Franz Michael Leuchsenring (13 April 1746 – February 1827) was a German writer of the

German Enlightenment The Age of Enlightenment or the Enlightenment; german: Aufklärung, "Enlightenment"; it, L'Illuminismo, "Enlightenment"; pl, Oświecenie, "Enlightenment"; pt, Iluminismo, "Enlightenment"; es, La Ilustración, "Enlightenment" was an intel ...

Life

In 1769, Leuchsenring with

Friedrich Heinrich Jacobi Friedrich Heinrich Jacobi (; 25 January 1743 – 10 March 1819) was an influential German philosopher, literary figure, and socialite. He is notable for popularizing nihilism, a term coined by Obereit in 1787, and promoting it as the prime faul ...

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, and

Johann Wolfgang Goethe Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (28 August 1749 – 22 March 1832) was a German poet, playwright, novelist, scientist, statesman, theatre director, and critic. His works include plays, poetry, literature, and aesthetic criticism, as well as treatis ...

were known as members of the Merckschen Circle in

Darmstadt Darmstadt () is a city in the States of Germany, state of Hesse in Germany, located in the southern part of the Frankfurt Rhine Main Area, Rhine-Main-Area (Frankfurt Metropolitan Region). Darmstadt has around 160,000 inhabitants, making it th ...

. Almost all his circle broke with Leuchsenring, however, because they did not trust him. After moving to

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitue ...

, he was briefly teacher of philosophy to Crown Prince

Frederick William III of Prussia Frederick William III (german: Friedrich Wilhelm III.; 3 August 1770 – 7 June 1840) was King of Prussia from 16 November 1797 until his death in 1840. He was concurrently Elector of Brandenburg in the Holy Roman Empire until 6 August 1806, wh ...

. Along with bookseller and author

Christoph Friedrich Nicolai Christoph Friedrich Nicolai (18 March 1733 – 11 January 1811) was a German writer and bookseller. Life Nicolai was born in Berlin, where his father, Christoph Gottlieb Nicolai (d. 1752), was the founder of the bookseller ''Nicolaisch ...

, Royal librarian Johann Erich Biester, and

Moses Mendelssohn Moses Mendelssohn (6 September 1729 – 4 January 1786) was a German-Jewish philosopher and theologian. His writings and ideas on Jews and the Jewish religion and identity were a central element in the development of the ''Haskalah'', or 'Je ...

, the German Jewish philosopher, he became a member of the Berlin Wednesday Society. Later, he went to

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...

, where he lived as a

Jacobin , logo = JacobinVignette03.jpg , logo_size = 180px , logo_caption = Seal of the Jacobin Club (1792–1794) , motto = "Live free or die"(french: Vivre libre ou mourir) , successor = Pa ...

and there died.

Sources

* Franz Muncker, "Leuchsenring, Franz Michael", ''Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB)'', vol. 18 (Leipzig: Duncker & Humblot, 1883) pp. 473–475. * Konrad Feilchenfeldt, "Leuchsenring, Franz Michael", ''Neue Deutsche Biographie (NDB)'', vol. 14 (Berlin: Duncker & Humblot, 1985) , pp. 367 ff. * Urs Viktor Kamber (Hrsg.) ''Briefe von und an F. M. Leuchsenring, 1746–1827'' Stuttgart: Metzler, 1976) * Reinhard Markner, "Franz Michael Leuchsenring, "Philosoph ambulant" in Berlin und Zürich", ''Aufklärung'' 24 (2012), pp. 173–205 {{DEFAULTSORT:Leuchsenring, Franz Michael 18th-century German writers 18th-century German male writers 19th-century German writers 19th-century German male writers 1746 births 1827 deaths