CSF 2011

Georg Forster and the Berlin Enlightenment

Georg Forster Colloquium 2011, University of Kassel, International House, June 17-18, 2011

When 2012 marks the 300th anniversary of Frederick the Great's birth - the jubilee has the problematic motto "Peace Risk" - the role of Prussia and Berlin within the European Enlightenment will certainly come up. With the renewal of the Academy, the appointment of Maupertuis, La Mettrie and Voltaire, Frederick II had his share. In addition, enlightened minds from Germany were drawn to Berlin early on, among them Mendelssohn, Sulzer, Mylius and Lessing, before the Seven Years' War interrupted a further upswing. Through Biester, Gedicke, Moritz, Svarez and Dohm, but above all through the publisher, writer and critic Friedrich Nicolai, who became the organizational center of the Late Enlightenment with his large-scale journal project Allgemeine Deutsche Bibliothek, the Berlin Enlightenment experienced another high point. Like many other Berlin intellectuals, he was one of the participants in the famous Wednesday Society, of which Moses Mendelssohn was an honorary member. Perhaps even greater publishing influence than the Allgemeine Deutsche Bibliothek was achieved by the Berlinische Monatsschrift, founded in 1783, in which authors such as Archenholtz, Brandes, Büsching, Campe, Dohm, Fichte, Garve, Gentz, Gleim, the Humboldts, Kant, Klein, Klopstock, Möser, Nicolai, Struensee and Svarez published.

Georg Forster, who was connected with Berlin from an early age - his Reise um die Welt was published by the Berlin publishing house Haude und Spener - knew quite well the circles around Nicolai, Engel and Biester, with whom he met repeatedly. He appreciated the open-minded atmosphere of Berlin, without welcoming the closeness of his interlocutors to the Prussian royal family. The relationship took on a special note when, in 1788, he defended ideas of the Enlightenment against the restoration tendencies that were emerging with Woellner's edict on religion.