Georg Forster, Date of Birth, Place of Birth, Date of Death

    

Georg Forster

German naturalist, ethnologist, travel writer, journalist, and revolutionary

Date of Birth: 27-Nov-1754

Place of Birth: Gdańsk, Pomeranian Voivodeship, Poland

Date of Death: 10-Jan-1794

Profession: writer, librarian, translator, biologist, ornithologist, ethnologist, university teacher, journalist, botanist, mycologist, entomologist, revolutionary, anthropologist, explorer, pteridologist, autobiographer

Zodiac Sign: Sagittarius


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About Georg Forster

  • Johann Georg Adam Forster (German pronunciation: ['ge???k 'f??st?]; November 27, 1754 – January 10, 1794) was a German naturalist, ethnologist, travel writer, journalist, and revolutionary.
  • At an early age, he accompanied his father, Johann Reinhold Forster, on several scientific expeditions, including James Cook's second voyage to the Pacific.
  • His report of that journey, A Voyage Round the World, contributed significantly to the ethnology of the people of Polynesia and remains a respected work.
  • As a result of the report, Forster was admitted to the Royal Society at the early age of twenty-two and came to be considered one of the founders of modern scientific travel literature. After returning to continental Europe, Forster turned toward academia.
  • He taught natural history at the Collegium Carolinum in the Ottoneum, Kassel (1778–84), and later at the Academy of Vilna (Vilnius University) (1784–87).
  • In 1788, he became head librarian at the University of Mainz.
  • Most of his scientific work during this time consisted of essays on botany and ethnology, but he also prefaced and translated many books about travel and exploration, including a German translation of Cook's diaries. Forster was a central figure of the Enlightenment in Germany, and corresponded with most of its adherents, including his close friend Georg Christoph Lichtenberg.
  • His ideas and personality influenced Alexander von Humboldt, one of the great scientists of the 19th century.
  • When the French took control of Mainz in 1792, Forster played a leading role in the Mainz Republic, the earliest republican state in Germany.
  • During July 1793 and while he was in Paris as a delegate of the young Mainz Republic, Prussian and Austrian coalition forces regained control of the city and Forster was declared an outlaw.
  • Unable to return to Germany and separated from his friends and family, he died in Paris of illness in early 1794.

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