Joseph Hillebrand (24 August 1788 in Großdüngen (near

Hildesheim Hildesheim (; nds, Hilmessen, Hilmssen; la, Hildesia) is a city in Lower Saxony, Germany with 101,693 inhabitants. It is in the district of Hildesheim, about southeast of Hanover on the banks of the Innerste River, a small tributary of the Lei ...

) – 25 January 1871 in

Bad Soden am Taunus Bad Soden (; also: ''Bad Soden am Taunus'') is a town and spa in the Main-Taunus-Kreis, Hessen, Germany. It had a population of 22,563 , up from 21,412 in 2005. Information Bad Soden is a residential town for commuters working in Frankfurt am ...

) was a German

novelist A novelist is an author or writer of novels, though often novelists also write in other genres of both fiction and non-fiction. Some novelists are professional novelists, thus make a living writing novels and other fiction, while others aspire to ...

philosopher A philosopher is a person who practices or investigates philosophy. The term ''philosopher'' comes from the grc, φιλόσοφος, , translit=philosophos, meaning 'lover of wisdom'. The coining of the term has been attributed to the Greek th ...

and

historian of literature The history of literature is the historical development of writings in prose or poetry that attempt to provide entertainment, enlightenment, or instruction to the reader/listener/observer, as well as the development of the literary techniques u ...

Biography

He was originally a

Catholic The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

, studied at

and at

Göttingen Göttingen (, , ; nds, Chöttingen) is a college town, university city in Lower Saxony, central Germany, the Capital (political), capital of Göttingen (district), the eponymous district. The River Leine runs through it. At the end of 2019, t ...

, and in 1815 entered the priesthood and taught at Hildesheim, but resigned his position on accepting

Protestant Protestantism is a Christian denomination, branch of Christianity that follows the theological tenets of the Reformation, Protestant Reformation, a movement that began seeking to reform the Catholic Church from within in the 16th century agai ...

views. Upon

Hegel Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (; ; 27 August 1770 – 14 November 1831) was a German philosopher. He is one of the most important figures in German idealism and one of the founding figures of modern Western philosophy. His influence extends a ...

's departure from the

University of Heidelberg } Heidelberg University, officially the Ruprecht Karl University of Heidelberg, (german: Ruprecht-Karls-Universität Heidelberg; la, Universitas Ruperto Carola Heidelbergensis) is a public research university in Heidelberg, Baden-Württemberg, ...

in 1818, he was appointed a professor of philosophy there, and in 1822 took a like position at the

University of Giessen University of Giessen, official name Justus Liebig University Giessen (german: Justus-Liebig-Universität Gießen), is a large public research university in Giessen, Hesse, Germany. It is named after its most famous faculty member, Justus von L ...

. He was elected to the lower house of the

Hessian A Hessian is an inhabitant of the German state of Hesse. Hessian may also refer to: Named from the toponym *Hessian (soldier), eighteenth-century German regiments in service with the British Empire **Hessian (boot), a style of boot **Hessian f ...

chamber in 1847, where he took the side of the liberals and became president in 1848. When the sharp reaction after the

revolutions of 1848 in Germany In political science, a revolution (Latin: ''revolutio'', "a turn around") is a fundamental and relatively sudden change in political power and political organization which occurs when the population revolts against the government, typically due ...

set in after July 1850, he was dismissed from his professorship and retired. His most important work in the field of literary history was ''Die deutsche Nationallitteratur seit dem Anfang des 18. Jahrhunderts'' (German literature since the beginning of the 18th century, 3d ed. 1875). Of less importance are his philosophical works, which show tendencies toward the views of Jacobi: ''Die Anthropologie als Wissenschaft'' (The anthropology of science, 1822–23); ''Lehrbuch der Theoretischen Philosophie und Philosophischen Propädeutik'' (1826); ''Litterarästhetik'' (Literary Aesthetics, 1826); ''Universalphilosophische Prolegomena'' (1830); ''Der Organismus der Philosophischen Idee'' (1842); and ''Philosophie des Geistes'' (Philosophy of Intellect, 1835). Among his novels were ''Germanikus'', a historical novel (2 vols., 1817); ''Eugenius Severus'', a poetically decorated autobiographical tale covering up to his conversion to Protestantism and marriage (1818); ''Paradies und Welt'', a philosophical novel describing a victory of the idealism of the heart over the commonplace prose of commonplace men (1822, 2nd ed., 1823).

Family

He was the father of the German author

Karl Hillebrand Karl Hillebrand (17 September 1829 - 19 October 1884) was a German author. Biography He was born at Gießen, the son of Joseph Hillebrand, a literary historian and writer on philosophy. Karl Hillebrand became involved, as a student in Heidelberg, ...

Notes

References

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Hillebrand, Joseph 1788 births 1871 deaths German philosophers 19th-century German historians German politicians University of Göttingen alumni Academic staff of Heidelberg University Academic staff of the University of Giessen German male non-fiction writers