Johann Gottfried Herder
25 August 1744 – 18 December 1803
Johann Gottfried Herder was a German philosopher, theologian, and literary critic, a key figure of the Sturm und Drang movement and of Weimar Classicism. His writings on language, folk poetry, history, and national culture profoundly shaped Romanticism, historicism, and modern ideas of cultural nationalism.
Lived at the same time
Well-documented people whose lives overlapped with Johann Gottfried Herder.
- Daniel Boone (1734–1820) Overlapped 59 years →
- Jeanne Baret (1740–1807) Overlapped 59 years →
- John Adams (1735–1826) Overlapped 59 years →
- Joseph Haydn (1732–1809) Overlapped 59 years →
- Joseph Priestley (1733–1804) Overlapped 59 years →
- Joseph-Louis Lagrange (1736–1813) Overlapped 59 years →
Life events
Herder was born into a modest family in Mohrungen, East Prussia (now Morag, Poland), the son of a schoolteacher and sexton.
Source: en.wikipedia.orgHe enrolled at Königsberg in 1762, attending Immanuel Kant's lectures and becoming a protege of Johann Georg Hamann.
Source: en.wikipedia.orgHerder took a post at the cathedral school in Riga, where he began publishing his first critical writings on literature.
Source: en.wikipedia.orgHe left Riga and sailed to Nantes and Paris, a journey that inspired his influential Journal meiner Reise im Jahr 1769.
Source: en.wikipedia.orgWhile in Strasbourg for an eye operation, Herder met Johann Wolfgang von Goethe and decisively influenced his turn toward folk poetry and Shakespeare.
Source: en.wikipedia.orgHis essay arguing that language arose naturally from human reflection rather than divine gift won the Prussian Academy's prize and was published in 1772.
Source: en.wikipedia.orgHerder married Maria Caroline Flachsland in Darmstadt; the couple had several children and she later edited his collected works.
Source: en.wikipedia.orgAt Goethe's instigation, Herder became head of the Lutheran clergy at the ducal court of Weimar, a position he held for the rest of his life.
Source: en.wikipedia.orgHis major work Ideen zur Philosophie der Geschichte der Menschheit, published in four parts between 1784 and 1791, presented a sweeping philosophy of human cultural development.
Source: en.wikipedia.orgHerder died in Weimar at the age of 59 and was buried in the city church of St. Peter and Paul.
Source: en.wikipedia.org