Karl Philipp Moritz ( Hameln, 15 September 1756 –

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 constit ...

, 26 June 1793) was a German author, editor and essayist of the ''

Sturm und Drang ''Sturm und Drang'' (, ; usually translated as "storm and stress") was a proto- Romantic movement in German literature and music that occurred between the late 1760s and early 1780s. Within the movement, individual subjectivity and, in particu ...

'', late Enlightenment, and classicist periods, influencing early German Romanticism as well. He led a life as a hatter's apprentice, teacher, journalist, literary critic, professor of art and linguistics, and member of both of Berlin's academies.

Biography

Moritz was born into impoverished circumstances in Hameln in 1756. After receiving a scanty schooling, he was apprenticed to a

hat maker Hat-making or millinery is the design, manufacture and sale of hats and other headwear. A person engaged in this trade is called a milliner or hatter. Historically, milliners, typically women shopkeepers, produced or imported an inventory of ...

. After distressful attempts to gain a living, he caught the attention of a patron in

Hanover Hanover (; german: Hannover ; nds, Hannober) is the capital and largest city of the German States of Germany, state of Lower Saxony. Its 535,932 (2021) inhabitants make it the List of cities in Germany by population, 13th-largest city in Germa ...

and entered a gymnasium; however, he soon accepted an engagement as actor under Ekhof at

Gotha Gotha () is the fifth-largest city in Thuringia, Germany, west of Erfurt and east of Eisenach with a population of 44,000. The city is the capital of the district of Gotha and was also a residence of the Ernestine Wettins from 1640 until the ...

, failing in which he returned to study (1776) at

Erfurt Erfurt () is the capital and largest city in the Central German state of Thuringia. It is located in the wide valley of the Gera river (progression: ), in the southern part of the Thuringian Basin, north of the Thuringian Forest. It sits in ...

; but tiring again he joined the ''Herrnhuter'' (

Moravian Church The Moravian Church ( cs, Moravská církev), or the Moravian Brethren, formally the (Latin: "Unity of the Brethren"), is one of the oldest Protestantism, Protestant Christian denomination, denominations in Christianity, dating back to the Bohem ...

) at Barby, and studied theology at

Wittenberg Wittenberg ( , ; Low Saxon: ''Wittenbarg''; meaning ''White Mountain''; officially Lutherstadt Wittenberg (''Luther City Wittenberg'')), is the fourth largest town in Saxony-Anhalt, Germany. Wittenberg is situated on the River Elbe, north o ...

(1777); then taught philanthropy at the

Potsdam Potsdam () is the capital and, with around 183,000 inhabitants, largest city of the German state of Brandenburg. It is part of the Berlin/Brandenburg Metropolitan Region. Potsdam sits on the River Havel, a tributary of the Elbe, downstream of ...

military orphanage, soon again to take to wandering. Teaching in Berlin, he made a reputation as writer, preacher and poet, and went to England. Then he became professor at the gymnasium at

(german: link=no, Köllnisches Gymnasium). Next he tried editing the ''Vossische Zeitung'' to make it

proletarian The proletariat (; ) is the social class of wage-earners, those members of a society whose only possession of significant economic value is their labour power (their capacity to work). A member of such a class is a proletarian. Marxist philo ...

, but failed. Later he traveled to Italy (1786) where he met

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 treati ...

, and on his return to Germany he took up residence as Goethe's guest at

Weimar Weimar is a city in the state of Thuringia, Germany. It is located in Central Germany between Erfurt in the west and Jena in the east, approximately southwest of Leipzig, north of Nuremberg and west of Dresden. Together with the neighbourin ...

. Duke Karl August helped him join the Berlin Academy of Sciences, and in 1789 Moritz became a professor of antiquities at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Berlin. Among his students were

Ludwig Tieck Johann Ludwig Tieck (; ; 31 May 177328 April 1853) was a German poet, fiction writer, translator, and critic. He was one of the founding fathers of the Romantic movement in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. Early life Tieck was born in B ...

, Wilhelm Heinrich Wackenroder and

Alexander von Humboldt Friedrich Wilhelm Heinrich Alexander von Humboldt (14 September 17696 May 1859) was a German polymath, geographer, naturalist, explorer, and proponent of Romantic philosophy and science. He was the younger brother of the Prussian minister, ...

. He was an avid admirer of

Jean Paul Jean Paul (; born Johann Paul Friedrich Richter, 21 March 1763 – 14 November 1825) was a German Romantic writer, best known for his humorous novels and stories. Life and work Jean Paul was born at Wunsiedel, in the Fichtelgebirge mountai ...

, and befriended

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 ...

, and Asmus Jakob Carstens.

Works

Apart from a four-part autobiographical novel, '' Anton Reiser'', and two fictional ''Andreas Hartknopf'' novels, he also wrote a number of theoretical writings on aesthetics, especially "Über die bildende Nachahmung des Schönen" (On the Formative Imitation of Beauty), which Goethe excerpted in his ''

Italian Journey ''Italian Journey'' (in the German original: ) is Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's report on his travels to Italy from 1786 to 1788 that was published in 1816 & 1817. The book is based on Goethe's diaries and is smoothed in style, lacks the spont ...

''. Moritz's ''Magazin zur Erfahrungsseelenkunde als ein Lesebuch für Gelehrte und Ungelehrte'' (Journal of Experiential Psychology, as reading for scholars and laymen) was one of the first Germanophone journals of psychology. His works include: *''Blunt oder der Gast'', 1781 *''Beiträge zur Philosophie des Lebens aus dem Tagebuch eines Freimäurers'', 1780 *''Magazin zur Erfahrungsseelenkunde als ein Lesebuch für Gelehrte und Ungelehrte.'' 1783–1793 *''Reisen eines Deutschen in England im Jahre 1782'', 1783. English: '' Journeys of a German in England in 1782''
Ideal einer vollkommnen Zeitung
1784 *'' Anton Reiser'' (Part 1), 1785 *''Andreas Hartknopf'', Eine Allegorie, 1785 *'' Anton Reiser'' (Parts 2 and 3), 1786 *''Denkwürdigkeiten, aufgezeichnet zur Beförderung des Edlen und Schönen'', 1786 *''Versuch einer deutschen Prosodie'', 1786 *''Versuch einer kleinen praktischen Kinderlogik'', 1786 *''Fragmente aus dem Tagebuche eines Geistersehers'', 1787
Über die bildende Nachahmung des Schönen
1788 *''Italien und Deutschland'', 1789 *''Monats-Schrift der Akademie der Künste und Mechanischen Wissenschaften zu Berlin'', 1789 *''Über eine Schrift des Herrn Schulrath Campe, und über die Rechte des Schriftstellers und Buchhändlers'', 1789 *''Andreas Hartknopfs Predigerjahre'', 1790 *'' Anton Reiser'' (Part 4), 1790
Neues ABC-Buch
1790 *''Annalen der Akademie der Künste und Mechanischen Wissenschaften'', 1791 *''Anthusa oder Roms Alterthümer'', 1791

1791 *''Grundlinien zu meinen Vorlesungen über den Styl'', 1791 *''Italienische Sprachlehre für die Deutschen'', 1791 *''Über die Vereinfachung der menschlichen Kenntnisse'', 1791 *''Lesebuch für Kinder'', 1792 *''Mythologischer Almanach für Damen'', 1792 *''Reisen eines Deutschen in Italien in den Jahren 1786 bis 1788'', 1792 *''Vom richtigen deutschen Ausdruck'', 1792 *''Allgemeiner deutscher Briefsteller'', 1793 *''Die große Loge oder der Freimaurer mit Waage und Senkblei'', 1793 *''Grammatisches Wörterbuch'' (4 vols. 1793–1800) *''Mythologisches Wörterbuch zum Gebrauch für Schulen'', 1793 *''Reisen eines Deutschen in Italien in den Jahren 1786 bis 1788'', 1793 *''Vorbegriffe zu einer Theorie der Ornamente'', 1793 *''Vorlesungen über den Styl'' (Part 1), 1793 *''Die neue Cecilia'', (1793, fragment)

References

Sources

* Apel, Kim. ''Predigten in der Literatur: homiletische Erkundungen bei Karl Philipp Moritz. Praktische Theologie in Geschichte und Gegenwart'' (Tuebingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2009).

External links

* *
Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences Moritz Critical Edition''Das Magazin zur Erfahrungsseelenkunde'' Digital Edition
{{DEFAULTSORT:Moritz, Karl Philipp 1756 births 1793 deaths People from Hamelin People from the Electorate of Hanover Members of the Prussian Academy of Sciences Milliners German male writers