitzin, in whose garden Hamann is buried. He had recently visited Friedrich Heinrich Jacobi in Düsseldorf during his travels in the west, and it was Jacobi who helped design Hamann’s tombstone, with the words “viro christiano” on one side, and on the other a Bible text that Hamann had been praising to the princess a few days earlier:
“but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles, […] For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men” [1 Corinthians 1:23, 25].
Called the “Magus of the North” for his brilliant but often obscure publications, Hamann was an early critic of Enlightenment rationalism and for Kant a friendly “anti-Kantian,” both before and after Kant’s critical turn. Hamann was a prolific letter writer, and much of this correspondence (with Herder, Scheffner, Jacobi, and others) offers an invaluable window into the social and literary life in Königsberg.
Hamann matriculated at the university in 1746, registering with the theology faculty for three semesters, and (possibly) law for one. He studied philosophy (with Martin Knutzen), natural science (with K. H. Rappolt), and various languages. While at the university he made friends with Christoph Berens and Johann Gotthelf Lindner (1729-76). Berens was the son of a Riga merchant, and after some years working as a private tutor, Hamann entered their employment, travelling to London in 1757 on the firm’s behalf to conduct business negotiations. This London adventure went badly for Hamann, who sunk into reckless living, spending the firm’s money in less than a year and failing to conduct any successful business. In this impoverished state he was taken in by a family, which appears to have marked a turning point in his life, with a transformative mystical experience occuring on the evening of 31 March 1758. Hamann began serious study of the Bible, also reading works by Hume, whose skepticism he hoped to wield against Enlightenment Rationalism and upon which he constructed his own Fideism. Hamann returned in the summer to the Berens in Riga, and in March 1759 moved back into his family’s home in Königsberg, where he wrote, translated, and gave language lessons.
Hamann began a common-law marriage with Anna Regina Schumacher (a farmer’s daughter) who was working as a maid-servant in his father’s home, and together they raised three daughters (Elisabeth Regina, born 12 Apr 1772; Magdalena Katharina, born 2 Dec 1774; Marianne Sophie, born 18 Nov 1778) and one son, Johann Michael (born 27 Sep 1769, died 1813; married Karoline Amalie Podbielski), who attended Kant’s classes at the university and later became the rector of the Altstadt School [Gause 1996, 2: 266].
Kant and Hamann first met when they were both students at the university and also saw each other socially after Kant returned in 1754 and before Hamann left for England in 1757.
Hamann mentions meeting Kant in two letters to Linder, first on 28 Jul 1756:
“I had to visit Herr Ref. Wulf, where I found Herr Doctor Funk and Magister Kant. […] I had to dine with him one evening in the same company and it was very amusing.” [Briefwechsel, 1: 224]
and then again on 4 Aug 1756:
“Wolfson seems to live very happily; I was once with him in Schulz‘s garden where I found Magister Kant, Herr Schultz, Freytag, and Prof. Kypke. The latter now lodges in their house and keeps his own business now, in which he has increased a lot.” [Briefwechsel, 1: 226]
See also his 28 Apr 1756 letter to his brother (“Kant has a very good mind”)
After Hamann’s return to Königsberg, they renewed their acquaintance at a July 1759 meeting arranged by Berens who hoped to bring Hamann back to his old Enlightenment sensibilities. This encounter was recorded in a long letter Hamann sent to Kant a few days after (dated July 27). Hamann viewed himself as a critic and guide for Kant, and he served also as an important conduit of Hume’s writings at a time when many were still unavailable in German translation.
Hamann supported himself with his writing, and from 1767 translating French in the custom’s office (Reichardt claims that Hamann “read and thought in thirteen different ancient and modern languages” [1821, 265]) – a position that Kant had helped him obtain through his friend Jacobi. From 1764-79 Hamann also edited and wrote for the newly-founded Königsbergsche Gelehrte und politische Zeitungen, a twice-weekly four-page newspaper published by J. J. Kanter. [Sources: Reichardt 1812, 261-66; Reusch 1848b, 300-1; Gildemeister 1857, 3: 323; ADB 10: 456-68; NDB 7:573-77; Gause 1969, 2: 263-67; Berlin 2000; Beiser 1987, ch. 1; Lindemann-Stark / Stark 2006]
Until his death, Hartknoch published all of Kant’s critical writings: Dreams of a Spirit-Seer (1766),[1] 1781 Critique of Pure Reason (1781), Prolegomena (1783), Groundwork (1785), Metaphysical Foundations (1786), Critique of Pure Reason, 2nd ed. (1787), Critique of Practical Reason (1788).
Johann Friedrich Hartknoch was born (28 Sep 1740) in Goldap, and died (12 Apr 1789) in Riga. He began in the book trade in 1761 working in Kanter’s shop in Königsberg, and then ran a new shop that Kanter opened in Mitau (1762). He eventually began his own business (at least by 1765), and moved to Riga in 1767, where his publishing boomed. In a letter to Lambert of 31 December 1765, Kant mentioned that Kanter “has gone into partnership with his former employee, Herr Hartknoch, who managed his affairs in Riga till now” [AA 10: 55]. Hartknoch was responsible for publishing many of Kant’s major works, as well as books by Hamann and Herder. [Sources: APB, Gause 1996, 2: 236, 245].
[1] This work was published by both Kanter (in Königsberg) and Hartknoch (in Riga and Mitau). Kanter was the publisher to whom Kant sent his manuscript, but he appears to have shared the work with his former employee. In a letter to J. H. Lambert (31 Dec 1765; #34, AA 10: 55), Kant explains (in a separate context) that Kanter “has gone into partnership with his former employee, Herr Hartknoch, who managed his affairs in Riga until now....” [Er ist mit seinem vorigen Handlungsbedienten HEn Hartknoch, der seine Affairen anjetzt in Riga verwaltet, in Compagnie getreten....]
1751: Buys the Reußner press and privileges, continuing the Wochentliche Königsbergische Frag- und Anzeigungs-Nachrichten (until 1774).
1752: Begins publishing the twice weekly (Monday/Thursday) Königlich privilegierte Preußische Staats-, Kriegs- und Friedenszeitung (1752-57, 1758-1850).
The Hartung publishing firm in Königsberg published several of Kant’s early works: New Elucidation (1755), Physical Monadology (1756), Races of Mankind (1775), and then the later essay on Fanaticism (1790).
Johann Heinrich Hartung was born in Erfurt (17 Aug 1699) and died on a business trip to the Leipzig bookfair (5 May 1756). He learned printing in Königsberg, apprenticed in Leipzig, then worked in Hamburg before returning to Königsberg (1727) to work in Stelter’s Officin, marrying his daughter Christina, and four years later (2 Feb 1731) with his father-in-law’s death (April 1734) was able to acquire his bookprinter’s license. In 1746 he bought the firm of Christoph Gottfried Eckart (1693-1750), the first large book publisher in Königsberg. When Hartung died (1756), his son Michael Christian took over the firm, but his death three years later (17 April 1759) passed the firm to his mother, who led the firm with the help of Ludwig Woltersdorf (died 1759) and Johann Daniel Zeise (died 1766), whom she married seriatim. After Zeise’s death, the son Gottlieb Leberecht Hartung (12 Aug 1747 - 29 Nov 1797) Lölhöffel [1976, 10], drawing from the literary remains of Margaret von Olfers, writes that Gottlieb Lebrecht was a son from Johann Heinrich’s second marriage (to Hanne Zobel). Also, that the Johann Heinrich’s daughters from his first marriage (to Christina Stelters) were Dorothea (who married Johann Emanuel Vollmer, the pastor from Schnellwalde) and Regina (who married Johann Jakob Fischer, the Königsberg merchant). Regina Hartung and Johann Jakob Fischer were the parents of Elisabeth von Stägemann [bio]. took over the firm, and began again to publish the Königlich privilegierte Preußische Staats-, Kriegs-, und Friedenszeitung (see), typically referred to as the Hartungsche Zeitung, and the Intelligenzblatt [Forstreuter 1932, 63-69]. In 1798, Hartung’s widow sold the old Kanter bookshop to the firm Göbbels und Unzer, while the print shop, newspaper, and publishing firm remained in the Hartung family.
George Friedrich Hartung (1782-1849), son of G. L. and Sophie Charlotte Hartung, was an apprentice in the firm when his father died. His mother ran the business while he studied law and philosophy at the university. He assumed control of the business in 1817. [Sources: Meckelburg 1840, 36-41; Dreher 1896, 165-70; Forstreuter 1932, 71-73; ADB]
Johann Friedrich Hechsel, the son of the pastor Johann Samuel Hechsel, was born in Lauenburg, Pomerania, (now: Lębork, Poland), which lies 70 km north-west of Gdansk. Hechsel matriculated at the university in Königsberg on 23 March 1782, and later became the rector in Lauenberg, suceeding his father in nearby Labuhn upon his father’s death. He never married, and died January 17, 1804. We have from him a set of logic notes from Kant’s classroom that he appears to have written himself while attending Kant’s lectures. [Source: Erler 1911-12, 2: 569; Stark 1987a, 124]
1742 (May 19): Matriculation (Königsberg).
1766 (Jun 9): Marries in the Dom (Königsberg).
1767: Kriegs- und Domänenrat.
1787: Schulrat in Königsberg.
Christoph Friedrich Heilsberg was born in Ragnit (on the Memel) and died in Königsberg (5 Jun 1807). He was a good friend of Kant’s from their student days. See his correspondence with Wald, in which he offered several pages of reminiscence:
“I came to the academy a year later than Kant, into the house of Dr. Kowalewski [bio], in which I enjoyed six years of his instruction, but also had permission to hear the courses of other academic teachers. My first acquaintance at the academy was the student Wlömer, my compatriot [Landesmann] and relation, who died a few years ago as the Privy Finance Councillor and Justitarius with the General Directorate. He was a trusted friend of Kant’s, lived with him for quite a while in a room, ...” [Reicke 1860, 48].
Heilsberg, a Lithuanian, was the motivating force behind Mielke’s German-Lithuanian dictionary (1800), for which he wrote a preface, and the afterword to which was Kant’s last publication [writings]. [Sources: Reicke 1860, 11, 47-51; Vorländer 1924, 45-47; Putinaitê, “Kant und Donelaitis”]
(Hans Vaihinger’s obituary of Heinze: Kant-Studien 14: 349-52 (1909).)
1762 (Aug 10): Matriculates at the university in Königsberg. His entry in the matriculation records: “Herder Joh. Godfr., Mohrunga-Boruss.” [Erler 1811-12, 484], with no indication of a faculty. His was the only entry for that day.
1764 (Nov 22): Leaves Königsberg for Riga.
1769 (Jun 5): Leaves Riga by boat to Denmark, then France.
1770 (Sep): Meets Goethe (Strasbourg).
1771 (Apr): Consistory advisor (Bückeburg).
1773 (May 2): Marries Caroline Flachsland.
1776 (Oct 1): Moves to Weimar to serve as General superintendant and higher consistory advisor.
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1788 (Aug 6)-1789 (Jul 9): Travels in Italy.
Johann Gottfried Herder was born (25 Aug 1744) in Mohrungen (now Morąg, Poland), a town of a little over 1000 inhabitants and lying 100 km south and a little west of Könïgsberg; died (18 Dec 1803) in Weimar. A noted philosopher, theologian, poet, and former student and later opponent of Kant’s. The literature on Herder is so vast and readily available that only the barest will be noted here, and then primarily only that which concerns his relationship with Kant.
Herder arrived in Königsberg in the summer of 1762, and enrolled at the university as a theology student. He quickly made the acquaintance of J. G. Hamann (by way of Hamann’s father, the city physician) and entered the intellectual world centered in Johann Jakob Kanter’s bookshop (on some accounts, Herder briefly apprenticed with Kanter before being encouraged to pursue studies at the university). Herder came to Kant’s attention, still a young Privatdozent, who agreed to let him attend his lectures free of charge, and during Herder’s two years in Königsberg he attended them all, sometimes twice. Herder claims, in his preface to Kalligone (1800), to have attended all of Kant’s courses offered during those years [Irmscher 1998, 651-52], but of course he attended other lectures as well. In a letter from early 1768, Herder offered a brief account of his university course-work: “philosophy according to its parts with Magister Kant, philology with Professor Kypke, theology in its various fields with Doctor Lilienthal and Arnold” [Herder 1977-96, 1: 95]. Along with Kant, G. D. Kypke (Genesis, Philology), T. C. Lilienthal (dogmatics), and D. H. Arnoldt (church history) can also be added F. S. Bock (New Testament), F. J. Buck (mathematics and physics), C. Langhansen (New Testament) – all based on Böttiger’s testimony [1998, 125] – and J. G. Teske (physics; see Seligo’s testimony in Herder [1846, 1: 127]). See also Caroline Herder’s summary of Herder’s university coursework [1830, 1: 56]. We have Herder’s notes from these lectures – the earliest of any from Kant’s classroom, and the only from the 1760s. Herder’s notes on metaphysics, physical geography, and moral philosophy are, in that order, the most extensive. Notes on physics, logic, and mathematics are much more fragmentary. During his student years at Königsberg, during which time he also taught at the Collegium Fridericianum [more], Herder enjoyed a double-mentorship of Kant and J. G. Hamann. The relationship with Hamann was surely closer, and it continued until Hamann’s death, resulting in a large body of correspondence. Correspondence between Herder and Kant, on the other hand, was strikingly nominal (two letters are known and extant), and they quickly became estranged. Kant’s review of Herder’s Ideen (1784, etc.) [writings] was unsparing, and was repayed in full by Herder’s two-volume Metacritik (1799) and his three-volume Kalligone (1800), criticizing Kant’s 1st and 3rd Critiques, respectively.
Herder abandoned his university studies for a teaching post at the cathedral school in Riga (November 1764), where he remained for five years, leaving in the summer of 1769 for Denmark (where he met Klopstock) and France (where he met Diderot and d’Alembert). He traveled to Hamburg (to meet Lessing), then to Kiel (summer 1770) to begin a tour with the teenage son of Friedrich August, Prince-Bishop of Lübeck. During travels with the young prince, Herder made the acquaintance in Darmstadt of Johann Heinrich Merck and Caroline Flachsland (Herder’s future wife), and then in Strassburg he met the young Goethe, who was studying law. Herder left the employ of the prince, and accepted a post at Bückeburg as a consistory advisor. After five years at that post, he accepted the offer of a similar post in Weimar (procured with the help of Goethe), and this is where Herder spent the remainder of his career, living behind the church in which he preached, the City Church of St Peter and St Paul.
Herder was well-established in Weimar by the time Kant published his Critique of Pure Reason, which left Herder unimpressed; in a letter to Hamann (March 1782), he wrote that the work “is hard for me to swallow. It will remain nearly unread.”
Despite the disagreements and hard-feelings, one still finds passages like this, from Herder’s Letters to Humanity, “Letter 79” (1795) [Suphan 1883, 17: 402–3]:
“[…] How many speculative truths have been found by the newer philosophers and stored in the philosophy bookcase? The author answers: Just one, from my friend Kant, this: ‘That we still have no philosophy, not a pure one.’ He proved a truth that Socrates expressed before him without proof: ‘We know nothing.’ Derived through indulgent speculations about supersensible things, we let lie fallow the field [403] assigned to us to cultivate, with the sown seeds growing in ourselves. Once this debris of assumed knowledge, by which reason contradicted itself, was cleared away from the heart, then the heart could beat freely for the moral good.”
Select Publications:
Abhandlung über den Ursprung der Sprache (1772).
Auch eine Philosophie der Geschichte der Menschheit (1774).
Ideen zur Philosophie der Geschichte der Menschheit, 4 parts (1784, 1785, 1787, 1791); a projected 5th part was never written.
Gott. Einige Gespräche über Spinozas System, nebst Shaftesburys Natursystem (1787, 1800).
Briefe zur Beförderung der Humanität (Riga 1795).
Verstand und Erfahrung: Eine Metacritik zur Kritik der reinen Vernunft (Leipzig: Hartknoch, 1799), Pt 1: xxxii, 479 pp.; pt. 2: xii, 402 pp.
Kalligone (Leipzig: Hartknoch, 1800). Pt. 1: Vom Angenehmen und Schönen (xlvi, 267 pp). Pt. 2: Von Kunst und Kunstrichterei (276pp). Pt. 3: Vom Erhabenen und vom Ideal (290 pp).
Sämtliche Werke, 33 vols., edited by Bernhard Suphan (Berlin: Weidmann, 1877-1913). Reprint: Hildesheim, 1967.
Johann Gottfried Herder Werke, 10 vols., edited by Ulrich Gaier, et al. (Frankfurt am Main: Deutscher Klassiker Verlag, 1985-2000).
1762: Arrives in Königsberg to work as an apprentice.
1766 (Apr 21): Matriculates at the university (Königsberg).
1770 (early September): Returns to Berlin.
1770 (Sep 19): Matriculates at the Collegium medico-chirurgicum (Berlin).
1772 (Nov 3): Matriculates at the university (Halle).
1774: Doctor of Medicine (Halle).
1777: Begins holding private lectures in Berlin on Kant’s philosophy.
Krause [1881, 203]
”Mit dem Jahre 1777 eröffnete er eine Reihe von Vorträgen über Logik und Einleitung in die gesammte Philosophie vor einem gemischten Auditorio, die grossen Beifall fanden, und denen bald als vornehmster Zuhörer der um die geistige Cultur unseres Vaterlandes so hochverdiente Staatsminister Freiherr von Zedlitz beizuwohnen pflegte.”
1779 (Dec 1): Marries Henriette de Lemos.
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Marcus Herz was born (8 Feb 1747) This date is from NDB; ADB (and Herz [1990, vii]) gives Jan 17 as the birth-date; still other sources offer January 7 and June 17 [Wininger]. and died (19 Jan 1803) Wininger: “17 January 1803.” in Berlin; his father was a synagogue scribe. After a Talmudic education at the Ephraim Stift in Berlin, Herz arrived in Königsberg at the age of 15 to apprentice himself, but eventually enrolled at the university to study medicine (1766) – Richarz notes that he was only the third Jew to have enrolled at the university – and he clearly also attended Kant’s lectures, although we have no direct record of this. Coming from a modest home, he was supported financially during his studies by the Königsberg banking family of Joachim Moses Friedländer, whose son David was a classmate at the university. Herz eventually became one of Kant’s most valued students, and was asked to respond at his innaugural dissertation (24 August 1770). After returning to Berlin he continued his medical studies at the Collegium medico-chirurgicum, and then after two years received a doctorate in medicine at Halle (1774), where he studied under Goldhagen. Friedrich Wilhelm II awarded him the title (and salary) of “Professor” in 1786 or 87, the only Jew in all of Prussia to enjoy this distinction.
Herz was a practicing physician and taught medicine, but also gave lectures on Kant’s philosophy beginning in 1777 or 1778. These were the first lectures on Kant’s philosophy to occur in Berlin, and his auditors were among the leaders of the Berlin Enlightenment (Wininger lists Zedlitz, the later Friedrich Wilhelm III, Ramler, Dohm, Engel, the Humboldt brothers, Schiller, Goethe, Spalding, Schleiermacher, Fr. Schlegel, Gentz, Count Alex. von Dohna-Schlobitten, Count Christian Bernstorff, and Varnhagen v. d. Ense). From Johann Erich Biester’s letter to Kant (11 April 1779) [AA 10: 254] we read:
“After a break, Herz began this week with the psychology, which he is thinking to finish in a quarter-year going straight through. Our Minister [Zedlitz] (I am proud, that I can call him mine) has missed not a single hour. Meanwhile he has also asked Kraus to discuss philosophy with him. In the shine of these two we recognize your light.”
In 1779 (Dec. 1) Herz married the beautiful and intelligent Henriette Lemos, who was only fifteen at the time, and together their home, guided by Henriette, became an important salon for enlightenment figures in Berlin – it was here, for instance, that Friedrich Schlegel first met his future wife Dorothea, the daughter of Moses Mendelssohn.
The correspondence between Herz and Kant is of inestimable value, especially the letters during the 1770s, important for the view they offer of Kant’s philosophical development as well as of his life and career as a professor (see the Accounts of Kant’s Lectures). An engraving of Herz (shown here) is included as a frontispiece of the Neue allgemeine deutsche Bibliothek (1797, vol. 33); another engraving serves as the frontispiece of Schichtegroll’s Nekrolog der Teutschen für das neunzehnte Jahrhundert, vol. 3 [1805]. [Sources: Krause 1881, 201-5; Wininger 1928, 3: 78-79; ADB; NDB; Richarz 1974, 50, 56-7; Herz 1990, vii-xxxviii; Davis 1995; LDJA, 11: 168-75]
Select Publications:
Betrachtungen aus der spekulativen Weltweisheit (Königsberg, 1771).
Versuch über den Schwindel (Berlin 1786), completely re-worked edition: (Berlin 1791).
Grundlage zu meinen Vorlesungen über Experimental-Physik (Berlin 1787).
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Theodor Gottlieb von Hippel was born (31 Jan 1741) in Gerdauen (now: Zheleznodorozhny, Russia), a small town about 70 km south-east of Königsberg, and died (23 April 1796) in Königsberg, as one of the city’s most influential men. Educated in law, he filled various municipal offices in Königsberg, eventually serving as mayor the last ten years of his life. While at the university he attended Kant’s lectures, and then later became one of Kant’s closest friends. In a draft to his public declaration regarding Hippel’s authorship [writings], Kant wrote:
“The deceased man, my former auditor and later intelligent acquaintance, and in the last 10 years trusted friend ….” [AA 13:537]
[Der verstorbene Mann mein ehemaliger Zuhörer späterhin aufgeweckter Umgangs- in den letzten 10 Jahren vertrauter Freund ….]
This would put their friendship as forming around 1787.
He was also a successful (although anonymous) author.
Hippel entered the university (27 July 1756) Hippel was the only matriculant that day; the entry reads: “Hippel Theodor. Gottlieb, Gerdaven. Boruss.” [Erler 1911-12, 2: 462]. with the intention of studying theology (having inscribed with that faculty on 11 October 1756 – this would have been the first day of classes for WS 1756/57), changing later to law. He attended Kant’s lectures during SS 1758 and WS 1758/59, after first attending the less-challenging lectures of F. J. Buck; he also heard Teske (physics), Langhansen and Buck on Mathematics, Kypke (logic), F. S. Bock (Greek), Flottwell (German stylistics), Halter (Hebrew), D. H. Arnoldt (ethics), and theology with T. C. Lilienthal and F. A. Schultz. Hippel wrote:
“I studied mathematics and philosophy with exceptional diligence, and since I unfortunately had no opportunity to go farther with either Latin or Greek, I had instead to help myself with dead teachers rather than living. Kant had begun lecturing back then, but I didn’t visit his school until I had heard the entire so-called ‘philosophy course of study’ with Buck.” [Hippel 1835, 91]
Ich studirte Mathematik und Philosophie mit außerordentlichem Eifer, und da ich leider weder im Lateinischen, noch weniger im Griechischen weiter zu kommen Gelegenheit fand, so mußt' ich mich anstatt der lebendigen Lehrer, nach denen ich ausgegangen war, mit todten behelfen. Kant fing damals erst zu lesen an, und ich besuchte seine Schule nicht eher, als bis ich den ganzen sogenannten philosophischen Cursus bei Buck gehört hatte.
After university he left to work as a private tutor (1759-60), made a visit to St. Petersburg (1761), did another tutoring stint (1761/62) with the family of Baron von Schrötter, returned to Königsberg to study law (1762-65), and then worked in Königsberg as a lawyer and in various governmental capacities, eventually serving as mayor (1786). Kant wrote several letters to Hippel on behalf of needy students, seeking scholarships for them. In 1790 Hippel applied to the king and received a renewal of his family’s patent of nobility (thus the ‘von’ in von Hippel), which allowed him to purchase land outside the city limits, as well as make possible his joining the royal cabinet as a minister. He was a close companion of Kant’s since the end of the 1760s. Wannowski wrote that Hippel was Kant’s “most grateful student, and later his closest friend” [Reicke 1860, 40].
Hippel had been living in his own house on Juncker-Strasse Address-Calendar for 1784, p. 20:
“Hr. Theodor Gottlieb Hippel, Kriegsrath, Policey- und Criminal-Director und Ober-Bürgermeister, Assessor des Armen-Collegii, wohnet in der Juncker-Strasse in seinem Hause.”
since at least 1779 and in early 1780 set up his own kitchen [Lindemann-Stark 2001, 168]. This was just around the corner from Kant’s new house on Prinzessinstraße; the proximity of their houses is suggested in a letter that Hippel sent Kant (13 June 1793) while he was in Danzig on business related to the recent partition of Poland; one hears his longing to be back in Königsberg and near his good friend and close neighbor:
“I do not know if I will be so fortunate as to enjoy your instructive company again, but I sincerely hope this distance does not last much longer. You have students and admirers everywhere and certainly also in Danzig, but I defer to no one the true devotion so justly shown to you. A morning in Königsberg did not pass but that I was strengthened and invigorated by the sight of your house from my study and the thought of your great significance. How happy I will be to celebrate again such a beautiful morning in Königsberg! Please give my best to Director Ruffmann.” [AA 11: 435]
Hippel’s life was filled with many secrets, including a great many anonymously published works of fiction and letters. His four-volume Course of Life (1778-81) contained passages that seemed to come straight out of Kant’s lectures (anthropology in the first volume, and metaphysics in the second; Lehmann claims that there are “entire passages from the Encyclopaedia” found here as well [AA 24: 958]) [text]; his book on marriage (1774) was also remarkably Kantian, and rumours began spreading openly that Kant was indeed the author of these various works, leading Kant to publish a disclaimer (6 Dec 1796). [writings] Considerable, but still unfinished research, has focused on the extent of Hippel’s borrowings from Kant, and their relationship in general; see Lindemann-Stark [1990, 2001] and the literature cited. There is reason to believe that Hippel possessed sets of notes from Kant’s lectures on anthropology, metaphysics, moral philosophy, and philosophical encyclopedia (Vorländer claims: logic, moral philosophy, natural law, and anthropology), although none of these are extant. Hippel died at the age of 55 on 23 April 1796, a day after his friend Kant’s 72nd birthday. [Sources: Baczko 1790, 616-17; Reusch 1848b, 301-5; Vorländer 1924, 2: 35-36; Lindemann-Stark 2001, 61-193][last update: 5 Jun 2007]
Select Publications:
Der Mann nach der Uhr, oder der ordentliche Mann. Ein Lustspiel in Einem Aufzuge. (Königsberg: Kanter, 1765), 112 pp.
(anon.), Über die Ehe (Berlin: 1774).
(anon.), Pflichten des Maurers bey dem Grabe eines Bruders. Eine Freymaurer-Rede in der Loge zu den dreyen Kronen in Königsberg. (Danzig: J. H. Florke, 1777), 62 pp.
(anon.), Lebensläufe nach aufsteigender Linie nebst Beylagen A, B, C., 4 vols. (Berlin: C. F. Voss, 1778-81).
(anon.), Über die bürgerliche Verbesserung der Weiber (Berlin: Voss, 1792), 429 pp.
(anon.), Kreuz- und Querzüge des Ritters A bis Z (Berlin: Voss, 1793-94).
Theodor Gottlieb von Hippel (1775-1843) was a nephew to Kant’s friend of the same name, after whom young Hippel was named. His father – Gotthardt Friedrich – was T. G. Hippel’s only brother and a pastor nine km due east in Arnau (from 1786 to 1809). Like his uncle, young T. G. Hippel was born in Gerdauen and sent to Königsberg to attend the Burgschule and later the university (matriculating 14 Mar 1791), where he studied law, and again like his uncle, entered a life of government service, working under Minister von Hardenberg in Berlin, and then in Marienwerder served as vice president then president of West Prussia. Also notable is his close friendship with the author E. T. A. Hoffmann; they met as children and attended school and university together.
Two sons of Hippel’s cousin, Christoph Hippel (1717-1795) of Johannisburg, came to Königsberg to attend the Burgschule and then the university, living with T. G. Hippel as well: Raphael (1766-1846) matriculated at the university 23 Mar 1785 in theology and Samuel Friedrich Hippel (1773-1831) matriculated 11 Sep 1787 and listed as a theology student. [Source: Müller 1907, 602-3; NDB; Lindemann-Stark 2001, 156]
1772-73: Heard Kant’s lectures on physical geography (in a privatissima).
1780 (Mar 9): Marriage to Countess Friederike Amalia von Schlieben.
Friedrich von Holstein-Beck was born (20 Aug 1757) in Königsberg to Herzog Karl Anton August von Holstein-Beck (born 1727 in Marburg, died 1759 in Stettin) and Friederike Charlotte Antonie Amalie (1738-1786; born Gräfin von Dohna-Leistenau). He died near Hamburg (25 Mar 1816). Holstein-Beck was officially the Herzog von Schleswig-Holstein-Glücksburg, of the Beck auxilliary line.
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Holstein-Beck
(Tischbein, c.1800)
Holstein-Beck matriculated in the military school, as was appropriate for a young man of his station, rather than at the university, but he was free to hire Kant for private lectures (so-called privatissima), and Arnoldt reports that Kant gave such a set of private lectures on physical geography during WS 1772/73 in Holstein-Beck’s home before a “mixed circle of auditors.” Kant gave a copy of the notes Kant had prepared his original notes in the years 1757 to 1759, and with Kant’s original now missing, the manuscript presented to Holstein-Beck is the closest copy that we have. he used as the text for the class to present to Holstein-Beck, adding various marginalia and some corrections, much or all of which was likely just to “personalize” the copy. Kant and Holstein-Beck were later neighbors: Kant’s house on Prinzessinstrasse was directly next to Holstein-Beck’s house at Junker Straße 13-14.
He married Countess Friederike Amalia von Schlieben on 9 March 1780 in Königsberg; the had two daughters (1780, 1783) and a son (1785).
Holstein-Beck counted as one of Elisabeth Stägemann’s many admirers (she married Graun on 26 July 1780 – it would seem that Holstein-Beck was in the early years of his own marriage when he was pursuing Elisabeth),
Hedwig von Olfers (Elisabeth’s daughter from her second marriage) wrote, however, that Holstein-Beck “had before his wedding (1780) proposed to Elisabeth with passionate love. From this time there later arose a beautiful friendship that was share with the Baroness as well as Staegemann” [1908, 101]. Gause puts their affair after Holstein-Beck was already married [1974, 74]:
“[Elisabeth’s] music friends were Duke Friedrich Karl von Holstein-Beck and Johann Friedrich Reichardt. The young Duke, enthusiastically devoted to all things beautiful, and who became better known as a patron of Königsberg’s musical life than as a general, so adored Elisabeth that he placed both of their marriages at risk.”
and was present at her death in 1835. She is said to have especially treasured his letters to her, and he was stubbornly set on marrying her, although this came to nothing. The salon kept by Stägemann was a gathering place for Königsberg luminaries, including Holstein-Beck, Kant, Georg Hamann, Reichardt, von Korff, Kiesewetter, Nicolovius, and many others. Clemens Brentano and Heinrich von Kleist made appearances there. [Sources: Stägemann 1846, xviii; Gause 1996, 2: 258, 279; Stark 2009, xxxvi-xxxix]
1783 (Apr 11): Matriculation at Königsberg.
1787: Magister (under Pörschke) at Königsberg.
1788-94: Possibly worked as Kant’s amanuensis.
1794 (February): 3rd Pastor, and school rector (Marienburg); marries Wilhelmine Hesse.
Jachmann wrote to Kant on 4 June 1794 to announce his engagement:
“I want to take as my wife a girl [Mädchen] whom I have already known and loved for a long time as the most reasonable, industrious and most domestically skillfull woman [Frauenzimmer] among my acquaintances. This girl is the second daughter of the deceased Commissioner of Justice Hesse. [etc.]” [AA 11: 504]
1801: Director of the Conrad Provincial School and Pedagogical Institute (Jenkau, near Danzig). [HM, Neuer Nekrol.: 1802]
1807: Marries Minna Elisabeth Schaaf.
1814: Government and School Advisor (Gumbinnen).
1816: Moved to Danzig to work under von Schön.
1817: Awarded a Ph.D from the university at Breslau.
1831: Provincial School Advisor and Privy Government Advisor (Königsberg).
Reinhold Bernhard Jachmann was born on 16 August 1767 in Königsberg and died on 28 September 1843 while traveling in Thorn (Torun, Poland), where he is also buried; he was the son of a shoemaker, and brother to the physician Johann Benjamin Jachmann (1765-1832), with whom he has been occasionally confused in the scholarly literature. Jachmann studied at the Altstadt Gymnasium matriculating at the university in 1783 where he studied under Immanuel Kant, but received his Magister under Pörschke. He likely served as Kant’s amanuensis from 1788 until 1794, but was also studying in the theology faculty and in 1793 applied for the deacon’s position at the Altstadt church, which was unsuccessful. In 1794 he accepted a position as third pastor at Marienburg and left Königsberg (until 1832), beginning a successful career as a pastor and educational reformer. Apart from his correspondence with Kant, we know that Jachmann visited Kant in October 1797, in the summer of 1800, and his last visit on 1 August 1803, at which point Kant no longer understood who he was.
Jachmann writes in the “17th Letter” of his Kant biography [1804, 190-1]:
“On the first of August last year I saw my great teacher and friend for the last time. But what a sad change had taken place with the great man! […][191][…] As soon as I entered the room, the stooped old man rose from his chair and came towards me with unsteady steps. I flew to his breast with a melancholy heart and pressed my childish kiss on his lips. I confessed to him my joy to see him again and he – he looked at me with a dull, inquiring eye and asked with a friendly expression who I might be. My Kant did not know me anymore!”
Kant characterized Jachmann in 1800 as “formerly an industrious and alert auditor of my lectures, now a most treasured friend” (AA 8: 441), and among Kant scholars he is remembered as one of Kant’s early biographers (1804). A longer biography of Jachmann is also available. [Sources: Rhesa 1834; Reusch 1848; Hamberger/Meusel; Neuer Nekrolog; Arnoldt 1906-11; Vorländer 1918; Gause 1996, 2: 462; APB; ADB; NDB; Kuehn 2001; Stark 2015, 493-98]
Select Publications:
Prüfung der Kantischen Religionsphilosophie in Hinsicht auf die ihr beygelegte ähnlichkeit mit dem reinen Mysticismus (Königsberg: Nicolovius, 1800). Reprint: (Hildesheim: Georg Olms, 1999).
über das Ideal eines vollkommenen Erziehers. Eine Rede. (1802).
Immanuel Kant geschildert in Briefen an einen Freund (Königsberg: Friedrich Nicolovius, 1804).
Entwurf zur Nationalbildung (Berlin, 1809).
über das Verhältniß der Schule zur Welt (Berlin, 1811).
(edited with Franz Passow), Archiv deutscher Nationalbildung (Berlin: Friedrich Mauer, 1812), 1 volume in 4 parts. Reprint: Frankfurt/Main: Sauer & Auvermann, 1969). Essays by Jachmann include: “Ideen zur National-Bildungslehre,” pp. 1-45; “Die Nationalschule,” pp. 61-98; “Die Berücksichtigung der Individualität bei der Erziehung,” pp. 202-47; “Beschreibung des Konradinum auf Jenkau bei Danzig,” pp. 271-323; “Das Wesen der Nationalbildung,” pp. 405-63.
Lateinisches Elementarbuch (Berlin 1813).
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Fr. Conrad
Jacobi
Connection to Kant: His uncle (Johann Conrad Jacobi) was one of Kant’s close friends from the older generation, and Friedrich was a regular dinner guest.
Friedrich Conrad Jacobi, like his uncle Johann Conrad (below), was born and grew up in Grünstadt (Rhineland-Palatinate) and was called to Königsberg to become the business partner and heir to his uncle, who had recently divorced from his young wife. He increased the fortunes of the bank and also founded (with the merchant Weiland Degen) the first sugar refinery in Königsberg [Gause 1996, 2: 207]. Johann Christian Gädeke (1765-1853) from Lubeck joined the firm, married Jacobi’s daughter in 1804, and eventually took over the firm’s leadership. Both Jacobi and his son-in-law Gädeke helped Kant with his financial affairs and were regular dinner guests. Like Hofprediger Schultz and Wasianski, Jacobi was a member of the Phönix lodge. We have no record of who commissioned the 1791 Döbler portrait of Kant, but since it hung in the Phönix und Todtenkopf lodge for 150 years (before being confiscated by the Nazis in the 1940s) it was likely one or more members of the lodge and, of Kant’s known friends, our likeliest suspect would have been Jacobi, who certainly had the money and motivation for this, with Wasianski [bio], a fellow lodge member, as a possible accomplice (there is some evidence of his playing a role in the painting being acquired by the lodge [see the discussion of that painting here]).
Jacobi was born (26 Jan 1743) in Düsseldorf and died (10 Mar 1819) in Munich. He is of no direct relation to the merchant Jacobi’s in Königsberg, although his father was the merchant Johann Konrad Jacobi (1715-1788), who made his money in sugar, and coincidentally had the same name as Kant’s good friend in Königsberg (below).
Jacobi remained involved with the business, while pursuing philosophical and literary activities as well, of which there were two directly involving Kant: Briefe über die Lehre Spinozas (1785) and David Hume über den Glauben, oder Idealismus und Realismus (1787).
Jacobi’s Letters to Moses Mendelssohn concerning the Doctrine of Spinoza (1785) began a controversy that came to be dubbed the Pantheismusstreit (or “pantheism controversy”). Jacobi had claimed that the great Lessing had, in a meeting of July 1780, admitted to him that he was a Spinozist – a bold admission, since at the time this was equivalent to atheism. After Lessing’s death, Jacobi entered a private debate with Lessing’s close friend Moses Mendelssohn, who could not believe that Lessing would have made such a claim; it is this correspondence that Jacobi published in 1785. The ensuing public discussion grew to such proportions that it was eventually expected that Kant would weigh in on the matter, with each party to the dispute feeling a rightful claim to his support. What resulted was his 1786 What is Orientation in Thinking?
In an appendix to his book on David Hume on Belief (1787), Jacobi made the famous complaint that “for several years now I have had to keep starting over with the Critique of Pure Reason because I keep running into the problem that without that assumption [of the thing-in-itself] I cannot enter the system, and with that assumption I cannot stay inside” [1787, 222-23]. This complaint is part of a larger argument that phenomenal objects cannot be the cause of our representations of things (because they are themselves simply representations), but nor can the thing-in-itself (the transcendental object) be the cause of our representations, as this would violate the claim that we can have no knowledge of the thing-in-itself.
There is friendly correspondence between Jacobi and Kant, but the two were philosophical oppenents, although some peculiar twist of fate has led a portrait of him (shown here) to be passed of as a painting of Kant, even appearing as such on the cover of published books. Jacobi is important in these pages primarily as a correspondent of his fellow fideist J. G. Hamann. For unknown reasons.
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Joh. Conrad
Jacobi
Johann Conrad Jacobi One puzzle: In a 15 Oct 1795 letter to Kiesewetter, Kant asks him to address the shipment of turnips to “the merchant J. Conrad Jacobi” [AA 12: 45]. This suggests that ‘Conrad’ is his used name, but he should have been long dead by now. Perhaps this is a typo, and is referring to his nephew Friedrich Conrad Jacobi? The editor is silent about this. was born (30 Oct 1717) in Grünstadt (Rhineland-Palatinate), died (22 Aug 1774) in Königsberg. He studied in Frankfurt/Main, worked with a banker in Berlin, and in 1750 was sent to an associate of the Berlin banker’s, his future father-in-law Schwinck in Königsberg. Jacobi’s original task was to supply the Königsberg mint with silver and copper, but his business accounts also show him importing coffee (Martinique), potatoes (Holland), tea (England), butter (Cork), Borstorfer apples (Leipzig), Teltower turnips (Berlin), and exporting wax, bristles, amber, and leather. Once he joined the Schwinck firm, he appears also to have saved it from financial ruin.
In 1752 he married the twelve-year-old daughter of his partner, Charlotta Schwinck (see below), which ended in divorce in 1768. During their marriage, Kant was a social intimate to them both; after the divorce, he refused to enter Charlotta’s home again, but continued his affilation with Johann. It was Johann who, at Kant’s request, arranged a position for Hamann in the customs office (1767).
The divorce also led Johann to invite his nephew from Frankfurt – Friedrich Conrad Jacobi (see above) to Königsberg to become his business partner and heir. [Sources: NDB, 10: 231-32]
Charlotta Schwinck, born 17 July 1739, was not yet thirteen when she married the merchant Johann Conrad Jacobi (1717-1774) on 6 June 1752, twenty-two years her senior; she was twenty-nine when they divorced in September 1768. Charlotta and Kant interacted socially in the 1760’s; her two surviving letters to Kant offer a singular view of Magister Kant’s personal life.
Charlotta’s father was Georg Friedrich Schwinck, who inherited his business from his father (also Georg Friedrich), who had emigrated from Ulm and married the daughter of a Königsberg merchant family with deep roots. Johann Conrad Jacobi followed a similar path marrying Schwinck’s daughter (see above).
In 1754, the Jacobi’s purchased the Dohna house at the corner of Junkergasse and Theaterstraße (just a block north of the castle, and only a few blocks from Kant’s future house). It soon became a cultural center with “Princess Jacobi,” as Charlotta was called, holding a salon. During this time she gave birth to two daughters, both of whom died while still children. Although not well-educated, Charlotta was quite the personality and was considered by some as the most beautiful woman in Königsberg. Gause claims that Kant and the mint director Johann Julius Göschen (1736-1798) often attended the theater and balls with her, and were so inseparable that Hippel called them the Maskopisten – a term of law meaning “a commercial society arranged to provide equal benefits” (Kant uses this term later in his theory of right [AA 20: 447]). Charlotta began an affair with Göschen, whom she married within a year of her divorce. [Sources: Gause 1996, 2:183, 188-89, 257-58; NDB 10: 231]
Daniel Jenisch was a theologian and a writer of satires, as well as introductory book on Kant: Ueber Grund und Werth der Entdeckungen des Herrn Professor Kant in der Metaphysik, Moral und Aesthetik (Berlin 1796).
Born (2 Apr 1762) in Heiligenbeil), died (9 Feb 1804) in Berlin, he matriculated in Königsberg at the university in 1780, Matriculation record (8 March 1780): “Jenisch Daniel, Heiligenbeil. Boruss.” [Erler 1911, 2: 559] This was in time to attend the 1780 summer term. was “one of Kant’s most devoted students,” and became a good friend of Hamann’s son, Johann Michael. On Kant’s recommendation he moved to Berlin (May or June, 1786) where he took a position at the Nikolai Church. Depression led to his drowning himself in the Spree at the age of 42, just three days before Kant’s death. [Sources: Meyer in Kuehn/Klemme 2010, 2: 595-97; Stark 2015, 483-86]
Jensch belonged to Kant’s circle of dinner friends. In a letter of introduction addressed to Biester (29 June 1794) that Kant sent with Jensch, who who had travelled to Berlin, Kant said of Jensch that he was his “trustworthy friend of many years, clear-thinking, enlightened, and well-read” [AA 11: 523-14]. Abegg, in 1798, identified him as “Hippel’s confidant” [Abegg 1976, 154].
Jensch matriculated at the university in 1763, Matriculation record (23 Sep 1763): “Jenisch Christ. Frdr., Norkitten ad Insterburg. Boruss. [82-85] ex schola Palaeopolitana dimissi” [Erler 1911, 2: 489] Entered in Erler (and the Matrikel?) as “Jenisch Christ. Frdr.” The only ‘Jensch’ listed in the Erler index is a “Johann Jacob” matriculating in 1790. and so quite likely was attending Kant’s lectures alongside Herder. Jensch held various offices in Königsberg: Referendarius with the Hofgericht (1775), Assessor of the city- and orphan-court, and finally Kriminalrat and Stadtrat (1788). He was a regular lunch guest of Kant’s and a close associate of Hippel’s, claiming to have been responsible for much of Hippel’s book promoting the civil rights of women. Abegg claims Jensch wrote Hippel’s biography for Schlichtegroll [Abegg 1976, 154, 199]. Jensch had submitted an essay for the Berlin Academy prize question on whether there was progress in metaphysics, arguing that Kant’s philosophy was an important step forward from Leibniz and Wolff (Kant had also written on this, but without submitting his manuscript) and won a second place prize alongside Karl Reinhhold and Johann Heinrich Abicht. [Sources: Baczko 1790, 618; Abegg 1976, 154, 199]
1773 (Apr 16): Matriculates (Königsberg).
1780 (Jul 14): Re-matriculates (Königsberg).
Aaron Isaac Joel was born (25 May 1747) in Halberstadt and died (1813) in Königsberg. He matriculated at the university in Königsberg on 16 Apr 1773 and studied medicine, as well as taking classes with Kant, where he belonged to a small handful of Jewish students closely associated with Kant. In a letter of introduction to Moses Mendelssohn that Joel asked Kant to write (dated 13 July 1778), Kant described him thus: “while not favored with as many excellent talents as Herr Herz, still his healthy understanding, his diligence, his orderly life, and especially the goodness of his heart allows us expect that he will in no time stand out as a skilled and respected physician” [#135; AA 10:233]. He was awarded an M.D. from Frankfurt/Oder (with a dissertation on “De hernia umblicata”), returned to Königsberg, and worked at the Chewra Kaddischa hospital as well as serving as Kant’s physician. [Sources: Krüger 1966, 93][last update: 15 Jan 2007]
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Caroline
Keyserling
1744 (Apr 29): Marriage to Count Johann Gebhard von Keyserling, in Königsberg.
1745: Birth of their 1st son: Carl Philipp Anton.
1747: Birth of their 2nd son: Albrecht Johann Otto.
1755: Purchase of a palace in the Vorderroßgarten district of Königsberg.
1761 (Sep 14): Death of Gebhard von Keyserling.
1763 (February): Marriage to Count Heinrich Christian von Keyserling, in Königsberg.
1777 (Apr 24): Christian Jakob Kraus moves into the Palace.
[Also: Kayserling, Keyserlingk, Kaiserlingk.] Caroline was born on 13 November 1727 to Karl Ludwig Truchseß von Waldburg and his wife Sophie Charlotte, the Countess of Wylich and Lottum; A genealogy available on the internet [http://genealogy.euweb.cz/waldburg/waldburg2.html#HJ] lists the following details for Caroline: born 13 Nov 1727, died 24 Aug 1791. First marriage in Königsberg (29 Jun 1744) to Gebhard Johann Friedrich Graf von Keyserlinkg, Herr zu Rautenburg (b. 1699, d. 14 Sep 1761); second marriage (11 Feb 1763) to Heinrich Christian Graf von Keyserlingk, who died on 22 Nov 1787. she died in Königsberg (24 Aug 1791). In 1744, at the age of 16, Another family tree (“Aus dem Johanniter Archiv entnommen, siehe Hasse’s genealog. Sammlung”) lists Caroline’s birth at 22 Feb 1729, in which case she would have just turned 15 when she was married. she married into the Keyserling family, whose roots were in Westphalia but with Baltic lands acquired in the late 15th century, and it was into this Baltic branch that Countess Charlotte Caroline Amalie von Truchseß zu Waldburg married Count Johann Gebhard von Keyserling (1699-1761). This was Caroline’s first marriage but Gebhard’s third, who was thirty years her senior. She promptly bore him two sons, her only children: Carl Philipp Anton (b. September 1745, d. 1 Aug 1794) and Albrecht Johann Otto (b. 22 Feb 1747, d. 1 May 1809). The older son Carl suffered from mental illness and, once it was determined incurable, he lived in the Pillau Fortress (there being no sanitoria in the area), where he could be closely supervised [Conrad 1911, 103-4]. The younger son, Otto, traveled after completing his university studies, then married (15 Sep 1774) Charlotte Eleonore Freiin von Medem [Conrad 1911, 105].
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Schloß Rautenburg
c.1860
The Rautenburg estate (now: Bolshije Berezhki, Russia; lying about 75 km northeast of Königsberg) had historically belonged to the Truchseß zu Waldburg family, so presumably the purchase by Gebhard in 1744 was part of the marriage arrangements. Capustigall was another manor house, about two miles southwest of Königsberg, that remained in the Truchseß zu Waldburg family, and this was where Caroline and her family sometimes stayed. A third residence, purchased in 1755 from Count Albrecht Ernst von Schlieben, was a palace in the Vorderroßgarten district of Königsberg, on the east side of the Castle Pond that extended north from the castle, and directly across which was the Totenkopf und Phönix masonic lodge (and later also the Drei Kronen, after it relocated). Gebhardt purchased this palace the year Kant began teaching at the university, and it quickly became a cultural focus of the city, especially during the years of the Russian Occupation (1758-62).
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Schloß Capustigall
Gebhardt died in 1761 (September 14), and Caroline remarried two years later in February 1763 to a relative of Gebhardt’s (a first-cousin once removed).
He is sometimes wrongly described as a nephew [Dohna 2009, 70]. For the relevant aspects of the labyrinthine Keyserling genealogy, see Zedlitz-Neukirch [1837, 3: 86-88].
and someone her own age: Count Heinrich Christian Keyserling (1727-1787); they were both thirty-six. The following year Heinrich purchased land adjoining the palace in Königsberg, which he then developed in various ways, including building a new theater next to the pond. The couple lived continuously in their Königsberg palace beginning in 1769 [Conrad 1911, 101] (with the exception of 1774/75), remaining a center of entertainment for the locals and visiting dignitaries. It was here that Kant, with his standing invitation to dinner – he spent many of his Tuesday (and Thursday) afternoons there
In a letter of 28 September 1785 to F. H. Jacobi, Hamann writes that Kant “usually dines” at the Keyserling’s on Thursday. Two years later, in a letter of 17 April 1797 to Jacobi, Hamann writes that “Kant often dines at Keyserlings on Tuesdays.” Kant was certainly a frequent guest; Johann Ludwig Schwarz once stayed at the Keyserlings for five days in early 1787, and in his memoire wrote:
“Of the five days of my visit, I had the luck to sit across from Kant four times, and to marvel at the extraordinary knowledge of this scholar that stretched over the most diverse topics of the dinner conversation.” [Schwarz 1828, 180]
Ich hatte in den fünf Tagen während meines Aufenthalts viermal das Glück, Kant gegenüber zu sitzen, und die außerordentlichen Kenntnisse dieses Gelehrten, welche sich über die verschiedenartigsten Materien des Tischgespräches erstreckten, zu bewundern.
This suggests that Kant was dining with the Keyserlings nearly every day. Another guest at the Keyserling home, their cousin the poet Elisa von der Recke, upon hearing of Kant’s death reflected on her encounters with him in the Keyserling home:
“Kant was a thirty-year friend of this house, in which reigned the dearest sociability, and men with the most excellent minds made themselves at home as soon as their moral character was assesssed to be as good as their heads. Kant loved to interact with the late Countess, who was a highly intelligent woman. I often saw him there, entertaining so charmingly that one would never have guessed that he was the deep and abstract thinker who had brought forth such a revolution in philosophy. In social discourse he knew how to clothe even abstract ideas in a lovely dress, stating clearly every opinion that he maintained. A graceful wit was always at his disposal, and his speech was occasionally spiced with a light satire that he always brought forth unpretentiously and with the driest expression.” [Recke 1804, 108-9]
Kant war der 30jährige Freund dieses Hauses, in welchem die liebenswürdigste Geselligkeit herrschte und Männer von ausgezeichnetem Geiste einheimisch waren, so bald ihr moralischer Charakter ebenso sehr als ihr Kopf geschätzt wurde. Kant liebte den Umgang der verstorbenen Reichsgräfin, die eine sehr geistreiche Frau war. Oft sah ich ihn da, so liebenswürdig unterhaltend, daß man nimmer den tief abstrakten Denker in ihn geahnet hätte, der eine solche Revolution in der Philosophie hervorbrachte. Im gesellschaftlichen Gespräch wußte er bisweilen, so gar abstrakte Ideen in ein liebliches Gewand zu kleiden; und klar setzte er jede Meinung auseinander, die er behauptete. Anmuthsvoller Witz stand ihm zu Gebote; und bisweilen war sein Gespräch mit leichter Satyre gewürzt, die er immer, mit der trockensten Miene, anspruchlos hervorbrachte.
– would sit at the place of honor next to the Countess. Other frequent guests were Hippel, Hamann, Scheffner, and later Kraus and Mangelsdorff, as well as various members of the nobility and the military.
Apart from socializing with the Count and Countess, several sources also mention that Kant served as a tutor in the Keyserling home; see Hofmeister.
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Christian
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Caroline
Caroline drew two pastel portraits on pergament in 1778 of herself (64 x 48 cm) and Christian (64 x 48 cm) sitting at their workdesks, which offer a glimpse of their day-to-day life. These were acquired in 2019 by the Schlossmuseum Rundāle, where they are on display in their original frames.
The Count died in 1787 and the Countess four years later. In his published Anthropology [writings] Kant referred to the Countess Keyserling as “an ornament to her sex” [AA 7: 262]. “die Zierde ihres Geschlechts.” She was not the only ornament; in his letter to Charlotte von Knobloch (10 Aug 1763), Kant refers to Fräulein Knobloch also as “die Zierde ihres Geschlechts” [AA 10: 43]. Bazcko lists her publications, that include her translation of Gottsched’s philosophy into French. [Sources: Baczko 1790, 624-25; Borowski 1804; Reicke 1860; Taube 1894; Arnoldt 1908, 3: 173-78; Conrad 1911; Dohna 1998; Siegele 2014, 273-301] [last update: 15 Sep 2023]
1780: Matriculation at Halle.
1788 (Nov 10): Matriculation at Königsberg.
1789 (Oct): Return to Berlin.
1790 (Jun 2): Magister (Halle).
1790 (Sep/Oct): Second trip to Königsberg.
1793: Professor of Mathematics and Philosophy at the Pepinière (Berlin).
1798: Professor of Logic at the Military Academy (Berlin).
1804: European tour inspecting military academies.
1807: Third visit to Königsberg.
Kiesewetter was born (4 Nov 1766) and died (9 Jul 1819) in Berlin. He was the son of a schoolteacher. His importance lies primarily in his association with Kant and in his many publications popularizing Kant’s philosophy. For Kant, he also served as a well-positioned source of Berlin court gossip.
Johann Gottfried Karl Christian Kiesewetter began his university studies at Halle on a special stipend from the crown, but learned of Kant in Jakob’s lectures and managed to transfer to Königsberg for two semesters, where he quickly entered Kant’s circle of table guests, and helped Kant by writing a fair version of his Critique of Judgment manuscript. Back in Berlin, he also corrected many of the proofs for that book, which was being published there by Lagarde. Kiesewetter received his magister degree from Halle the next summer, after which he made a second trip to Königsberg to spend time with Kant. Kiesewetter’s career in Berlin began as a tutor in the royal family, then as a professor at the college for medicine and surgery, then the military academy, lecturing primarily on logic and on Kant’s philosophy in general, for which he wrote many successful popularizations; cf. Dietzsch [2003, 141-47]. A longer biography of Kiesewetter is also available. [Sources: ADB; DLL; NDB]
Samuel Krickende born in Soldau (Prussia), Goldbeck [1781, 1: 169] and the obituary in the Allgemeine Literarische Anzeiger gives 1736 as the birth-year, which the Allgemeiner Kantindex: Personenindex follows. Other sources claim 1733. was a Lutheran pastor in Tschöpolowitz (near Brieg in Schlesia) and Groß Neudorf and Upper Consistory-Councilor (1778), having studied theology in Königsberg Natriculating on 2 April 1751: “Krickendt Samuel, Soldav. Pruss.” [Erler 1911, 2: ] where he became a close friend of J. G. Scheffner [bio], then moved to Berlin as a Hofmeister in the home of Johann Peter Süßmilch, becoming a close friend to Mendelssohn. As such, he offered news from Berlin back to Scheffner and Königsberg. [Sources: Allgemeine Literarische Anzeiger (18 Nov 1797), col. 1421; Goldbeck 1781, 1: 169; Hippel 1838, 75; Sembritzki 1905, 12-14; Scheffner 1916, 429-522; Altmann 1973, 160]
François Théodore Lagarde was born in Königsberg (1756) but lived most of his adult life in Berlin, probabably dying there (1824). Before moving to Berlin, Lagarde grew up in Königsberg’s community of displaced French Huguenot’s who had moved to the region near the end of the 17th century. With Hartknoch’s [bio] death in 1789, Kant turned to Lagarde to publish his third Critique, and since it was to be printed in Berlin, he asked Lagarde to hire J. G. Kiesewetter [bio], Kant’s former student living in Berlin and who had written out the clean copy for the typesetters, to correct the proof sheets. [Sources: DDB]
Martin Lampe (1734-1806) was a retired soldier from Würzburg, and served for many years as Kant’s servant. He died on 7 February 1806 in Insterburg. [AA 12: 570]
The relationship between Kant and his servant received some attention by Kant’s early biographers, as well as in more recent treatments. That Lampe worked for Kant since 1761 (until 1802, when he was fired for excessive drinking) is based on four texts: One oddity with this early date is a comment made by Kant that “in 1770 when I became the logic-metaphysics professor, whereby my lectures were set at 7 AM, I had to hire a servant to wake me.” Abegg [1796, 149] also suggests a later start-date: 1779. (1) Least specifically, in a letter of 25 March 1790 to François de la Garde [AA 11: 146; Zweig 1999, 341], Kant claims, in speaking of his financial situation as a Privatdozent, that “I was always able to afford my own servant.” (2) In a letter of 6 March 1761 to Ludwig Ernst Borowski [#21; AA 10: 34], Kant asks Borowski to pass along some information to Kant’s servant (Bedienten). (3) In his biography of Kant, written in 1792, Borowski notes that Lampe had been in Kant’s service “nearly thirty years” [1804, 114]. (4) In Wasianski’s [bio] 1804 Kant biography we find a discussion of Lampe [1804, 109-12]: born in Würzburg, he was a Prussian soldier before entering Kant’s service “as his first servant,” working some forty years. Wasianski gives the date of his termination as January 1802 [1804, 111], The new servant was Johann Kaufmann [Wasianski 1804, 112-13], who certainly did sleep in Kant’s attic. Wasianski is also the source of the peculiar account of Kant writing a note reminding himself that he must forget the name of Lampe [1804, 122]. so he must have worked for Kant since c.1762 – and if he truly was Kant’s first servant, then he would have been in Kant’s employ since at least March 1761. Lampe would not have lodged with Kant, however (if he ever did), until Kant bought a house in 1784 [more].
Abegg [1976, 148-49] offers a brief description of Lampe in his 1798 travel diary: Kant “has a Swabian as a servant, a comical but very good person.” German: “Er hat einen Schwaben zum Bedienten, ein drolliger, aber sehr guter Mensch.” Abegg concluded his anecdote – which concerned Kant’s lack of awareness (and apparent interest) in Lampe’s personal life – with the comment that Lampe had been with Kant for nineteen years (thus, since 1779).
Lampe appears in the 1784 Address-Calender as a servant broker (Gesinde-Mackler, specifically, a Knecht-Vater, dealing in man-servants), and living in Sackheim in the Caschub’schen Haus – and therefore not in Kant’s attic, but he may well have then moved into Kant’s newly-purchased house. In describing Kant’s house, Jachmann [bio] notes that the “old cook” lived in an apartment on the first floor, opposite the lecture room, and that “his servant” lived in the attic – presumably Lampe, and not Kaufmann, who was there for only the last two years [1804, 180]. Dietzsch [2003, 160] quotes a passage from Kant, found in Adickes’s Nachlaß, that unambiguously attests to Lampe living with Kant: “Ever since he lived in my house […] he took care of my affairs with respect to going to bed and arising, and running errands; with the establishment of my own home, I gave him money and the necessary clothes, and I increased, although always quite arbitrarily, his income, especially after he took a wife, wholly against my will.” German: “Seit er in meinem eigenen Haus wohnt […] besorgte er meine Angelegenheit in Ansehung des Schlafs und Wachens and zum Verschicken; bei Einrichtung meiner eigenen Hauswirthschaft gab ich ihm Kostgeld und die notwendigen Kleidungsstücke und vermehrte, aber immer ganz beliebig seine Einkünfte, vornehmlich nachdem er sich schlechterdings wider meine Einwilligung eine Frau nahm.” [Sources: Jachmann 1804; Wasianski 1804; Abegg 1976; Zweig 1999; Dietzsch 2003] [last update: 25 Oct 2013]
Johann Heinrich Immanuel Lehmann was the son of a pastor in Ducherow (Pomerania). He matriculated at the Albertina on 23 September 1789, and eventually served as Kant’s amanuensis (probably from 1790-96). Kant wrote to Hippel on his behalf (28 Sep 1792, #531) for a stipendium (a Magistratsstipendio), and around August 1797 he wrote two letters of recommendation for him for a teaching position in Stettin, one to Johann Heinrich Ludwig Meierotto (ca. August 1797, #767), a professor and Oberschulrat in Berlin, the other to von Massow (ca. August 1797, #768). The teaching position was for mathematics, philosophy, and Latin (to replace a Professor Meyer, who was seriously ill). The recommendation to von Massow is included in the account of Kant’s Testimonia.
 "Oil on canvas (18.6 x 64.6 cm)(c. 1767-68) by Anna Rosina de Gasc (1713-1783). Original in Gleimhaus (Halberstadt).")
Lessing
Lessing was a leading writer, poet, playwright, and literary critic of the German enlightenment. His importance here would be difficult to overstate. While he and Kant never corresponded, they had many mutual acquaintances, and Kant makes occasional reference to Lessing, who also makes an early appearance in Kant’s literary career with a succinct, satirical review of his first published writing:
“Kant undertook the difficult business of educating the world. / He estimated the living forces, without first estimating his own.”
The original German:
“K. unternimmt ein schwer Geschäfte,
Der Welt zum Unterricht.
Er schätztet die lebendigen Kräfte,
Nur seine schätzt er nicht.”
[Lessing, Werke, 1: 47, first published in Das Neueste aus dem Reich des Witzes (July 1751), p. 32; cf. AA 13: 1]
The art historian Friedrich Eggers (presumably; the article was unsigned) visited Rauch’s studio in Berlin in 1855 where he saw Rauch’s statue of Kant (later installed in Königsberg) and Ernst Reitschel’s statue of Lessing, whom he described as “the polemical quintessential man, standing there in his familiar way so frank and free, so devastatingly significant” [Eggers 1855, 251].
Lessing / Kant
Rietschel’s statue of Lessing is not far from the Lessing we find facing Kant (pictured here) on the pediment of Rauch’s massive equestrian monument of Friedrich the Great, trotting east down Unter den Linden on his horse. Lessing and Kant stand on the west side of the pediment, just below the horse’s behind.
1770: Moved to Berlin.
1774: Moved to Dresden.
1780: After travels through Italy and Vienna, Lowe settles in St. Petersburg.
1784: Paints a miniature watercolor of Kant. This date is not secure. Schubert claims that Lowe’s painting bore the words and date “ad vivum pinxit 1784” [1842, 205-6], but he cites Hamann’s March 1786 letters to Jacobi, who mentions an engraving that Lowe made from an earlier drawing or painting of Kant and that bore the words “ad vivum pinxit” [Jacobi, Werke, 4.3: 188-89]. That is, the “ad vivum pinxit” was on Lowe’s engraving, not a painting, and there was no mention of a date.
1793: With the 2nd partition of Poland, Lowe leaves Russia.
1795-1828: Active in Berlin, with travels to Paris and Italy.
1828: Returns to Königsberg.
Born (24 Jun 1756) and died (10 May 1831) in Königsberg, he spent most of his professional life in Berlin. He was the son of a Jewish merchant and, against his parents’ wishes but with the support of an uncle, travelled to Berlin as a fourteen-year-old, where David Friedländer [bio] supported his artistic studies in painting and engraving, working under Sueur, Chodowiecki, and Frisch in Berlin, then moving to Dresden when he was eighteen, painting under the famous portraitist Graff. After travels through Italy and then Russia he settled in Berlin, on occasion visiting Königsberg – and it was on such a visit in 1784 that he painted a miniature of Kant. He became a quite accomplished and sought after portraitist in oil and miniature, as well as an accomplished engraver. [Source: Hagen 1853a,317-29]
Lüdeke was born in Berlin, studied theology at Königsberg His entry in the Matrikel (14 Oct 1765) reads: “Lüdicke Joh. Ernest., Berolin. March.” [Erler 1911, 2: 498]. where he became friends with J. G. Scheffner [bio] and L. E. Borowski [bio]. After his studies he moved to Berlin where he served as a preacher at the Petrikirche (since 1776). He corresponded with both Scheffner and Borowski, as well as Kant (to Kant: 18 Jan 1781, 30 Dec 1797, 6 Mar 1798, 1 Nov 1798, 19 Dec 1798; from Kant: Feb 1798).
He was the father confessor for Queen Friederike Luise and Princess Wilhelmine (1726-1808). In 1781 he married Franziska Charlotte Simon (1760-1785), and then in 1786 he married Caroline Auguste Dorothee Krüger. [Source: Praktiken der Monarchie (online)]
Lupin was a German geologist, mineralogist, and author, who visited Kant in early July 1794 (an account of which appears in his four-volume autobiography). He was born into an established patrician family near Munich. Having begun his law studies in Strasburg (1789), he turned to the sciences in Göttingen under Beckmann and Blumenbach, inspired by a visit to mines in the Harz Mountains, which led to touring mining regions throughout Europe. He was a member of the Bavarian Academy of Sciences. [Source: ADB; Lupin 1844, 1: 247-52; R.B. 1901]
Born in Halle (13 Jun 1755), died in Magdeburg (14 Feb 1825). He studied theology in Halle and served as a pastor in the reformed church in Magdeburg (1791). In Kant circles he is best known for his monumental Encyclopedic Dictionary of the Critical Philosophy, 11 vols. (1797-1803) and is widely thought to have been the author of an anonymously published two-volume 1804 biography of Kant (but see Vorländer’s reservations).
A limited correspondence with Kant is extant: two letters, both addressed to Kant – 12 April 1794 (which appears to be Mellin’s initial contact) and 13 April 1800 (in which Mellin addresses Kant as his “most worthy teacher and friend”). Abegg relates a compliment paid him by Markus Herz in the summer of 1798. While discussing the many Kantians, Herz said that he had recently become acquainted with Mellin, “who appears to be a really good man. But otherwise I don’t know anyone, other than Kant, whom I can admire on account of their character.” [Source: Abegg 1796, 104; ADB; Vorländer 1918, 44-45]
Select Publications:
Encyclopädisches Wörterburch der kritischen Philosophie, oder Versuch einer fasslichen und vollständigen Erklärung der in Kants kritischen und dogmatischen Schriften enthaltenen Begriffe und Sätze; mit Nachrichten, Erläuterungen und Vergleichungen aus der Geschichte der Philosophie begleitet, und alphabetisch geordnet. 11 vols. (Züllichau, Jena & Leipzig: F. Frommann, 1797-1804).
(anon.) Immanuel Kants Biographie, 2 vols. (Leipzig: C. G. Weigel, 1804).
 "Moses Mendelssohn. Oil on canvas (60.3 x 52 cm) by Johann Christoph Frisch (1783). © Jewish Museum Berlin, Inv.-no. 2013/355/0, photo: Roman Maerz.")
Mendelssohn
1743 (Sep or Oct): Walks from Dessau to Berlin.
1750: Tutor in the home of Issak Bernhard (a silk manufacturer).
1754: Meets G. E. Lessing and Fr. Nicolai.
1757: Co-founds with Lessing the Bibliothek der schönen Wissenschaften.
1762: Marries Fromet Gugenheim.
1763: Wins the Prussian Academy of Science essay prize.
1766: Correspondence with Kant begins. It appears they each wrote to the other four times, although Mendelssohn’s first two letters are missing; Kant’s responses to those letters are dated 7 February and 8 April 1766 [AA 10: 67-73]. Mendelssohn then wrote in response to Kant’s Dissertation (25 December 1770 [AA 10: 113-16]) and Kant wrote eight years later on behalf of a Jewish student (13 July 1778 [AA 10: 233]). Five years after that Mendelssohn wrote a letter of introduction for Friedrich von Gentz, and notes that Kant’s Critique of Pure Reason serves as a barometer of his health, insofar as his ability to understand passages vouchsafes his mental stamina (10 April 1783 [AA 10: 307-8]), to which Kant responded four months later, offering a synopsis of his Critique (16 August 1783 [AA 10: 344-47]). Apart from this limited correspondence, one finds constant reference to Mendelssohn in Kant’s letters to and from Marcus Herz.
1769: Lavater publicly challenges Mendelssohn either to convert to Christianity or to refute it.
1771: Nervous breakdown as a result of the “Lavater Affair”.
1777 (Jul 24-Aug 18): Visits Königsberg.
1785-86: Dispute with Jacobi over Lessing’s view of Spinoza.
Moses Mendelssohn was born (6 Sep 1729) in Dessau and died (4 Jan 1786) in Berlin, where he spent the whole of his adult life. An acculturated Jew and the center of the intellectual world of Berlin, Mendelssohn’s name is virtually synonymous with the German Enlightenment. The model for Lessing’s Nathan der Weise (1779), one of his favorite mottos (and for his life a fitting summary) was: “Destiny of man: to search for truth, to love the beautiful, to will the good, to do the best.” Because so much is readily available about Mendelssohn’s life and thought, I offer here the barest sketch, providing detail insofar as it concerns Kant and his lecturing activity.
Key points of contact between Mendelssohn and Kant include: (1) Mendelssohn’s reading of Kant’s 1770 Dissertation, (2) Mendelssohn’s 1777 visit to Königsberg [more], (3) Mendelssohn’s attempted reading of Kant’s Critique of Pure Reason (early 1780's),
Kant pinned his hopes on “Garve, Mendelssohn, and Tetens” to read, understand, and continue the project begun with the Critique of Pure Reason (see Kant’s letter to Garve of 7 Aug 1783 [AA 10: 341]). After receiving a copy, Mendelssohn wrote apologetically to Kant, complaining of weak nerves but “not entirely without hope of yet thinking through [the Critique] in this life” (letter of 10 April 1783)[AA 10: 308]. This elicited a useful synopsis of the Critique that Kant sent Mendelssohn in reply (16 August 1783 [AA 10: 344-47]), but how discouraged Kant might have been to read Mendelssohn’s note (5 January 1784) a few months later to Elise Reimarus:
“Very nice to hear that your brother does not think much of the Critique of Pure Reason. For my part, I must admit that I didn’t understand it. The summary that Herr Garve put in the Bibliothek is clear to me, but other people say that Garve didn’t understand him properly. It is therefore pleasant to know that I am not missing much if I go thence without understanding this work.” [qtd. in Zweig 1999, 182]
and (4) the so-called “Pantheism Conflict” with Jacobi [bio] (1785-86), which resulted in Kant writing his Orientation in Thinking (1786) [writings].
The young Marcus Herz [bio], having just returned to Berlin after his studies in Königsberg with Kant (and for whose pro loco disputation he served as respondent) [more], had a four hour discussion with Mendelssohn over Kant’s dissertation. “We have very different philosophies,” Herz wrote in a letter to Kant (11 Sep 1770), “he follows Baumgarten to the letter and he gave me to understand very clearly and distinctly that he could not agree with me on a number of points because they did not agree with Baumgarten’s opinions. […] I am occupied just now with a little essay for him in which I want to show him the error of an a priori proof of the existence of God. He is very taken with this proof; small wonder, since Baumgarten accepts it.” [Zweig transl.] [Sources: ADB; Beck 1969, 324-39; Altmann 1973; Beiser 1987, 44-108; Knobloch 1993; Zweig 1999, 597-601] [last update: 30 Jan 2007]
Select Publications:
(with Lessing), Pope ein Metaphysiker! (Danzig, 1755).
Philosophische Schriften, 2 vols. (Berlin: C. F. Voss).
Abhandlung über die Evidenz in metaphysischen Wissenschaften, welche den von der Königlichen Academie der Wissenschaften in Berlin auf das Jahr 1763 ausgesetzten Preis erhalten hat (Berlin: Haude und Spener), 99 pp.
Phädon oder über die Unsterblichkeit der Seele in drey Gesprächen (Berlin und Stettin: Friedrich Nicolai, 1767), 309 pp.
(tr.), Die fünf Bücher Mose, zum Gebrauch der jüdisch deutschen Nation (Berlin and Stettin: Friedrich Nicolai, 1780).
Jerusalem oder über religiöse Macht und Judentum, 2 vols. (Berlin, 1783), 96, 141 pp.
Morgenstunden, oder Vorlesungen über das Daseyn Gottes, 1st part (Berlin: Christian Friedrich Voss und Sohn, 1785), 330 pp.
An die Freunde Lessings. Ein Anhang zu Herrn Jacobis Briefwechsel über die Lehre des Spinoza (1785).
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Menzer
Born in Berlin (3 Mar 1873), died in Halle (21 May 1960). Studied under Dilthey in Berlin (1892), with a semester at Straßburg, graduating from Berlin (1896) with a dissertation on the development of Kant’s ethics, habilitating in 1900 with an (unpublished) study of the influence of Kant’s natural philosophy on Herder’s Ideen. Lectured at Berlin until given an associate professorship in Marburg (1906), followed by a full professorship in Halle (1908), retiring in 1938. He returned to teaching after the war (1945), but then retired three years later (1948).
Married Elisabeth Hallmann in Marburg (1908) and they had three daughters.
Menzer’s primary interpretive work was Kant’s Lehre von der Entwicklung in Natur und Geschichte (1911), and is also well-known through his editing student notes (primarily Brauer, also an-Mrongovius and Kutzner) from Kant’s ethics lectures for publication (1924).
Menzer was affiliated with the Academy edition of Kant’s writings from its very inception, as a student of Dilthey’s in Berlin. Menzer ended up editing various texts for the Academy edition – various essays in vols. 2 and 8, Groundwork (vol. 4), and after Reicke’s death helped finish the correspondence index (vol. 13). He also belonged to the original editorial staff of the fourth part on the lecture notes (chaired by Max Heinze, who was to edit the philosophical encyclopedia, and also including Paul Gedan (physical geography), Oswald Külpe (anthropology), Rudolf Stammler (philosophy of law), and Menzer (moral philosophy), but all of these other men died before much or any work was completed, Heinze in 1909 with Menzer assuming leadership in 1910, which is why we find Menzer compiling a list of all the known sets of lecture notes in 1912 (see Menzer’s List). [Sources: Martin 1960; NDB]
Johann Christoph Mortzfeldt was identified by both Wald and Wasianski as the author of the anonymously published Fragmente aus Kants Leben. Ein biographischer Versuch (1802). He matriculated at the university in 1784 (April 1), attended some of Kant’s lectures, studied medicine, and eventually began a medical practice in Königsberg, also dining occasionally with Kant. Mortzfeldt’s name appears in Kant’s dining notes, eating alongside William Motherby, another physician named Fachsche, Johann Brahl, or Hofprediger Schultz on one day, Johann Friedrich Vigilantius on a March 21, and Kant’s later editors F. T. Rink and G. B. Jäsche yet another day [AA 21: 24, 49; 22: 14.]. Gerlach notes that he joined a Masonic lodge in Königsberg in 1793 (Zum drei Kronen) and that he served for a time as the county physician [Kreisphysikus] for Allenstein. ‘Mortzfeldt’ does not appear in the 1770 Address-Calender for Königsberg; the 1784 index does list a ‘Mortzfeldt’sches Haus (p. 104). [Sources: Mortzfeldt 1802, 10; Reicke 1860, 30; Czygan 1892, 117; Erler 1911-12, 2: 579; Gerlach 2009, 302]
Robert Motherby, born 23 December 1736 in Hull, England, and died 13 February 1801 in Königsberg. He arrived in Königsberg at the age of 18 to help Green in his business, soon becoming an indispensible partner. Robert’s older brother, George Motherby (1731-1793) was already working in Königsberg as a physician (although he eventually returned to England, dying in Yorkshire), and was an early practitioner of using variolation, introduced to Königsberg by the professor of medicine J. W. Werner in 1757. Robert's first son was also called George, and his third son, William, trained as a physician and was instrumental in introducing Jenner's new technique of vaccination against smallpox, using serum from cowpox lesions.
In 1762 Robert married Charlotte Toussaint (1742-1794), a merchant’s daughter marrying a merchant. Together they had eleven children – six sons and five daughters, although two of these (a girl and a boy) died as infants. The children were all raised speaking French, German, and English. The surviving sons were: George (1770-1799) and Joseph (1775-1820) both worked as merchants in Königsberg (with Green, Motherby, and Co.); William (12.09.1776-16.01.1847; see below) trained in medicine and returned to Königsberg to practice; Robert (27.4.1781-1.8.1832) began working as a merchant, as his father wanted, but then studied and taught languages, publishing a Scottish dictionary; John (16.9.1784-19.10.1813) studied law John matriculated in Königsberg on 10 April 1800 [Erler 1911, 2: 650] , served as a government councillor in Königsberg, but then joined the army and died fighting the French at the battle of Leipzig.
Robert’s father-in-law, Jean Claude Toussaint (1709-1774), from a Huguenot family, was a business partner with another French ex-patriate, Jean Claude Laval (d. 1793) – the one one whom Kant was said to have based his description of the French national character. Mellin claimed that Toussaint was Kant’s closest friend – his only friend in the sense of a “moral friendship.” [Sources: Mellin 1804, 2: 149, 151; Gause 1996, 2: 190, 193-94, 232; Motherby 2014]
1792 (Mar 8): Matriculation (Königsberg).
1792-94: attended Kant’s lectures (metaphysics, anthropology, moral philosophy).
1799 (Sep 12): Medical dissertation (Edinburgh).
1799: Studies medicine at the Charité (Berlin).
1800 (Aug): Returns to Königsberg.
1805 (Apr 22): Organizes the first meeting of the “Friends of Kant” society.
1806: Marries Johanna Tillheim.
1822: Divorces Johanna.
William Motherby was born (9 Dec 1776) and died (9 Dec 1776) in Königsberg, although since 1832 he had been living during the summer in the countryside at Arnsberg. He was the third son of Robert (see above) and Charlotte (née Toussaint) Motherby, studied at the Philanthropinum in Dessau, then matriculated at the university in 1792 (March 8), where he studied medicine, but also attending Kant’s lectures. He finished his medical degree in Edinburgh (matriculating 12 September 1799), then returned to Königsberg where he led the movement to vaccinate against smallpox, opening a clinic in Sackheim with free vaccines. He married Johanna Tillheim (or Thielheim; 1783-1842) in 1806, with whom he had two children, a daughter (Anna, called Nancy) and a son (Robert). It was in many ways an unhappy marriage and ended in divorce (1822).
Motherby was Jachmann’s unnamed source
See the anonymous obituary of Jachmann in Pädagogische Blätter (1842) 1: 309-21, here p. 315:
“Der letzte dieser Briefe, der über die letzten Lebenstage und den Tod Kants spricht, ist aus der Feder des Dr. W. Motherby, des gemeinschaftlichen treuen Freundes beider Männer hervorgegangen.”
Quoted in Stark [2015a, 496].
of information on Kant’s final months, whose report comprised the bulk of Jachmann’s “18th Letter”:
“I turned to a friend who is a general practitioner in Königsberg, who as a friend and table companion visited our philosopher frequently until the end of his life and was present even at his death, and asked him to inform me of Kant’s physical death and of the circumstances under which death finally followed.” [1804, 198]
This would also have been convenient for Motherby, who was living next door in Nicolovius’s house. “Negotiant Joseph Motherby in der Langgasse und D. Motherby bey Nicolovius zu ersuchen. [AA 21: 135] Having known Kant since his infancy, interacting with him every Sunday afternoon in his family home, and then much later dining regularly in Kant’s own home, it is fitting that he organized the Friends of Kant society in 1805 that still meets annually on Kant’s birthday. [Source: Hagen 1847 (English translation); Stark 2024, 159-69]
Christoph Coelestin Mrongovius (Krzysztof Celestyn Mrongowiusz) was born 19 July 1764 in Hohenstein (Polish: Olsztynek) and died 3 June 1855 Kups [2006, 19] gives his death day as July 3. in Danzig (Gdansk). His father (Bartlomiej/Bartek) was a pastor and rector of the school. Mrongovius – whose name is the Latinized form of the Masurian ‘Mraga’ – studied first at a provincial school in Zalewo (1777-80), then in Königsberg at the Cathedral school (1780-82) and finally at the university (matriculating 21 March 1782), where he studied for eight years. His entry in the Matrikel reads: “Mrongovius Christoph. Coelestin,. Hohens. Boruss.”
For Kant scholars, Mrongovius is important as the source of seven sets of notes (anthropology, metaphysics, theology, physics, logic, and two on moral philosophy). In the larger world, he distinguished himself as a linguist and student of the Masurian and Kashubian cultures, as well as publishing translations of Theophrastos, Epictetus, and Homer into Polish; he was also the author of one of the first Polish/German dictionaries. These linguistic efforts earned for him the posthumous honor, in 1946, of having the Masurian city of Sensburg renamed as Mrongowo.
Mrongovius probably attended Kant’s metaphysics lectures during his second semester at the university (1782-83), attending Kant’s lectures on rational theology the following winter (1783-84), and then logic (1784), anthropology and moral philosophy (1784-85), and physics (1785).
After completing his studies at the university, Mrongovius taught Polish and Greek at the Collegium Fridericianum [glossary] from 1790 to 1797. In 1798 he moved to Danzig, where he received the pastorate of the Church of St Anne, and also taught Polish at the local Gymnasium. His father Bartek, the pastor in Hohenstein, had also studied at the university in Königsberg (1756-67), and may have attended Kant’s lectures as well.
The manuscripts Ms. 2213 (moral philosophy [an-Mrongovius]), Ms. 2214 (metaphysics [Mrongovius 1]), Ms. 2216 (rational theology [Mrongovius 3]), Ms. 2217 (anthropology [Mrongovius 1]), and Ms. 2218 (a bound collection of notes, including theoretical physics [Mrongovius 4.1], moral philosophy [Mrongovius 4.2], and logic [Mrongovius 4.3]). in Mrongovius’s possession were transferred to the Danzig city library in 1864, as noted in Günther [1909]. [Source: Zelazny/Stark 1987; Kups 2006] [last update: 19 Feb 2007]
Isaac Naumburg matriculated at the university at Königsberg on 21 December 1789, listed as a Jewish student from Friedland, studying medicine. The Erinnerungsbuches of 1825 lists him as a physician, and Eulner [1960, 42] lists him as a student of J. C. Reil’s [bio], having received his medical doctorate from Halle in 1803: “Nauburq[sic], Isaacus (Friedlandia-Boruss. Occident.) De pruritu senili. Specimen inaugurale medicum. Praes. J. C. Reil. Halae 1803. 26 S.”
A set of notes from Kant’s anthropology lectures were brought to light in the late 1990s. The Marburg University Library possesses (from the Nachlass of Walther Ziesemer) a course receipt (Kollegquittung) of Kant’s from May 9, 1791, showing that Naumburg had paid eight Reichsthaler “for two courses, the physical geography and the anthropology” [Stark 1993, 262].
Carl Ferdinand Nicolai was a well-regarded educator in Königsberg, who attended Kant’s lectures in the 1770s, from which studies we have his anthropology notes. Nicolai appears in the university (Königsberg) Matrikel on June 21, 1770: "Nicolai Car. Ferdin. EichmediaBoruss. theol. stud." In the student lists for the theology faculty, he appears as a 22 year old in SS 1774, at which time he was also granted access to the Convictorium. He appears again in lists for WS 1776/77, WS 1777/78, SS 1778, and WS 1778/79. The list for SS 1778 indicates that he had previously attended Kant’s lectures on metaphysics and anthropology, and that he was currently attending Kant’s lectures on logic. We also find his signature on a subscription list for Kant’s private course on moral philosophy for WS 1773/74 (for which Kant also records him as having paid). Nicolai spoke Polish as well as German. His notes from Kant’s anthropology lectures of WS 1775/76 – studied by Otto Schlapp (1900) but lost during WW II – may well have served as the model for an entire group of notes that are copies from a set of notes originating in that semester.
Nicolai appears to have remained in Königsberg after his studies. He married Amalie Dorothea Schmidt on 28 Feb 1792, and was at that time the Prorector of the Löbenicht Latin School. They had a son on 2 Feb 1795, and the following year (28 Oct 1796) Nicolai became rector of the Cathedral School (replacing Hasse). Without being identified as such in the Personenindex he appears in a note in the Opus postumum: “HE Rector Nicolai” [AA 21: 119] and appears to be mentioned in a 19 Nov 1789 letter from Kiesewetter to Kant [AA 11: 108].
Nicolai, a life-long Berliner, was a successful author and book publisher, a prominent literary critic, friend of Lessing and Mendelssohn, man of empiricist tastes and “popular” philosophy, and also a member of the Enlightenment “Wednesday Society.” He founded the Allgemeine deutsche Bibliothek in 1765 and served as its editor for forty years, also co-editing (variously with Mendelssohn and Lessing) the periodicals Bibliothek der schönen Wissenschaften (1757-60) and the Briefe, die neueste Literatur betreffend (1759-1765). Nicolai’s library was given to the Royal Library in Berlin, now the Staatsbibliothek, including his annotated copy of Wasianski’s Kant biography. [Source: DEGP; Reiss 2005; KL; Brandis 2000]
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Ludwig
Nicolovius
1782 (Sep 28): Matriculated at the Albertina.
1789-93: Travels through Germany, Holland, England, then (with Stolberg) through Germany, Switzerland, and Italy.
1795 (Jun 5): Marriage to Marie Anna Luise Schlosser.
1805: Kriegs- und Domänenkammer in Königsberg.
1805 (Aug 31): Consistory Advisor, overseeing the schools in East Prussia.
1806: Curator of the University.
1807 (Fall): Head librarian.
1808 (Jul): Member of the Department for School and Poverty.
1808 (Dec): Staatsrath for the Interior Ministry, working under first Dohna, then Humboldt.
Georg Heinrich Ludwig Nicolovius was born (13 Jan 1767) in Königsberg and died (2 Nov 1839) in Berlin. His father (Hofrat Matthias Balthasar Nicolovius, 1717-1778) was an official in the local Königsberg government and he had twin younger brothers: Friedrich (1768-1836) was a Königsberg book merchant and one of Kant’s publishers, and Theodor Balthasar (1768-1831) served in government, ending up in Danzig as the Regierungspresident. All three brothers were among the nineteen students of Kant’s signing the dedicatory poem given to Kant on the occasion of his first Rectorate (23 April 1786) [AA 12: 404-6].
Both his parents died in 1778, leaving him in the care of relatives. He attended the Collegium Fridericianum (until 1782), after which he matriculated at the university in Königsberg (28 Sep 1782), where he attended Kant’s lectures, Kant wrote a letter of introduction for Nicolovius to Christoph Friedrich Hellwag (3 Jan 1791) in which Kant refers to Nicolovius as “a former auditor of mine and a very fine young man” [AA 11: 244]. Jachmann [1804, 44] notes that “the book merchant Nicolovius” (thus, Friedrich) was also a former student of Kant’s. and from whom we have a set of Physical Geography notes [see]. Nicolovius also studied languages and law, settling on theology as a career. During this time he became acquainted with J. G. Hamann. Nicolovius’ brother, Theodor, later married Hamann’s daughter, Marianne Sophie (1779-1855).
Nicolovius took a long trip to London and Holland, and began a life-long friendship with Friedrich Heinrich Jacobi whom he met in Düsseldorf, and through Jacobi he entered a network of Berlin officials and intellectuals, including Count Stolberg. Nicolovius returned briefly to Königsberg, and then made an extensive journey (January 1791-Spring 1793) with Stolberg through Germany, Switzerland (meeting Lavater and Pestalozzi), and Italy, down to Sicily. He returned to Holstein with Stolberg, through Jacobi became acquainted with Johann Georg Schlosser and his family, and eventually married (5 June 1795) Schlosser’s daughter, Marie Anna Luise, whose uncle was J. W. Goethe. [Sources: Nicolovius 1841; ADB; Bautz; Gause 1996, 2: 237]
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Mat. Balth.
Nicolovius
Friend of Kant, father of Georg Heinrich Ludwig (1767-1839) and the twins Matthias Friedrich (1768-1836) and Theodor (1768-1831). The engraving of the father (shown here) was the frontispiece to Beiträge zur Kunde Preußens, 2nd vol. (Königsberg: Universitäts Buchhandlung, 1819).
Friedrich Nicolovius was born to a prominent Königsberg family – his father was Hofrat Matthias Balthasar Nicolovius (1717-1778) and a friend of Kants – and in the 1790s Nicolovius was Kant’s publisher, neighber, and regular dinner guest.
After attending the Collegium Fridericianum and the university,Nicolovius matriculated at the university on 1 Oct 1784: “Nicolovius Frdr. Mathi., Regiomonte-Boruss., theol.” [Erler 1911, 2: 583]. Friedrich travelled to Riga and apprenticed himself at Hartknoch’s [bio] shop to learn the book trade, finishing this in 1787 and moving back to Königsberg, where he opened a bookshop and publishing business in 1790. He published the Königsbergischen gelehrten Anzeigen (1791/2) as competition to Hartung’s Kritischen Blättern and in 1796 took over the “Kanter Newspaper” [KGPZ] from Kanter’s sons. Nicolovius began to publish Kant’s books Discovery [Against Eberhard] (1790), Religion (1793), Perpetual Peace (1795), Soemmerring (1796), Metaphysics of Moral (1797), Conflict of the Faculties (1798), Anthropology (1798), Making Books (1798), On Education (1803). (after Hartknoch’s death), as well as publishing books by Ludwig Baczko, G. C. W. Busolt, J. G. Hamann, T. G. Hippel, C. J. Kraus, J. G. Scheffner, Johann Schultz, and others.
Kant was a friend of the father, Hofrat Matthias Balthasar Nicolovius (1717-1778), who worked in the Budget Ministry. He and his wife, Elisabeth Eleonore Bartsch, had two daughters and three sons. The sons were Georg Heinrich Ludwig (1767-1839)(see the next entry) and the twins Mathias Friedrich Nicolovius (1768-1836) and Theodor Balthasar (1768-1831). All three brothers attended the Collegium Fridericianum and the university, and at least two attended Kant’s lectures. Both parents died in 1778 (the mother in January, the father in December), leaving the children in the care of a maternal aunt.
Friedrich was apparently born before his brother Theodor, since he is referred to by Puttlich as the “middle brother” [Warda 1905a, 279]. Friedrich almost certainly knew Kant best, working as his publisher and being a regular dinner guest; he was also a neighbor, apparently living just to the east of Kant’s house, as Wasianski identifies him as the owner of the poplars that were obscuring Kant’s view of the Lobenicht church steeple. The Nicolovius bookshop was just around the corner on Junkerstraße in the vormer Holstein house (later used by the Voigt bookseller).
Theodor was a government official like his oldest brother, ending his career as the Regierungspräsident in Danzig until he retired in 1825 due to poor health [Gause 1996, 2: 237; Neuer Nekrolog 1833, 9.2: 896-900]. In the fall of 1799 he married Hamann’s daughter, Marianne Sophie (1779-1855). [Sources: Jachmann 1912, 151; APB; Gause 1996, 2: 237-38]
Nitsch was born in Gumbinnen (now: Gusev, Russia), 117 kilometers due east of Königsberg where he matriculated at the university as a theology student in 1785 (1 October). Entry in the Matrikel: “Nitsch Frdr. August, Gumbinna-Litthuan., theol. cult., filius munere calculatoris in camera domina fungentis” [Erler 1911-12, 2: 592] Kant allowed him to attend his private lectures free of charge, and Mortzfeldt notes that he was teaching Latin and mathematics at the Collegium Fridericianum. On the title page of his 1796 book, Nitsch identifies himself as “late Lecturer of the Latin Language and Mathematics in the Royal Frid. College at Konigsberg, and Pupil of professor Kant”. Nitsch moved to Berlin in 1792, then to London where he gave his first lecture on Kant’s philosophy on 23 March 1794, presumably the first such lecture in England (except possibly those by Willich). We have one letter that he sent to Kant (25 July 1794 [AA 11: 517–19]) and mention of an earlier letter from Kant to Nitsch (12 June 1792); an additional letter more recently discovered (1991) purports to be from Kant to Nitsch, dated 31 October 1794, and is translated in Zweig [2001]. He wrote A General and Introductory View of Professor Kant’s Principles concerning Man, the World and the Deity (London 1796); he dedicated this book to two of Kant’s business friends, and whom Nitsch also identified as his own: “his most valuable friends, David Barkley and George Hay Esqrs. of Königsberg” [Sources: Mortzfeldt 1802, 29; Micheli 1997, 82–3; KL]
Wilhelm Albert Ferdinand Philippi matriculated at the Albertina on 25 March 1771. Erler [1911-12, 2: 519]. But see also an entry for 6 April 1770: “Philippi Wilh. Albert. Ferdin., Primislauien., bibliopolae scient. cult” [Erler 1911-12, 2: 515]. He was the son of the Director of Police in Berlin (Johann Albrecht Philippi, 1721-1791). At least since the summer of 1772 he rented a room above Kanter’s bookshop, and so was living under the same roof as Kant. Philippi became close friends with Christian Jacob Kraus (who had matriculated only a few weeks after him) and J. G. Hamann. He left Königsberg in the spring of 1774, and matriculated in Halle as a law student. He later served as an administrator in various and increasingly important capacities in Berlin. We have his student notes from Kant’s anthropology, physical geography and logic lectures. [Sources: Stark 1987a, 132-33]
Hermann Andreas Pistorius was a pastor in Pöserzitz on Rügen (a popular resort island off the Pomeranian coast). He reviewed most of Kant’s publications for the Allgemeine deutsche Bibliothek. His general approach was empiricist, and his primary work was devoted to translating the British philosophers into German.
1777 (Aug 29): Matriculation (Königsberg).
1782: Assistant rector (Mewe).
1785: Rector (Mewe).
(Also: Powalka). Gottlieb Bernhard Powalski was born (Oct 10) in Johannisburg, and matriculated at the university in Königsberg on August 29, 1777. Erler [1911-12, 546]: (August 29) “Powalcka Theophil., Johannisburg. Boruss.” Lehmann claims Powalski matriculated on March 19, 1777 [AA 27: 1043], but he appears to have deduced this from the title-page of the moral philosophy notes. His name appears three times in the lists of law students. He first heard philosophy with Reusch in WS 1777-78, then logic with Kant in SS 1778. We have his notes from Kant’s lectures on physical geography and moral philosophy. Powalski became an assistant rector in Mewe (in Marienwender) in 1782, and rector in 1785. [Sources: HM; Neuer Nekrolog; Schwaiger 1998]
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Purgstall
The only son of Graf Johann Wenzel (1724-1785), his mother was the widowed niece of his father’s. He was born in Graz, studied several years with Reinhhold in Jena and Kiel (1793-94) where he also became acquainted with Baggesen, visited Kant in Königsberg (1795), then studied law in Göttingen. His home in Vienna was an intellectual meeting place; he worked in government with the finance ministry. Purgstall participated in the wars of liberation against Napolean, was captured and imprisoned in Italy and died not long after being released from an illness he had contracted there.
The miniature here was made at approximately the time of his encounter with Kant, in 1795.
See his correspondence with Scheffner (May 1796-Feb 1811).
Christian Friedrich Puttlich was born 20 Feb 1753 in Mohrungen (Poland: Morąg), and died 11 Mar 1836 in Böttchersdorf, where he served as a pastor. He was the son of a master glazier. Puttlich entered the Collegium Fridericianum in Könïgsberg (3 Jun 1778), then the university (matriculating 23 Mar 1782), where he studied theology, but also attended several of Kant’s courses. He appeared to be most interested in the lectures of Buck [bio] and Reccard [bio]. While a student at the university, he lived in the home of Kammersekretär John, to whose children he also gave instruction. After leaving Königsberg, Puttlich served as a private tutor from 1787-93 with the Count v. d. Gröben in Gr. Klingbeck, accompanying him at the university, and afterwards established a private school in Königsberg in 1795. In 1803 he received a pastorate in Herzogswalde, and in 1817 in Böttchersdorf. Puttlich had grown up in the same town as J. G. Herder (although a generation later; he went to school with Herder’s nephew, Christian Neumann), and took an interest in Herder’s affairs (see the letter from Seligo to Puttlich from Aug. 10, 1805 [rpt. in Malter 1990, p. 61].
Puttlich heard Kant’s courses on anthropology (WS 1782/83 and 1784/85) and physical geography (SS 1782 and 1785). Notes from each of these courses are associated with his name, although the anthropology notes (Puttlich 1) are copied from notes owned by his friend Caspar Weber, and those on physical geography (Puttlich 2) are copied from notes owned by another friend, Ludwig Nicolovius (1767-1839).
Puttlich kept a diary during his student years, and some of these entries have been quoted in the "Contemporary Accounts of Kant’s Lectures and Notes". [Sources: Warda 1905a; Adickes 1911a, 37; APB; Gause 1996, ii.270] [last update: 20 Aug 2024]
Epstein describes the statesman and author August William Rehberg as a “reform-conservative” – wanting change for Germany, but disavowing the revolution that was underway in France at the time. Rehberg studied at the university in Göttingen, where he became a close friend of, and important influence on, Karl von Stein; he then began work as a ministerial advisor in Hannover in 1786, retiring from this post in 1820.
Kant and Rehberg shared some correspondence (on the unthinkability of the square root of 2; both letters were written before 25 Sep 1790 [AA 11: 205-10], and Rehberg viewed himself as a follower of Kant (his 1787 work on metaphysics and religion is clearly Kantian in how it limits the claims of metaphysics). He and K. L. Reinhold [bio] shared common ground in defending Kant against criticism by Wolffians like J. A. Eberhard [bio] in his Philosophisches Magazin. Eberhard’s counter-polemics were so effective, however, that Rehberg eventually begged Kant to enter the fray himself, which he did with his 1790 On a Discovery [writings], an essay that effectively ended the discussion in Kant’s favor.
Rehberg had come to Kant’s attention at least by 1788 when he reviewed Kant’s Critique of Practical Reason in C. G. Schütz’s [bio] Allgemeine Literatur-Zeitung (see Schütz’s letter to Kant (23 June 1788)[AA 10:540-41], in which he reported the review’s imminent publication), and by the mid-90’s we find Kant writing to Biester (10 April 1794)[AA 11: 496-97], highly critical of Rehberg’s views on practical philosophy (as expressed in his 1794 essay; this was in reply to an earlier March 4th letter from Biester [AA 11: 490]. In a book on the French Revolution (1793), Rehberg claimed that metaphysics had brought about that revolution – a claim Kant had in mind while drafting his 1793 Theory and Practice [writings].
Kant’s student J. B. Jachmann [bio] visited Rehberg on his travels back from Paris, and provided Kant with this account (14 Oct 1790):
“Immediately after my arrival in Hannover I visited Herr Privy Councillor Secretary Rehberg one of your most distinguished admirers and followers. He is a young man of about thirty years, but I did not like him very much during my first visit. He seemed very reserved, somewhat cold, and very irritated, which is why I stayed only for a few minutes. While in his house I saw a marble bust immortalizing the famous Leibnitz.
That same day in the afternoon, he paid me a return visit and was far more friendly, open, and very talkative, and he invited me to his table for the next noon, where I dined in the company of his respectable mother, his kind sister, and the young Herr Brandes. Ernst Brandes (1758-1810). I count this day among the most pleasant that I experienced on my journey. Herr Secretary Rehberg is a very modest man in his conversation, but one cannot fail to recognize in it a man of intellect, originality of thought, and broad scholarship. I consider him to be the finest intellect of all your students whom I have met so far. He speaks of your Critique of Pure Reason with a warmth that I have never heard a person speak about a writing. He will, in time, write a work on natural law showing there are antinomies of reason in it just as in speculative philosophy and morality. His modesty and the fact that he knew that you would be so much bothered with letters prevented him from writing to you; however, he has now dared to send some questions in a letter to Nicolovius [bio], of which he graciously requests an answer from you.” [AA 11: 225]
[Sources: Epstein 1966, 547-94, and an annotated bibliography of his major writings and secondary literature (701-8); Beiser 1987, 218-19; Gregor 1996, 275].
Select Publications:
Über das Verhältniß der Metaphysik zur Religion (Berlin: Mylius, 1787).
Review of Kant’s Critique of Practical Reason. In: Allgemeine Literatur-Zeitung (6 Aug 1788), pp. 345-60. In this review, Rehberg questions the ability of the moral law to effectively motivate our actions, thus criticising Kant’s formalism as empty of content and offering no guidance as to our ends.
Untersuchungen über die Französische Revolution 2 vols. (Hannover and Osnabruck: Ritscher, 1793).
“Über das Verhältnis der Theorie zur Praxis” in Berliner Monatsschrift (1794), pp. 114-42.
Johann Friedrich Reichardt, born (25 Nov 1752) in Königsberg, died at his home in Giebichenstein (27 Jun 1814). He was the son of a Königsberg musician, born in the midst of the aristocracy while inhabiting a distinctly lower social sphere. His father, also named Johann Reichardt (1720-1780), had arrived in Königsberg as part of the entourage of the Imperial Count Truchsess zu Waldburg, a brother to Caroline [bio], who married Gebhard Johann von Keyserling in 1744, promptly bearing him two sons. Reichardt was famous for his lute-playing and gave lessons to Countess Caroline, eventually marrying one of her chamber-maids (Catharine Dorothea Elisabeth Hintz), and to whom Johann Friedrich was soon born. Johann grew up in close familiarity with the two Keyserling sons, seven and five years his senior, with the boys moving freely between the two houses. Young Johann was also a gifted violinist and often accompanied the countess as she played the lute. Given Kant’s frequent visits to the Keyserling residence, it is likely he would have heard the boy play.
Reichardt attended the Collegium Fridericianum in Königsberg and then the university (matriculating first on 5 May 1765, and then again on 21 March 1768, presumably beginning his studies at this time), where his mother hoped he would study theology. He enrolled instead in law, but by Reichardt’s own account (writing about himself in the third person) it was not until 1768 that he became a serious student:
“His first scholarly education as a youth began when Kant discovered in him, as a fifteen year old, a neglected basic education, and made it his father’s duty – who would have preferred to make him a practical musician, which he himself was – to let him study, with [Kant] actively assisting him by allowing him to attend all his lectures for free.”From Reichardt’s corrections to an earlier biography [Berlinische musikalische Zeitung (1805), 1: 101]. The original German:
“Seine erste wissenschaftliche Jugendbildung fing damit an, indem Kant in ihm, als einen funfzehnjährigen, die vernachläßigte gründliche Schulbildung entdeckte, und es seinem Vater – der am liebsten einen praktischen Tonkünstler, der er selbst war, aus ihm gemacht hätte – zur Pflicht machte, ihn studieren zu lassen, und dazu am thätigsten mitwirkte, daß er ihm alle seine Vorlesungen frei gab.”
Schletterer notes that “Kant’s philosophy lectures alone held enough attraction for him to pay any attention” [1865, 75]. Reichardt moved to Leipzig in 1771 where he continued his studies, then returned to Königsberg in 1774 to work as an associate secretary with the Royal Krieges- and Domainenkammer. In 1775 he was called to Berlin where he served for two years as the Royal Kapellmeister at Frederick II’s court. After marriage and various travels he eventually settled in Giebichenstein (near Halle), which became an important musical center.
Reichardt is best known for his 1500 Lieder, setting poems and other texts to music. He was close friends with Hamann, Herder, Goethe, and Schiller, and appears to have retained a loyal affection for Kant. In 1791 he wrote in a publication of his, the Musikalischen Kunstmagazin, that:
I give thanks to Herr Professor Kant, and to him alone, that from my earliest years of youth, I never took the usual and demeaning road that most artists of our age took. I thank his academic instruction for my early fortune that, from the very beginning, my art was considered from its true, higher perspective.
See more in the Contemporary Accounts of Kant’s Lectures. [Sources: Schletterer 1865; Siegele 2014, 282]
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Reicke
(1895)
Rudolf Reicke was born on 5 February 1825 in Memel and died in Königsberg on 16 October 1905. Reicke founded and edited the Altpreußische Monatsschrift (an important journal for Kantiana and in which he published Kant’s Opus postumum) and for the latter half of the 19th century worked in the university library at Königsberg. His final years were consumed editing Kant’s correspondence for the Academy edition of Kant’s writings (volumes 10-12).
Reicke was born in Memel to a family of modest means. His father was a sailor and his mother, whom he lost at the age of two, was the daughter of a master cartwright from Tilsit. It was only with considerable financial difficulty that the son was able to attend the Altstadt gymnasium in Königsberg, and after that the university (1847-52), where he came under the influence of Friedrich Schubert and Karl Rosenkranz. Reicke began employment at the university library in Königsberg in 1858, where he continued to work the rest of his life, becoming head librarian in 1894. In 1864 he founded and began editing the Altpreußische Monatsschrift. He also edited Kant’s correspondence for the Academy edition of Kant’s gesammelte Schriften — vols. 10-12, published in 1900 and 1902, the first volumes to appear in that edition.
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In the course of his researches, Reicke accumulated many materials related to Kant, which after his death took three different routes: (1) the state- and university-library in Königsberg (in 1906, Dr. Johannes Reicke of Göttingen gave various materials to the library), (2) the city library of Königsberg (Seraphim, the librarian, managed to buy some of the Reicke estate then being auctioned, consisting of 2150 volumes and 3250 smaller writings), and (3) the Reicke family. We know of eleven manuscripts from the lecture Nachlaß that Reicke possessed, all of which made their way into the university library at Königsberg (with the signatures 2576-2583, 2586): seven listed here as an-Reicke (two on anthropology, two on geography, one each on logic, metaphysics, and moral philosophy), as well as three more sets of anthropology notes (Elsner, Flottwell, Puttlich 1) and Hintz (logic). In addition to these, Reicke had copied Vigilantius 3 (metaphysics) and Vigilantius 4 (moral). [Sources: Krause 1905]
Christian Friedrich Reusch was born (25 Nov 1778) and died (25 Apr 1848) in Königsberg, the son of the physics professor Carl Daniel Reusch [bio], who as inspector of the Alumnat received free lodging there, and so it was here that Christian Friedrich grew up, eventually attending the Kneiphof Latin school next door, and then the university (matriculating as a star pupil at the age of 14 1/2 years, on 27 July 1793), where he studied law, He matriculated on 17 September 1793 as a law student, along with his older brother Karl Georg, who entered as a medical student. as well as attending Kant’s lectures on logic, metaphysics, and physical geography (most likely during the 1794, 1794/95, and 1795 semesters, respectively). After leaving the university he held various important posts in the city, including that of Oberpräsidialrat (from 1815) and university curator (from 1824). He was a regular dinner guest during Kant’s last years, and his published memoires about Kant First published as: “Historische Erinnerungen” Neue Preußische Provinzial-Blätter (1848), 6: 288-306, 358-66, and then in the same year as a separate pamphlet: Kant und seine Tischgenossen. are considered by Vorländer to be among the more reliable.
His father, Carl Daniel Reusch, had also studied under Kant and then was a colleague of many years as the professor of physics. His own father was Christian Friedrich Reusch (1694-1742), who matriculated at the university in 1712 (March 17) and later served as pastor at the Altstadt Church in Königsberg. His older brother, Karl Georg Reusch, also attended Kant’s lectures (1793-94), and later went on to study medicine in Berlin and Vienna, where among other things he attended Gall’s lectures on craniology. After returning to Königsberg near the end of 1800 as a physician, Karl Georg also became one of Kant’s regular dinner guests. In discussing how his physician brother, Karl Georg, was a frequent dinner guest of Kant’s (who was interested in his knowledge of medicine and electricity), Reusch cites one of Kant’s notes found after his death: “today eating with me are Herr R. R. Vigilantius and Dr. Reusch, the older son of the physics professor, Dr. Medicinae. Herr R. R. Vigilantius drinks white, Dr. Reusch perhaps red” [1848c, 9]. J. F. Vigilantius [bio] was a frequent dinner guest and Kant’s legal advisor. [Sources: Reusch 1848; Bartisius 1865; APB; Vorländer 1918, 45-46; Gause 1996, 2: 300, 467; Malter 1990, 311-12, 514][last update: 18 Feb 2013]
Select Publications:
Kant und seine Tischgenossen. Aus dem Nachlasse des jüngsten derselben. Königsberg: Tag und Koch, 1848; publ. without date. [30 p.]
John Richardson’s only claim on our interest is his early introduction of Kant’s philosophy to the English-reading audience. He was a Scotsman whose very life dates are uncertain. He presumably studied in Scotland (Edinburgh? He thought well of Hume) before travelling to Germany in the late 1790s, where he learned of Kant under Jakob Sigismund Beck (1761-1840) and Ludwig Heinrich Jakob (1759-1827), both of whom were early disciples of Kant. Beck had studied in Königsberg under Kant before coming to Halle, and both men were Kant’s frequent correspondents and contributed essays to the pro-Kant but short-lived Annalen der Philosophie und des philosophischen Geistes von einer Gesellschaft gelehrter Männer (Halle, 1795-97), which Jakob edited.
Richardson was living in Halle with Jakob in 1797 while translating Kant’s Rechtslehre; he would ask Jakob for help with unclarities, and those beyond Jakob’s grasp were forwarded on to Kant, as we see in Jakob’s 10 May 1797 letter to Kant:
“Herr Richardson, a Scot living in my house while busy with translating your Metaphysical Foundations of the Theory of Right occasionally asks me for help with the meaning of a passage. I was not able to satisfy him with the following. … Since Professor Pörschke will be writing me soon, you could perhaps give him your explanation to him, who could then pass it on to me.” (AA 12: 161)
“Ein Schottländer Hr Richardson, welcher in meinem Hause mit Übersetzung Ihrer metaphysischen Anfangsgründe der Rechtslehre beschäftiget, ist, zieht mich zuweilen über den Sinn einer Stellen zu Rathe. Über folgende hab ich ihn nicht befriedigen können … Da Hr. Prof. Pörschke nächstens an mich schreiben wird; so würden Sie ihm vielleicht ohne Beschwerde des eignen Schreibens, die Erklärung hierüber mittheilen können, und dieser würde gern die Gefällikgkeit haben, mir davon Nachricht zu geben.”
Kant’s reply is missing, but Jakob’s 8 September 1797 letter to Kant mentions it:
“Regarding your last letter, which contained a correction of Mr. Richardson’s worries and that I shared with him, I have received the enclosed letter, which contains a passage from Lord Monmorres work on the Irish Parliament, and through which Mr. Richardson thought to correct an expression that you had used to explain an obscure passage on p. 207. Since Mr. Richardson did not send back your letter with this, and I have forgotten the explanation, I do not know to what extent the passage can serve to correct this. I ask that you might eventually [197] return the letter. If you, my fatherly friend, have not yet answered him on the delivery of his English work, this would wholy put in your debt this man who worships you to the point of enthusiasm, if you think it worth the trouble to favor this matter with a few words.” (AA 12: 196-97)
“Auf Ihr letzteres Schreiben, welches eine Berichtigung der Bedenklichkeiten des Hn. Richardson enthielt u das ich ihm mittheilte, habe ich beyliegenden Brief erhalten, welcher eine Stelle aus Lord Montmorres Werke über das Irländische Parlament enthält, u. wodurch Hr. R. eine Äusserung zu berichtigen gedenkt, welche Sie zur Erläuterung der allerdings wohl etwas dunkeln Stelle S. 207 gebraucht haben. Da Hr. R. mir Ihren Brief nicht mit zurückgeschickt hat, u. ich jene Erläuterung vergessen habe; so weiß ich nicht, inwiefern die Stelle zur Berichtigung dienen kann. Ich bitte, mir den Brief [197] gelegentlich zurückzusenden. Wenn Sie mein väterlicher Freund, dem Hn. R. noch nicht auf die Übersendung seines engl. Werks geantwortet haben: so werden Sie diesen Sie bis zum Enthusiasmus verehrenden Mann, äusserst verbinden, wenn Sie es der Mühe werth halten, der Sache mit einigen Worten zu gedenken.”
Richardson wrote at least once more to Kant, on 21 June 1798 (AA 12: 246). By then he had moved to Altenburg, where he was staying with Freyherr von Mühlen (Altenburg lies 45 km south of Leipzig and 65 km east of Jena). Richardson thanked Kant for clarifying for him the two passages mentioned in Jakob’s September 8 letter to Kant, and closed the letter with a request that Kant explain two more passages:
The passage quoted from Kant’s Observations on the Feeling of the Beautiful and Sublime (1764) is in the 4th section, on the various “national characters” regarding the feelings of the sublime and beautiful, where we find the passage:
“Now since the French do not at all lack noble qualities, but these can only be animated through the sentiment of the beautiful, the fair sex could here be able to have a more powerful influence in awakening and arousing the noblest actions of the male sex than anywhere else in the world, if one were intent on favoring this direction of the national spirit a little. It is a pity that the lilies do not spin.” [AA 2: 247; Guyer transl.]
The second passage, from the 1762 essay on The False Subtlety of the Four Syllogistic Figures, where Kant is reflecting on the profusion of strange claims and “useless rubbish,” at which point he notes:
“I should be flattering myself too highly if I were to suppose that the labour of a few hours were capable of toppling the colossus, who hides his head in the clouds of antiquity, and whose feet are feet of clay. My intention is simply to explain why, in my course on logick - where I am not permitted to arrange everything in accordance with my own understanding of these things but am often obliged to defer to the prevailing taste – I treat these matters only briefly, so as to devote the time thus saved to the genuine enlargement of useful knowledge.” [AA 2: 57; Walford transl.]
(1) in the Beautiful and Sublime essay, “Es ist Schade, daß die Lilien nicht spinnen”, (2) in the False Subtlety essay, “wo Sie mit einem Colossus vergleichen, der sein Haupt in den Wolken des Alterthums verbirgt, und dessen Füße von Thon sind.”
In this same letter we learn that Richardson had attended Fichte’s lectures briefly, but left in disgust after ten days – he had been attracted by Fichte’s great reputation, but once attending realized how little Fichte grasped the true meaning of Kant’s system (Fichte taught at Jena from 1794-99). It was in mentioning this that Richardson suggested to Kant that his “system had remained unintelligible in Germany for at least twelve years and, what is still worse, was the occasion for absurd theories and monstrous confusions” (AA 12: 245). One might imagine Kant’s discomfort at reading such words. In any event, Richardson’s “twelve years” would land us in 1793, and perhaps with this was suggesting that Beck’s Erläuternder Auszug aus den critischen Schriften des Herrn Prof. Kant, 3 vol. (Riga, 1793-96) finally made Kant’s system intelligible. Unfortunately Kant’s reply is missing, other than a fragment of a draft indicating that the volume Richardson had sent with his letter had not arrived (AA 12: 246).
Richardson’s publications began with his English translation of Beck’s Grundriß der kritischen Philosophie (Halle 1796), appearing anonymously as The Principles of Critical Philosophy (London 1797). A two-page “advertisement” at the end of this translation promised that...
“The Metaphysic of Morals (which divides itself into the Doctrines of the metaphysical Principles of Law and of Virtue) by Emmanuel Kant, shall soon make its appearance in an english dress in two small volumes”.
While I’ve not yet seen a copy, this translation appears to have been published two years later (London 1799), but before that Richardson published, also anonymously, a two volume collection of various essays by Kant: Essays and Treatises on Moral, Political, and Various Philosophical Subjects (London 1798-99). It was the first of these two volumes that Richardson had sent to Kant, but had gone missing.
Finally under his own name, Richardson published translations of the Rink edition of Kant’s Logik and the Prolegomena, both in 1819, and these were then re-issued in 1836 with a third volume called An Enquiry, Critical and Metaphysical, into the Grounds of Proof for the Existence of God, and into the Theodicy, which translates relevant passages from Kant’s Only Possible Argument, Theodicy, and each of the three Critiques.
Select Publications:
The Principles of Critical Philosophy, selected from the works of Emmanuel Kant [...] and expounded by James Sigismund Beck extraordinary Professor in the University of Halle. London 1797.
Essays and Treatises on Moral, Political, and Various Philosophical Subjects. 2 vols. London 1798-99.
Metaphysics of Morals, divided into Metaphysical Elements of Law and Ethics. 2 vols. London 1799.
Logik. London: W. Simpkin and R. Marshall, 1819.
Prolegomena. London: W. Simpkin and R. Marshall, 1819.
Metaphysical Works of the Celebrated Immanuel Kant, translated from the German, with a Sketch of his Life and Writings. 3 vols. London: W. Simpkin and R. Marshall, 1836.
Ruffmann was born (4 Sep 1737) in Pillau and died (31 Mar 1794) in Königsberg; his father was Joachim Christian Ruffmann, a provisions officer in Pillau. Ruffmann began as a merchant in Königsberg, was later the assistant director of the Royal Bank of Königsberg, and finally the director of the Prussian National Bank. He lived on the Junkergasse, married (c.1766) Marianne Elisabeth [or ‘Florentina’?] Collins (1752-1831). He was a good friend of Kant’s, giving him the Rousseau engraving that Kant had hanging in his living room. Little else is known of him; he appears occasionally in contemporary texts: in lists of Kant’s friends and dinner guests, in a letter from Danzig (13 June 1793) Hippel asked Kant to extend his greetings to Ruffmann [AA 11: 435]; Hamann recounted a heated argument concerning Mendelssohn between Kant and Ruffmann. “[Kant] spoke almost to the point of enthusiasm [Schwärmerei] of his devotion to Mendelssohn’s Jerusalem and of Mendelssohn’s original genius, his skill of knowing how to make use of every circumstance and putting every hypothesis in a favorable light. The exchange of words was said to have grown so heated that Kant left in displeasure and behaved almost rudely and roughly towards the bank director Ruffmann, which surprised Hippel himself, who was not particularly pleased about it.” [Hamann, Briefwechsel, 6: 348-49]. Jachmann wrote that “the death of Ruffmann touched [Kant] so deeply that he withdrew more and more from social gatherings.” [Sources: Borowski 1804, 128, 176; Jachmann 1804, 81, 145, 147; Vorländer 1924, 1: 123; Gerlach 2009, 306]
Johann Georg Scheffner was born (8 Aug 1736) and died (20 Aug 1820) in Königsberg. A friend of Hippel, The friendship with Hippel stood apart, as one gathers from Reusch’s account of the various friends in Kant’s circle: “We now come to a pair of friends who called themselves ‘Theodor and Johannes’: Theodor Gottlieb von Hippel and Johann Georg Scheffner” [1848b, 301]. Hamann and a regular at Kant’s table, Scheffner’s autobiography provides a wealth of anecdotes about Kant and the world in which he moved. As a child he attended the Altstadt gymnasium in Königsberg (under G. C. Pisanski), then matriculated at the university on 22 September 1752 and studied law. He served as a soldier during the Seven-Year War, then as secretary in the city government (1765), Kriegsrat in Marienwerder (1772-75), and then managed several local estates, returning to Königsberg in 1795. He sold his house and gardens to the university, which was transformed into the new botanical garden. [Sources: Reusch 1848b, 305-6; APB; ADB; Manthey 2005, 343-50, 366] [last update: 8 Feb 2007]
Select Publications:
Mein Leben, wie ich, Johann George Scheffner, es selbst beschrieben (Leipzig, 1816).
Christian Schiffert was born (12 Nov 1689) in Rügenwalde in Hinterpommern and died (14 Jul 1765) in Königsberg. Schiffert served as Conrector (1717) then rector (1721) at the Latin schooll in Stolp, then as Inspector (1731) at the Collegium Fridericianum in Königsberg. [Sources: Zippel 1898, 82]
Otto Schlapp was born (May 15) in Erfurt, where his father was a professor at the university. He died (Dec 26) in Edinburgh, where he was a professor of German. Schlapp studied at Jena, Edinburgh, Berlin, Leipzig, Strassburg; married a German woman, with whom he had two sons and one daughter. He moved to Edinburgh (Scotland) where he was a lecturer in German at the university (1884-1920), Reader (1920-26), and finally Professor of German (1926-29).
His only major publication appears to be the 1901 book [text] on Kant’s theory of genius, a work that made extensive use of various lecture notes from Kant’s classroom (26 sets in all) and, with the eventual loss of the originals, became a source of fragments – an-Gotthold 1 (anthropology), Hintz (logic), and an-Königsberg 5 and Vigilantius 3 (metaphysics). While conducting his research for this work, Schlapp notes [1901, ix-x] that he worked at the Königliche Bibliothek in Berlin, the Universitäts- und Stadtsbibliothek in Leipzig, and the Universitäts- und Landesbibliothek in Strassburg; and also that various manuscripts were loaned to him from the Königsberg and Munich libraries. He also mentions contact with Oswald Külpe (Würzburg), Heinrich Heinze (Leipzig), von Arnim (Rostock), Rudolf Reicke (Königsberg), Erich Adickes (Kiel), Hans Vaihinger (Halle), Erich Prieger (Bonn), Hofrat H. Diederichs (Mitau), Frau Prof. Glogau (Frankfurt/Main), and his Professors Windelband, Martin, Groeber, and Ziegler (Strassburg). Windelband was his doctoral advisor. [last update: 26 Feb 2008]
Select Publications:
Kants Lehre vom Genie und die Entstehung der Kritik der Urteilskraft (Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1901), xii, 463 pp.
1784 (Easter): Matriculates (Leipzig).
1787 (March 24): Law degree (Leipzig).
1787-89: Königsberg.
1790: Returned to Leipzig.
Veit Hans Friedrich Schnorr von Carolsfeld was born in Schneeberg (11 May 1764) and died in Leipzig (30 Apr 1841). He received his law degree at Leipzig (March 1787), but his father died a few months later and he decided to abandon a law career in order to dedicate himself entirely to his art. He married Julianne Lange, the daughter of a Leipzig retailer, and moved to Königsberg in late 1787 or 1788. It was at this time that he made a drawing of Kant, as recounted in his autobiography (see Distel [1909, 144]. He later moved to Magdeburg, and then returned to Leipzig in 1790. Schnorr’s first son, Ludwig Ferdinand, was born (11 October 1788) while they were in Königsberg. [Sources: ADB, 32: 191-93]
Heinrich Theodor von Schön was born 20 Jan 1773 in Schreitlaugken or Löbegallen in Prussian Lithuania, and died 23 Jul 1856 at his country estate Arnau, near Königsberg. He was an important Prussian statesman, serving as the Oberpräsident of West Prussia (1 Apr 1816) and then also of East Prussia (13 April 1824). These two provinces were fully united on 3 December 1829, and Schön continued to serve as Oberpräsident until 1842, when he retired to his estate at Arnau. He was a friend of Fichte’s and close colleague of Stein (1773-1856) and Hardenberg (1750-1822).
Schön began his studies at Königsberg, matriculating on 25 October 1788 as a law student. Von Schön provides the following list of courses that he attended: (1) Philosophical Encyclopedia (with Kraus), (2) Mathematics with Schultz, (3) Logic with Pörschke, and (4) Anthropology with Kant [Schön 2006, 529] – as well as, presumably, Kant’s Metaphysics, since we have his notes from these lectures. Apart from his notes from Kant’s anthropology and metaphysics lectures, we also have his notes from Pörschke’s logic lectures (“Logic nach dem Ebert und dem Kantschen System” – so this had to stem from either WS 88/89 or SS 89; the manuscript is housed at the Berlin GStAPK, Dep. 35: von Brünneck #86) and Kraus’s lectures on Statistics (SS 1789; Berlin GStAPK, Dep. 35: von Brünneck #78). These latter two Nachschriften were included in a 1974 exhibition on Kant, and cataloged in Benninghoven [1974, 150, 153].
Schön learned of Adam Smith’s new ideas in Kraus’s lectures, and a trip to England in 1798 left Schön a convinced liberal and advocate of Smith’s economic theory. In religious matters, he was a skeptic, and considered institutional churches as essentially private affiliations; as such they should be kept separate from the governing framework of the state. These religious views, along with his strong Republican sensibilities, eventually alienated him from the new king (Friedrich Wilhelm IV), whom Schön had known ever since the 12 year old Crown Prince was in Königsberg during 1807-8, and whom Bismarck once described as a “devout, God-summoned Absolutist.” Having just been promoted to the post of Staatsminister in 1841, Schön retired the following year to his estate. Schön wrote in the Anlagen to his autobiography: “Without Kantian philosophy and without sauerkraut I would have long been in my grave.” [Sources: ADB; NDB; Vorländer 1924, 2: 70-71; Gause, 2: 323; Manthey 2005, 424-31; v.Schön 2006]
)
Otto
Schöndörffer
Born in Labiau (1860), attended the Kneiphof Gymnasium in Königsberg where his English teacher was the Kant scholar Emil Arnoldt. His university studies were at Königsberg and Bonn, after which he began a career teaching at the Collegium Fridericianum back in Königsberg and was active in the local Goethe and Kant societies, apart from his research and publishing in the area of Kant studies.
1758-61: Studied theology at the university (Halle).
1765: Pastor at Gielsdorf, Wilkendorf, and Hirschfeld.
1793: relieved of his pastoral duties.
Johann Heinrich Schulz [also: Schultz] was a Lutheran pastor of over twenty years who was eventually dismissed for his unorthodox beliefs (he was a fatalist) and his unorthodox dress – he refused to wear a wig while preaching, which he viewed as an unhealthy practice, and so was given the nickname Zopfprediger or Zopfschulz (“pony-tail Schulz”).
Schulz studied under Semler, Knapp, and Michaelis at Halle, taught briefly in Berlin, then began (1765) a series of pastorates at Gielsdorf, Wilkendorf, and Hirschfeld.
Schulz believed in God and immortality, but not in human freedom, for the actions of human beings were as pre-determined as those performed by any other artificial machine. Also, religion could not be the basis of morality, as we can know of God only that he is the sufficient ground of everything, and nothing of his relationship to us or of his will.
By 1782 formal complaints were lodged against Schulz, both because of his fatalistic beliefs, and because he preached in a ponytail. As for himself, Schulz denied he was a fatalist, and argued that his determinism was in keeping with the teachings of Jesus. Frederick II protected him from these complaints, but his fortunes turned after Frederick’s less tolerant nephew assumed the throne in 1786, and by 1791 an official investigation into his beliefs was underway. Schulz was relieved of his pastoral duties in 1793, and he eventually moved to the vicinity of Berlin to work as a porcelain inspector, retiring from this in 1808.
Kant reviewed [writings] Schulz’s Attempt at a Guide towards a Moral Doctrine for all Mankind Independent of Differences of Religion (1783), arguing against the fatalism endorsed there, which he believed wholly undermines all use of practical reason. Even the fatalist, in his actions, must act “as if he were free […] It is hard to cease altogether to be human” [AA 8:13]. [Sources: ADB; Kuehn 2001, 266-67, 365-66] [last update: 29 Apr 2007]
Select Publications:
(publ. anon.), Versuch einer Anleitung zur Sittenlehre für alle Menschen ohne Unterschied der Religionen nebst einem Anhange an der Todesstrafe, Pts. 1-2 (Berlin 1783); Part 3: 1790.
George Michael Sommer was born in Angerburg (now: Węgorzewo, Poland)(16 Nov 1754) and died in Königsberg (7 Sep 1826). He attended Kant’s lectures in the early 1770s as a theology student (matriculating 16 Oct 1771), eventually receiving a post as a pastor at the Haberberg Church in Königsberg. His acquaintance with Kant was a result of his excellent knowledge of English, which led to his often visiting the homes of the English merchants Green, Motherby, and Hay, which Kant also visited, and became a lunch-time regular at Kant’s once he had his own house and kitchen. Hamann called Sommer Kraus’s shadow. Hamann’s 23 April 1786 letter to Jacobi [Briefwechsel, 6: 364]. He also read widely in chemistry and served as one of Kant’s sources for this information, alongside his brother-in-law, the pharmacist Karl Gottfried Hagen [bio], whose youngest sister Juliana Carolina (1766-1827) he married in 1794 (March 6). Juliana’s nephew August Hagen, in his 1850 biography of his father Karl Gottfried, refers to Sommer as a “well-known meteorologist.” [Source: Rhesa 1834, 17; Reusch 1848b, 365; Hagen 1850a, 132]
1777 (Aug 29): Matriculation (Königsberg).
1780 (Jul 26): marriage to Gehimen Justizrath Graun.
1781: Birth of Carl August Ferdinand Graun (1st child to Elisabeth and Karl Ferdinand).
1784 (Jul 22, about 6 p.m.): Friedrich August von Stägemann first lays eyes on Elisabeth, a married woman, in a garden on the Castle Pond in Königsberg, and is instantly smitten.
)
Elisab. Stägemann
(1792)
1785: Birth of Antoinette (Charlotte Antonie Theodora Graun) (2nd child to Elisabeth and Karl Ferdinand).
1787: Graun moves to Berlin.
1795: Elisabeth and her children briefly move to Berlin.
1796 (Sep 14): marriage to Friedrich August Stägemann (7 Nov 1763-17 Dec 1840).
1797: Birth of August (3rd child of Elisabeth’s, 1st with Fr. Aug. Stägemann).
1799 (May 11): Birth of Hedwig (4th child of Elisabeth’s, 2nd with Fr. Aug. Stägemann).
1805 (April 25): Regina Fischer, Elisabeth’s mother, dies.
1805 (summer): Elisabeth and her husband travel to Dresden.
As recounted in Olfers [1937, 160]:
“It took a long time for Elisabeth to get over the loss of her mother. […] Staegemann, always understanding and concerned, took Elisabeth out of her old surroundings for a while and fulfilled her long-cherished wish to get to know Dresden. This trip was a great enrichment for her. ‘I am delighted that you were in Dresden’, [161] Reichardt wrote to Elisabeth in Berlin. ‘Your artistic sense will take with it the sweetest and most beautiful impressions for the rest of your life. […]’”
1806: Elisabeth and her husband and children move to Berlin (returning briefly to Königsberg after the battles at Jena and Auerstedt).
1810: Elisabeth begins holding a salon at their home on Jägerstraße (Fridays, then also Wednesdays).
1816 (Feb): Friedrich August Stägemann raised to the nobility.
Elisabeth Stägemann née Fischer was born in Königsberg on 11 April 1761, the daughter of a merchant father and a mother Commerce-Counselor Johann Jakob Fischer and Regina Hartung (1734-1805); the two were married in 1760. who was a Hartung (and so the sister-in-law to L. E. Borowski [bio]); she died in Berlin after a long illness on 11 July 1835. She married twice, and bore a son and daughter from each of the marriages. Her first marriage was on 26 July 1780, at the age of nineteen, to a Königsberg lawyer by the name of Karl Ferdinand Graun (1753-1819). Seven years later Graun’s work took him to Berlin, but Elisabeth elected to remain in Königsberg where she lived with her mother and raised her son and daughter. During this time Elisabeth found herself surrounded by a circle of male admirers waiting for her to divorce her husband – these included her future husband Friedrich August Stägemann (who had fallen in love with her in 1784, with her first husband still in Königsberg), but also T. G. Hippel In the context of her description of Hippel’s garden at the end of Hufenallee (a short walk west of Königsberg), Dohna tells us that Elisabeth was visiting Hippel in his garden not long after her husband had left for Berlin, in the spring of 1787 [1993, 91]. Hippel’s unsuccessful courtship of Elisabeth apparently confirmed him as a life-long bachelor [Olfers 1937, 5] [bio], Herzog von Holstein-Beck [bio], and Friedrich Gentz. Kant was presumably also in this social mix, if not as a suitor.
After eight years of separation from her husband, Elisabeth moved with her children to Berlin In the preface to her biography of her ancestor Stägemann, Olfers [1937, 6] writes that “her love for a married man threw her into inner conflict. After difficult mental struggles she renounced him and attempted once again, for the sake of her children, to re-unite with [her husband] Graun.” – a move she quickly regretted and returned to Königsberg resolved on a divorce, after which she entered her second marriage, on 14 September 1796, to Stägemann, a poet and lawyer who also rose through the government ranks. Together they bought a house near the Castle Pond and garden where they had first met, and this became an important social gathering place for the circle in which Kant moved. The husband’s government work, especially during the Napoleanic wars, led them to move to Berlin (in 1808?), and here their home again became an important salon. They became friends with Karl August Varnhagen von Ense and his wife Rahel, who also maintained a salon (the two men met regularly every Friday, according to Varnhagen’s diaries). Elisabeth’s Berlin salon included several of Kant’s former students of Kant, such as her childhood friend Reichardt [bio], Professor Kiesewetter [bio], von Schön [bio], and others.
.jpg',490,630,0,0,0,0,1,1,10,10)){kind=icon}
Kant
(1796)
Of greatest interest here is her time in Königsberg and the extent to which she interacted with Kant, since we have a portrait of Kant that she produced, possibly from life but more likely copied from, or at least influenced by, existing images. Regarding this, Wilhelm Dorow, the editor of her posthumously published Erinnerungen für edle Frauen, writes in the preface [1846, x-xi]:
Her talents for music and painting, and her equally lovable and deeply cultivated mind was the occasion for the noblest and most intelligent men of Königsberg to gather quickly around her; even Kant distinguished this highly gifted woman in a special way, finding a great joy in the portraits that she casually sketched out in sepia, 'for’ – as he said – ‘the spirit of the one portrayed speaks to us from the portrait’ – the great man was pleased namely by his own picture that Elisabeth made for Reichardt. Kant found it telling: “Yes, yes, that's me” he wrote to Reichardt.
This letter(?) to Johann Friedrich Reichardt is not extant. The original German reads:
“Ihre Talente für Musik und Malerei und ihr eben so liebenswürdiger als tief ausgebildeter Geist wurden Veranlassung, daß sich die edelsten und geistreichsten Männer in Königsberg sehr bald um sie versammelten; selbst Kant zeichnete die hochbegabte Frau ganz besonders aus; er fand große Freude an Portraits, welche sie flüchtig in Sepia hinwarf, ‘denn – wie er sagte – der Geist der Dargestellten spricht uns daraus an’; so genügte dem großen Manne namentlich sein eigenes Bild, welches Elisabeth von [xi] ihm für Reichardt gemacht; Kant fand es sprechend: ‘Ja, ja, das bin ich’ schrieb er an Reichardt darüber.”
[Sources: Stägemann 1846; ADB (Friedrich August von Staegemann)].
Born (7 November 1763) and died (17 December 1840) in Berlin, although he moved to Königsberg in 1784, where he made Kant’s acquaintance and also met his future wife, Elisabeth (see above) – who at the time and for the next twelve years was inconveniently married to another man. Stägemann grew up in Berlin where he was orphaned as a 10-year-old child and spent his youth and early education in an orphanage, but then attended the prestigious Grauen Kloster gymnasium in Berlin followed by university studies in Halle where he focused on law. In time he became an important civil servant and statesman in Prussia, but he also wrote poetry and patriotic songs. The Napoleonic Wars and their aftermath served as the backdrop to most of his career. He was instilled with Enlightenment ideals and was an early supporter of developing a constitutional government. After marrying Elisabeth Graun, their Königsberg home was a literary and artistic salon, which continued in their Berlin home when they moved there in 1810. He was a good friend of Karl August Varnhagen von Ense.
Friedrich Christian Starke is a pseudonym for Johann Adam Bergk.
Born 16 Oct 1720 in Winterthur (near Zurich) and died 27 Feb 1779 in Berlin, Sulzer was a mathematician and director of the philosophical section of the Berlin Academy of Sciences, and is particularly remembered for his four-volume Allgemeine Theorie der schönen Künste (1771–74), constructed as an encyclopedia with about 900 articles on concepts and topics in aesthetics.
Sulzer was born into a vast family, being the 25th child, and upon being orphaned as a young teenager was adopted by a pastor in Zürich, where he studied theology at the Carolinum but soon came under the influence of J. J. Bodmer (1698-1783) and J. J. Breitinger.
A Hofmeister position brought him to Magdeburg in 1743, and after moving to Berlin, with the help of Leonhard Euler, Maupertuis, and J. W. L. Gleim he received a position as a mathematics professor at the Joachimsthal Gymnasium. He married a merchant’s daughter (Catherina Wilhelmina Keusenhoff) in 1753 and their daughter later married the successful portraitist Anton Graff (1771). He returned to Switzerland after his wife died (in childbirth to their second daughter), but then was called back to Berlin to teach philosophie at the newly-founded Ritterakademie. He became the director of the philosophical section of the Berlin Academy of Sciences in 1775. [Source: ADB, DEGP]
Sebastian Friedrich Trescho was born (9 Dec 1733) in Liebstadt (near Mohrungen), the son of a court clerk, and died (29 Oct 1804) in Mohrungen (Poland: Morąg). Trescho attended the Collegium Fridericianum in Königsberg, the same Latin grammer school Kant had attended just a few years earlier, and then studied theology at the university (matriculating on October 11, 1751), with interests in poetry and music as well. He stayed in Königsberg for a total of nine years, studying and working as a private tutor, and then was called back to Mohrungen in 1760 to replace his recently deceased brother-in-law (Wilhelm Gryll) as church deacon, where he worked under Pastor Willamovius. He was twenty-seven at the time, and served as deacon until his own death forty-four years later.
Trescho was sickly from his youth, a hypochondriac, and he never married. Yet despite his poor health and modest circumstances, he was able to publish quite a bit (Meusel lists 24 publications), primarily inspirational tracts, but multi-volume works as well.
Trescho is remembered as an early mentor (or tormentor, depending on the source) of Johann Gottfried Herder, who was employed by Trescho as a copyist and errand boy during what would be Herder’s last year in his home town of Mohrungen. By some accounts, Trescho was instrumental in getting Herder, who came from an impoverished home, off to the university at Königsberg. Trescho appears also to have procured a set of physical geography notes from Kant’s lectures. [Sources: ADB; Herder 1846, 40, 71; Meusel; Sembritzki 1904; Dobbek 1961, 35-44, 240]
Select Publications:
Sterbebibel oder die Kunst seelig und fröhlich zu sterben, 3 parts (1762; 2nd ed: 1767)
Briefe über die neueste theologische Literature, 4 parts (1764-66).
Die Wissenschaft, seelig und fröhlich zu sterben in Poesie und Prosa, 2 parts (1767).
Neue Briefe über Gegenstände der geistlichen Wissenschafte, 4 parts (1768-72).
Christliches Tagebuch zur Privatandacht und häuslichen Gottesdienst, 2 parts (1772-73).
Die Vortheile einer frühzeitigen Bekanntschaft mit dem Tode (1774; 2nd ed: 1779); Religiöse Nebenstunden (1784).
1736 (Oct): Enters the Collegium Fridericianum as a “lower second.”
1740 (Sep 19):
Gotthold’s brief account of Trummer [1853, 3: 248] claims that he entered the university at the same time as Kant, who matriculated on 24 September 1740, along with a number of classmates from the Collegium Fridericianum – but no ‘Trummer’ is listed with the entries for that day. We do find a Trummer matriculating a few days earlier on September 19, except the name given is “Trummer Pa. Hnr.” (presumably Paul Heinrich). Perhaps that is the real name of the beloved Dr. Trummer, whom we know as “Johann Gerhard.” In any event, we are faced with several confusions, and these involve at least two Trummers, who are presumably brothers from Königsberg.
A “Paul Heinr. Trummer, Kriegsrath und Burgermeister zu Franckfurth an der Oder.” is listed in the 1756 Adres-Calender, Der sämtlichen Königl. Preußis. Lande und Provintzien.
The matriculation records for 11 November 1736 has two entries of interest:
“Trummer Pa. Hnr., Regiomonte-Boruss., beneficiis renunciat, vide p. 630”
and
“Trummer Joh. Gerhard., Regiomonte-Boruss., beneficiis renunciat, vide p. 653” [Erler 1911, 2: 369].
This is roughly when Kant’s classmate Johann Gerhard Trummer began his studies at the Collegium Fridericianum. We sometimes find individuals matriculating at the university years before they begin their actual coursework; is that the case here? As these entries suggest, they each have a second entry as well:
[19 Sep 1740] “Trummer Pa. Hnr., Regiomonte-Pruss.” [Erler 1911, 2: 385]
[26 Sep 1742] “Trummer Joh. Gerhard, Regiomonte-Boruss., ius Academicum repetiit”.[Erler 1911, 2: 397].
So Johann Gerhard is shown as matriculating again, but it is two years later than Gotthold claims (unless, of course, the names are mixed up). More on the name problem in following notes.
Matriculates at the university (Königsberg).
1743 (summer): Johann Gerhard Trummer inscribed in the medical faculty [Arnoldt 1908, 3: 153].
1749 (December): receives the Medical doctorate (Halle).
Johann Gerhard Trummer defended his dissertation in December 1749, according to the title page:
“Dissertationem inauguralem medicam / de Fluidorum corporis humani acrimonia, eius speciebus et effectibus / pro gradu doctoris / die Decembr. MDCCXLIX. / Publice defenet Ioannes Gerhardus Trummer / Regiomonto-Prussus. Halae Magdeburgicae: Johannis Christian Hilliger”.
Arnoldt [1769, 154] includes the following entry (meant to supplement the recent Hamberger Gelehrte Teutschland (1767):
“Paul Gerhard Trummer, ein Königsberger, ward 17?? zu Halle Med. Doct. nachdem er de acrimonia sanguinis humani, pro gradu disputiret gehabt, bald darauf Pillauischer Garnisonsmedicus, und stehet seit einigen Jahren allhier [i.e., Königsberg], wo er auch practisiret.”
A similar notice appears in Goldbeck’s Litterarische Nachrichten Preußen [1783, 2: 99]:
“Trummer (Paul Gerhard) D. der A. G. und Praktikus zu Königsberg: geb. daselbst 1729, studierte zu Königsberg und Halle, woselbst er auch 1751 die medizinische Doktorwürde erhielt, wurde bald darauf Garnisonsmedikus in Pillau, und begab sich vor einigen Jahren nach Königsberg.”
Two publications follow:
(1) Diss. inaug. De acrimonia sanguinis humani. Hal. 1751. 4°,
(2) Hat noch eine andre medizinische Dissertat. geschrieben, auch an einem von D. Kurella herausgegebenen mediz. Lexikon gearbeitet.”
Baczko [1790, 652] appears to be repeating Goldbeck. The title given by Arnoldt, Goldbeck, and Baczko is a close match to the 1749 dissertation listed above, but now we are confronted by the name “Paul Gerhard Trummer” – an odd blend of “Paul Heinrich” and “Johann Gerhard.”
1750-??: Garrison medic in Pillau.
Trummer was born (1729) and died (20 Jan 1793)
Preußisches Archiv (Feb 1783), p. 196:
“Am 20. Januar Hr. Doct. Medic. Trummer im 69sten Jahre an der Brustwassersucht. Er hat zu Greifswalde promovirt, und war wegen seiner Geschiklichkeit und Rechtschaffenheit allgemein beliebt.”
in Königsberg. He was a school friend of Kant’s at the Collegium Fridericianum, where he began his studies four years later than Kant (Michaelis 1736) but at the same level as Kant, so that they would have been classmates from his first day. He matriculated at the university in 1740 along with Kant (but see the note above), studying medicine and eventually transferring to Halle for his degree (unless he simply took his degree there, with all course work done in Königsberg).
The passages in Goldbeck and Arnoldt (in the notes above) suggest that Trummer first worked as a physician at the garrison in Pillau, then moved to Königsberg where he practiced medicine for the remainder of his life, serving as Kant’s physician and formulating pills (“Trummer pills”) to regulate the bowels that Kant took daily. He was also member of the Dreikronen masonic lodge.
The only ‘Trummer’ listed in the 1770 Address-Calendar for Königsberg was a medical doctor: “Hr. Johann Gerhard Trummer, wohnt in der Bader-Gasse.” (p. 2) [Sources: Baczko 1790, 652 [Paul Gerhard Trummer]; Preußisches Archiv (Feb 1793, p. 196); Borowski 1804, 26, 29-30, 111; Jachmann 1804, 69, 75-76; Hasse 1804, 39; Rink 1805, 84-85; Gotthold 1853, 248; Reicke 1860, 6, 48, 61; Anon. 1898, 5; Gerlach 2009, 272, 314]
Vigilantius was a Königsberg lawyer who served as Kant’s legal advisor. He belonged to Kant’s circle of dinner guests,
Reusch quotes from one of Kant’s Mittagsbuchlein [1848b, 294b]:
“Today (?) Herr R. R. Vigilantius and Dr. Reusch, eldest son of the Physics Professor, Doctor of Medicine, are dining with me. Herr R. R. Vigilantius drinks white, Dr. Reusch perhaps red.”
and was present when Kant died. In his mid-thirties, Vigilantius sat in on all of Kant’s classes [Reusch 1848, 364] (he did this informally, apparently without matriculating, as he does not appear in the Matrikel),
In a letter of September 18, 1793, Vigilantius thanks Kant for permission to audit the physical geography lectures:
“Most noble sir, I am remitting here the enclosed honorarium for the course on physical geography, although with the condition that I personally give you my warmest thanks for allowing me to attend, insofar as I might be bold enough to ask humbly for permission to pay you a visit. With the deepest respect […].”
“Ewr Wohlgebohren übersende ich in Anschluß das Honorarium für das Collegium der physischen Geographie, jedoch mit dem Vorbehalt, Denenselben meinen wärmsten Dank für den mir gütigst gestatteten Zutritt mündlich zu versichern, insofern ich dreist genug seyn darf, [451] Dieselben gehorsamst um die Erlaubniß eines Besuchs zu bitten. Mit der tiefsten Hochachtung […].” [AA 11: 450-51]
Vigilantius’s notes from physical geography end with the date ‘Sept. 14’.
taking thorough notes on metaphysics (WS 1794/95), physical geography (SS 1793), logic (SS 1793), and moral philosophy (WS 93/94). All appear to have been written out in folio format (from the descriptions of previous scholars; we possess only copies of two of the sets). We have excellent reason to believe that these notes really were written down by Vigilantius from the lectures that he attended, and that the dates given on the notes are the dates of the source lectures. [Sources: Reusch 1848, 364-65; Vorländer 1924, 2: 301; Stark 1987a, 158-59]
Johann Wilhelm Volckmann was born (25 Feb 1766) in Königsberg. He matriculated at the Albertina (13 August 1782) just a few months after C. C. Mrongovius [bio], another student and notetaker of Kant’s, and like Mrongovius, also a theology student. Volckmann was ordained in 1792 (Dec 11) and began pastoring in Deutschendorf; in 1812 (Oct 11) he assumed a post in Schaaken. He married (16 Jun 1796) Dorothea Elisabeth Borowski, a daughter of Kant’s dinner guest and biographer L. E. Borowski [bio], who had been the pastor in Schaaken some 30 years earlier (16 June 1796). He died in Kranz (16 Jul 1836) while en route, making the rounds in his diocese.
Volckmann left sets of notes on logic, natural theology (WS 1783/84), metaphysics (WS 1784/85), and physical geography (SS 1785) (all but the last were since owned by Johannes Theodor Paul Wendland [born 1864 in Hohenstein, East Prussia], a professor of classical philology at Göttingen since 1908), before finally entering into various library holdings. The notes are neatly and reliably written. [Sources: Rhesa 1834b, 88, 165; Wegner 1836, 598-612]
Johann Jacob Vollmer was a writer, historian, and preacher, born and lived the majority of his life in Thorn (Poland: Torun) where he was the director of the Gymnasium and professor of history, as well as preacher at the new church in Thorn. His connection with Kant is that he published, without Kant’s approval, a version of Kant’s lectures on physical geography (1801-5; 4 vols) [text]. This edition has little value as an indication of Kant’s actual lectures, however, and the edition was repudiated by Kant himself in a public notice in 1801 [writings]. Vollmer matriculated at the university in Königsberg on 5 October 1787 and was entered (on 7 April 1788) into the attendance list for Kant’s physical geography lists for SS 1788 [Stark 1987a, 163n156] (the first lecture was on Wednesday, April 9).
The title page of Vollmer’s Physical Geography reads: “Von Joh. Jak. Wilh. Vollmer, Direktor, erster Professor und Bibliothekar des akademischen Gymnasiums, Inspektor der städtischen Schulen, Prediger an der Hauptkirche zu Thorn” [“director, first professor, and librarian of the academic gymnasium, inspector of the city schools, preacher at the main church in Thorn”].
There is some confusion in the literature between this man and his older brother Gottfried Dietrich Leberecht Vollmer (1768-1815) — see, for instance, the index to Kant’s correspondence [AA 13: 603-99], which lists Gottfried Dietrich Lebrecht Vollmer (but not J. J. W. Vollmer); likewise with Gottfried Martin’s Allgemeiner Kantindex (1969), which perhaps was relying on the Academy index, and also Conrad [1994, 53], Malter [1990, 530], and Wood [1986, 11]). G. D. L. Vollmer was born in Thorn, died in Hamburg (30 Apr 1815), and was the publisher of the physical geography volumes. These two men were brothers (as suggested in Hamberger/Meusel (vol. 21), although with a question mark), and they make an appearance in Baczko’s autobiography [1824, 2: 198].Baczko writes [1824, 2: 198]: “Der Buchhändler Vollmer, den ich, als er seinen damals hier anwesenden Bruder besuchte, persönlich kennen lernte, forterte mich jetzt schriftlich auf, mit ihm in Verbindung zu treten.” [Sources: DBI; Hamberger/Meusel, 8:262 (1800), 16 (1812); 21:262 (1827); Stark 2014] [last update: 16 Apr 2014]
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Warda’s
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Arthur Warda was born (15 Sep 1871) and died (25 Oct 1929) in Königsberg. He was the son of a merchant. Warda attended the Kneiphof gymnasium, then studied law in Halle and Königsberg. He worked in Schippenbeil in various juristic capacities, returning to Königsberg in 1907 as Amtsgerichtsrat, at which time he also began his various studies on the intellectual life in 18th century Königsberg, many of which appeared in the Altpreussische Monattschrift and in the Mitteilungen des Vereins für die Geschichte von Ost- and Westpreußen. On the basis of his contributions, the philosophy faculty at the Albertina conferred upon him an honorary doctorate in 1924, and the Kant Society made him an honorary member. He married Adelheid Hübner from Stockholm. [Sources: APB][last update: 16 Feb 2008]
Select Publications:
Die Druckschriften Immanuel Kants (bis zum Jahre 1838) (Wiesbaden, 1919).
Immanuel Kants Bücher. Mit einer getreuen Nachbildung des bisher einzigen bekannten Abzuges des Versteigerungskataloges der Bibliothek Kants (Berlin: Martin Breslauer, 1922).
1772 (Sep 22): Matriculation at the University (Königsberg).
1780: Cantor at the Tragheim Church (Königsberg).
1786: Deacon at the Tragheim Church (Königsberg).
1790: Renews relationship with Kant.
1808: Pastor at the Tragheim Church, succeeding Göckingk (Königsberg).
Ehregott Andreas Christoph Wasianski was born in Königsberg on July 3, 1755, where he also died on April 17, 1831; he was the son of Andreas Wasianski (died 1757), who taught at the Cathedral school during Kant’s earlier years. Wasianski is remembered as a close acquaintance of Kant in his old age and as one of Kant’s early biographers. He managed Kant’s household during the final few years and served as executor of Kant’s will.
Wasianski attended the Kneiphof (Cathedral) gymnasium where G. C. Pisanski was the rector, then matriculated at the university in 1772, studying first medicine, and then theology. He first attended Kant’s lectures during WS 1773/74,
Lists prepared by the theology dean show Wasianski attending Kant’s metaphysics lectures during 1773-74, followed by logic and physical geography in 1774, and then repeating both metaphysics in 1774-75 and physical geography in 1775.
and apparently was allowed to attend Kant’s private lectures free of charge (“Without my asking, Kant let me attend his lectures for free” – although Arnoldt believes this referred to the time he served as Kant’s amanuensis [glossary]).
In an unpublished essay on Kant’s amanuenses, Stark suggests that Wasianski served as an amanuensis during 1776, which was Kant’s first semester as dean of the philosophy faculty. The dean always sat on the Academic Senate, and all members of the senate received free board for one amanuensis (Kant would become a permanent member of the Senate in 1780). Wasianski wrote in the margin of his copy of his Kant biography an explanatory note to the word ‘Amanuensis’: “That means: I wrote several hours each week for him and ate in the Convictorio [glossary], where each Senator was allotted a portion so as to make possible the maintenance of an Amanuensis.” [Czygan 1892, 113]
Wasianski wrote in the biography:
“My acquaintance with [Kant] did not begin in his old age. Intimacy, with him, takes more than a decade. In the year 1773 or 74 (I don’t know more exactly than that) I became his student and later his amanuensis. Through this latter relationship I entered into a closer relationship with him than his other students. He allowed me to take his classes for free, without my asking. I left the academy in 1780 and became a pastor.”
“Meine Bekanntschaft mit ihm entstand nicht erst in seiner letzten Lebenszeit. Um mit ihm vertraut zu werden, dazu gehörte mehr als ein Jahrzehnt. In den Jahren 1773 oder 74 (genau weiss ich es nicht) wurde ich sein Zuhörer und später sein Amanuensis. Durch dieses letztere Verhältnis kam ich denn auch mit ihm in eine nähere Verbindung als seine übrigen Zuhörer. Er gestattete mir unentgeltlich ohne meine Bitte den Besuch seiner Vorlesungen. Im Jahre 1780 verliess ich die Akademie und wurde Prediger. [Wasianski 1804, 16]
Felix Groß [Groß 1912, 220] suggests that Wasianski began working as Kant’s amanuensis in 1774, but this is followed by his patently false claim that Wasianski began his role supervising Kant’s domestic affairs in 1784.
His obituary claims that he made the acquaintance of the mathematics professor Buck [bio] early in his studies “and
became the teacher and friend of his younger son, Friedrich Buck” [NPPB 1831, 542].
After eight years of study, he left the university for a position as cantor at the Tragheim church in Königsberg – where he served for over 50 years, eventually as the pastor – and lost contact with Kant, although they reconnected in 1790 at K. L. Pörschke’s wedding, after which Wasianski became a regular dinner guest. Since 1799 he served as Kant’s daily helper, and upon Kant’s death was executor of his will.
Wasianski married a woman They had at least two daughters [Reusch 1848b, 292]. from the family Ferlein whose sister married Samuel Peter Friedrich Buck, the older son of Kant’s colleague, F. J. Buck, the professor of mathematics. The younger Buck may also have studied with Kant and later entered his circle of friends. (Wasianski had given this younger Buck (his brother-in-law) Kant’s personal copy of his Critique of Practical Reason, who then passed it on to Schopenhauer.) Wasianski was also a member of the masonic lodge Zum Totenkopf (1784-1810), and was apparently the source of the Döbler portrait that belonged to that lodge See the discussion of the Döbler portrait on the Kant’s Body in Images page. (it is striking that Samuel Peter Buck was not a member, since both his father and his close friend were). [Sources: NPPB, May 1830, 457; NPPB, June 1831, 542-43; Rhesa 1834b, 4-5; Reusch 1848b, 297-98; Czygan 1892; Arnoldt 1908-9, 5: 237; APB; Erler 1911, 2: 524; Gause 1996, 2: 257; Gerlach 2009, 272] [last update: 19 Sep 20]
Select Publications:
Wasianski, Ehregott Andreas Christoph. Immanuel Kant in seinen letzten Lebensjahren. Ein Beitrag zur Kenntnis seines Charakters und haüslichen Lebens aus dem täglichen Umgange mit ihm (Königsberg: 1804). Reprinted in Felix Groß [1912].
Carl Christian Weisflog matriculated on 16 June 1791. He presumably attended a course of Kant’s logic lectures; a fragment of just a few sentences on probability, presumably from these lectures, has been preserved in his Phantasiestücke und Historien (2nd ed., 1839): part 4, pp. 190-92 [pdf]. A biographical sketch of Weisflog is found in part 12, pp. 227-39 [pdf].
Select Publications:
Phantasiestücke und Historien (Dresden: Arnoldische Buchhandlung, 12 vols. 1824-1829). 2nd ed (12 parts in 6 vols.): 1839.
J. H. Wlömer
????: Attended the Kneiphof Latin school (Königsberg).
1741 (Sep 30): Matriculation at the University (Königsberg).
c.1746-47: Practicing law in Berlin.
1758: Marries (wife dies in 1777).
1764 (August): Kriegsrath (Berlin) – more offices given in the narrative.
Johann Heinrich Wlömer was born (8 Feb 1726)
Nicolai [1802, 4] gives these birth- and death-dates, which is followed by the ADB; the Personenindex to Kants gesammelten Schriften gives his birth-year as 1728.
The engraving of Wlömer, shown here, was prepared by Johann Daniel Laurence in 1801, from a portrait by Emanuel Bardou. One of J. G. Scheffner’s Berlin correspondents, Johann Friedrich Lüdeke would seem to be speaking about this when he said it resembled the face of a baboon [paviansches]; Scheffner agreed [Scheffner 1916-38, 2: 403].
in Pillkallen (a Lithuanian community in Prussia) and died (21 Jul 1797) in Berlin. He was a close friend of Kant’s when they were students at the university – giving him free lodging in his room or rooms – and they continued this friendship after Wlömer left for Berlin, where he eventually rose to the highest levels of government service as a legal and financial expert. He belonged to the Enlightenment group of Berlin intellectuals known as the Mittwochsgesellschaft or Wednesday Society [glossary] (so-called because they met on Wednesday evenings).
As a child, he attended the Kneiphof (Cathedral) School in Königsberg
Nicolai [1802, 5]. Rink [1805, 18] claims that Wlömer, alongside Kant and Ruhnken, was an illustrious alumnus of the Collegium Fridericianum, but the university matriculation entry supports Nicolai:
“Wlömer Joh. Hnr., Pilkallen. Boruss., theol. cultor, ex schola Cniphofiana sive cathedrali dismissus, stip. manu.” [Erler 1911, 2: 392]
But Nicolai’s claim [1802, 6] that Wlömer matriculated in 1739, “scarcely 13 years old,” is also at odds with the matriculation records.
and then matriculated at the university (30 Sep 1741), where he and Kant presumably first met – Kant had just completed two semesters of studies there.
Wlömer enrolled with the theology faculty, but soon changed to law, which is how he identified himself in a conversation with the theology professor F. A. Schultz [Heilsberg, qtd. in Reicke 1860, 50].
Heilsberg [bio] , a fellow Lithuanian and relative to Wlömer, and who enrolled at the university a semester later, wrote that Wlömer “was a trusted friend of Kant’s, lived with him for a while in a room, and recommended me to him so that Kant promised me his assistance” [Reicke 1860, 48]. The average stay at the university in those days was around three years, yet both Kant and Wlömer remained much longer. Nicolai [1805, 6] claims he left for Berlin in 1749; Heilsberg [Reicke 1860, 48] claimed that Kant found free lodging with Kallenberg after Wlömer left for Berlin. Kant is thought to have left Königsberg in August 1748 and Kallenberg matriculated on 2 May 1746, so Wlömer likely left earlier than Nicolai claims. But in any event, Kant and Wlömer could have been roommates for six years or more. Rink offers an interesting description of their relationship [1805, 25]:
“[Kant’s] university years were also filled with the establishment of that male bond of friendship [männlichen Freundschaftbandes] – to use this expression, since no other characterizes it better – that existed between him and Privy-Councilor Wlömer in Berlin to the end of their lives.”
Wlömer was tall and strongly built [Nicolai 1802, 18], contrasting notably with Kant’s more diminuitive stature. Regarding their relationship, Nicolai writes [1802, 6]:
“It cannot be omitted here that [Wlömer] was a university friend of the famous Kant, and lived with him in the same room for a while, and that until the end, despite the great distance, the friendliest feelings continued between the two.”
Wlömer began his career as a lawyer in Berlin and his skillful and principled practice soon won him a reputation – both in the courtroom and as a legal counselor to (often prominent) families and individuals – that led to several government appointments: Kriegsrath (April 1764), legal advisor (Justiziarius) and councilor to the Royal Bank (1765), legal advisor to the Kriegs- und Domänen-Kammer (November 1765), member of the Ober-Examinazionskommission (1770), and legal advisor to the General-Oberfinanz-Direktorium (1775). None of these offices were self-explanatory; in his own account, Nicolai pauses to explain what each does. Wlömer was near the top of the world of Prussian government finances during and following the Seven Years War, a critically stressful time for the treasury, and he was apparently instrumental in protecting the private sector from undue government predation.
Wlömer married the oldest daughter of a Berlin banker in 1758 and together they had three daughters and a son; the wife died in 1777 (age 36) and two daughters died early; a third daughter died in childbirth (April 1796) – a particularly hard blow for Wlömer.
A story comes down to us from the Berlin composer and conductor Carl Friedrich Zelter (1758-1832) in one of his many letters to Goethe (4 Dec 1825). Zelter was a close friend of Friedrich Nicolai, so he might have heard this anecdote from him, if not from Wlömer directly [Riemer 1834: 4: 110-11]:
“Our late Privy Finance Councilor Wlömer, who was held in high esteem by the Old Fritz, was once sent to Königsberg to review the bank there.
There, after forty years, he finds a former roommate [Stubenburschen], the old Kant, and they rejoiced over the present moment and those years gone by.
‘But (says Kant) do you [Du], a businessman, ever feel like reading my writings?’ - ‘Oh yes! and I would do it even more often, except I don’t [111] have enough fingers.’ – What do you mean by that? – ‘Well, dear friend, your writing is so rich with brackets and stipulations, which I have to keep track of, so I put a finger on one word, then the second, third, fourth, and before I turn the page I’m all out of fingers.’”
Wlömer reports to Kant, in a letter of 20 Jan 1790 – and which he opens with “Dearest Brother” – that [AA 11: 30]:
“Of your writings I possess only these: On the Sublime and Beautiful, the Critique, etc., and what follows, but none of the previous, nor do I know what else you wrote, especialy the short essays. I would like to get hold of all of this, if it is still available, or at least a list of it, so that I can read it.”
We also know Kant had a copy of his Critique of the Power of Judgment (1790) sent to Wlömer [AA 11: 145] and six years later we read in a letter (12 Feb 1796) from Georg Wilhelm Bartholdi (1765-1815) in Berlin to Elisabeth Stägemann in Königsberg [Stägemann 1846, 1: 253]:
“Good old Kant has written to me. Thank him sincerely for this and assure him that I have duly taken care of his requests regarding Wlömer and Kiesewetter. Both send their best to him, and Wlömer was very pleased that their friendship still retains for him so much value. Inquire sometime of the good old man whether he will soon be delivering his Metaphysics of Morals to us, [254] for which I long so heartily: or if you hear anything else that he is working on, then let me know, so that I can look forward to it.”
Wlömer’s son, Ludwig Wilhelm, wrote to Kant (22 July 1797) to let him know that he was currently attending the university at Königsberg (Kant had stopped giving lectures the previous July – and to inform him of his father’s death the previous afternoon [AA 12: 763]. (An express mail service must have been in place for news to travel that quickly from Berlin to Königsberg; the normal mail coach was not that fast.) [Sources: Nicolai 1802; Borowski 1804, 29-30; Rink 1805, 18-19, 25; Reicke 1860, 48-49; Arnoldt 1908, 3: 151; Riemer 1834, 4: 110-11] [last update: 9 Oct 2024]
Karl Abraham von Zedlitz was born (Jan 4) in Schwarzwalde bei Landeshut (Silesia), and died (Mar 18) on his estate (Gut Kapsdorf), also in Silesia. Prussian Minister of Justice (in Berlin) beginning in 1770, and the following year also served as the Kultus- und Unterrichtsminister, the minister of culture and education. He actively promoted Enlightenment ideals, which he absorbed during his studies at Halle. He introduced the Abitur exam into Prussian schools in order to help standardize the level of admissions into the universities. Zedlitz and Kant were on good terms – Kant dedicated his Critique of Pure Reason to von Zedlitz – and they shared an extensive correspondence. See Vorländer’s brief discussion [1924, 1: 203-7], and selections from von Zedlitz’s letters of [21 Feburary 1778], [28 February 1778], and [1 August 1778]. He resigned his post after the death of Friederich II (1786), and was soon replaced by the conservative Wöllner under Friedrich Wilhelm II. [Sources: Gause 1996, 2: 268; Meyers 1888, 16: 839; Vorländer 1924, 1: 203-7] [last update: 27 Jun 2007]
Johann Friedrich Zöllner was born (Apr 24) in Neudamm, and died (Dec 12) in Berlin. Zöllner was the son of a forester, and came to make a name for himself as a clergyman, educational reformer (with a marked interest in adult continuing education), and a freemason, and he was a frequent contributor to the Berlinische Monatsschrift. Davidson [1798, 21] described him as “this living encyclopedia, whose speech is sweet as honey dripping from his lips.”
Perhaps his most important contribution in the history of ideas, however, was a footnote to an article in which he defended the religious basis of the institution of marriage; almost as an aside, he asked the question “What is enlightenment?”, which occasioned a diverse spread of able replies, most famously those by Mendelssohn and Kant (both published in 1784). A longer biography of Zöllner is also available. [Sources: HM 1800, 8:711-14; 1803, 10: 858; 1805, 11: 754-55; 1812, 16: 324; Doering 1830, 580-85; ADB]
Select Publications:
”Ist es rathsam, das Ehebündniß nicht ferner durch die Religion zu sanciren?” in: Berlinische Monatsschrift (December 1783), vol. 2, pp. 508-17.
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