Friedrich Karl Forberg (30 August 1770,

Meuselwitz Meuselwitz () is a town in the Altenburger Land district, in Thuringia, Germany. It is situated 12 km northwest of Altenburg and 11 km east of Zeitz. History During World War II, a subcamp of the Buchenwald concentration camp operated ...

– 1 January 1848,

Hildburghausen Hildburghausen ( IPA adapted from: ) is a town in Thuringia in central Germany, capital of the district Hildburghausen. Geography It is situated in the Franconian part of Thuringia south of the Thuringian Forest, in the valley of the Werra riv ...

) was a German philosopher and classical scholar.

Biography

Born in 1770 in Thuringia, Forberg studied under

Karl Leonhard Reinhold Karl Leonhard Reinhold (26 October 1757 – 10 April 1823) was an Austrian philosopher who helped to popularise the work of Immanuel Kant in the late 18th century. His "elementary philosophy" (''Elementarphilosophie'') also influenced German ideal ...

Jena Jena () is a German city and the second largest city in Thuringia. Together with the nearby cities of Erfurt and Weimar, it forms the central metropolitan area of Thuringia with approximately 500,000 inhabitants, while the city itself has a popu ...

. In 1791 he travelled to

Klagenfurt Klagenfurt am WörtherseeLandesgesetzblatt 2008 vom 16. Jänner 2008, Stück 1, Nr. 1: ''Gesetz vom 25. Oktober 2007, mit dem die Kärntner Landesverfassung und das Klagenfurter Stadtrecht 1998 geändert werden.'/ref> (; ; sl, Celovec), usually ...

, writing to Reinhold that there was much sympathy for the

French Revolution The French Revolution ( ) was a period of radical political and societal change in France that began with the Estates General of 1789 and ended with the formation of the French Consulate in November 1799. Many of its ideas are consider ...

, and to the followers of

Immanuel Kant Immanuel Kant (, , ; 22 April 1724 – 12 February 1804) was a German philosopher and one of the central Enlightenment thinkers. Born in Königsberg, Kant's comprehensive and systematic works in epistemology, metaphysics, ethics, and aes ...

that the young ladies of Klagenfurt substituted Kant's writings (modestly bound in black) for their prayer books. He was a headmaster at

Saalfeld/Saale Saalfeld (german: Saalfeld/Saale) is a town in Germany, capital of the Saalfeld-Rudolstadt district of Thuringia. It is best known internationally as the ancestral seat of the Saxe-Coburg and Gotha branch of the Saxon House of Wettin. Geograp ...

, and from 1801 to 1826 Director of the Sächsische Landesbibliothek. His philosophical publications are less known now than his 1824 edition of an erotic poem sequence in renaissance Latin, ''Hermaphroditus'' by Antonio Beccadelli. This was accompanied by Forberg's own learned commentary, which took the form of a catalogue and anthology of descriptions of sexual acts and postures in classical and later literature. Forberg's journal article regarding religion and its effect on morality initiated the

Atheism Dispute The atheism dispute (german: Atheismusstreit) was an event in German cultural history that lasted between 1798 and 1800 and had an effect on the German philosophy in the late 18th and the early 19th centuries. History In 1798, Johann Gottlieb ...

which resulted in

Johann Gottlieb Fichte Johann Gottlieb Fichte (; ; 19 May 1762 – 29 January 1814) was a German philosopher who became a founding figure of the philosophical movement known as German idealism, which developed from the theoretical and ethical writings of Immanuel Kan ...

's dismissal from his professorship.

Works

* 1796 (anonymous) ''Fragmente aus meinen Papieren'' * 1797 "Briefe über die neueste Philosophie", in ''Philosophisches Journal'' * 1798 "Entwickelung des Begriffs der Religion", in ''Philosophisches Journal'' * 1802 ''Von den Pflichten des Gelehrten'' * 1824 ''Antonii Panormitae Hermaphroditus'' ** The commentary to the poem is better known as a separate publication under the titles '' De figuris Veneris'', variously translated as ''Manual of classical erotology'', ''Manuel d’érotologie classique'' or ''Manual de erótica clásica'' (Edición de Luis Parra y José M. Ruiz, Ediciones Clásicas, Madrid 2007) * 1840 ''Lebenslauf eines Verschollenen''

External links

* Full bio-bibliography on the German Wikipedia {{DEFAULTSORT:Forberg, Friedrich Karl 1770 births 1848 deaths People from Meuselwitz German philosophers German librarians Heads of schools in Germany German classical scholars Kantian philosophers 19th-century philosophers 19th-century German people German erotica writers 19th-century German writers 19th-century German male writers