Johann Reinhold Forster

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Johann Reinhold Forster and his son Georg in Tahiti

Johann Reinhold Forster (born October 22, 1729 in Dirschau , ( Royal Prussia ); † December 9, 1798 in Halle ad Saale ) was a well-educated German scientist and explorer during the Enlightenment who also made important contributions to ethnology . Its official botanical author abbreviation is " JRForst. ".

Life

Forster came from a family that traced back to the old family of Lords Forrester in Scotland , followers of King Charles I. Forster's ancestor Georg Forster (as Johann Reinhold also called his first son Georg [1754–1794]) emigrated after the family had lost most of their property through Cromwell's efforts to transform England into a republic , as had many other Englishmen and Scots that time to Prussia, to the region around Danzig . Forster was the son of Georg Reinhold Forster and the daughter of the mayor Johann Wolff. The father was - like the grandfather Georg and the great-grandfather Adam, who moved to that city around 1666 (again the son of the above-mentioned Georg Forster from Scotland) - mayor of Dirschau .

childhood

Forster was already noticed in his childhood because of his extraordinary language skills. Since his father spoke only Latin to him and his mother Polish, Forster was four years old and spoke both languages ​​fluently. On the other hand, he learned German, the actual national language at that time, at the age of six through increasing contact with people of the same age.

Science, work and family

Forster did not study law at the University of Halle - contrary to family tradition - but decided in favor of theology because his preferred subject medicine would not have found support from his father . In addition, however, he regularly attended medical lectures. After completing his studies, he served as a Protestant pastor in the small community of Hochzeit ( Wiślina ) on the banks of the Motława , near Nassenhuben ( Mokry Dwór ). There he married his cousin, Justine Elisabeth Nicolai, the councilor's daughter from Marienwerder . This marriage had eight children, seven of whom survived childhood.

The first of their children was their son Georg, born in 1754, whose childlike curiosity motivated Forster to take a closer look at natural history and thus especially Linnaeus' writings. He also taught his son Georg writing, arithmetic, Latin and French.

Forster also delved into chronology , ancient geography and, in particular, dealt with the Coptic language . Because of his enthusiasm for science, Forster spent the entire legacy of his father and uncle to expand his private library. It finally comprised around 2500 titles. Science soon played a more important role than work and family. (An anecdote from this period reports that Forster fell asleep next to the pulpit during a service because he had apparently only written his sermon at night and with black coffee.) His private library, on the other hand, shrank a few years later when his wife stopped while he was working in Russia was forced to sell books to secure the survival of the rest of the Prussian family.

On the Volga

Johann Reinhold Forster

After the fall of Tsar Peter III. by Catherine II in 1762 and the subsequent resumption of plans to colonize the as yet undeveloped areas in southern Russia, Germans were recruited with the help of financial and moral incentives. Due to the very inhospitable settlement conditions, however, the Russian agents quickly got into arguments.

In order to give the rumors about the miserable conditions on the lower Volga a more positive character, Forster, who had previously unsuccessfully applied for a professorship in Saint Petersburg , was engaged in 1765 to research the German Volga colonists and the areas of the colonies. This trip, which took him to Lake Elton in the Caspian Depression , was of particular interest to Forster for natural historical reasons. He was accompanied by his son Georg, who was only ten years old at the time. He was given leave of absence from his pastor duties for the duration of his assignment. In Königsberg , Johann Reinhold Forster became a member of the Freemasons ' League on March 16, 1765 , his lodge To the Three Crowns has been re-established in Kaliningrad since 2002 .

In addition to the information requested by Grigori Orlow about the region and the situation of the colonists, Forster also collected antiques from old nomadic peoples. The complaints of the colonists, especially with regard to their legal situation, were included in a memorandum addressed to Orlov containing cards on the results of his investigations. At the request of Catherine II, who ruled in the spirit of enlightened absolutism , Forster and a second Reformed preacher named Dilthey were commissioned to create a code of law for the settlers to represent the German colonists.

During this time Forster's leave of absence for his pastor's position in Prussia came to an end, and in May 1766 he learned that he had lost the position to someone else. Even the drafting of the code of law and its submission to Orlov did not lead to the expected results, and finally father and son Forster left Russia without success or reward. Basically nothing changed in the situation of the colonists.

England and the South Seas voyage

In 1766 Forster traveled to England with Georg . He taught at Dissenter ’s College, Warrington for three years and then moved to London , where he was previously known as a natural historian and an honorary member of the Society of Antiquaries of London . Forster was a versatile and enlightened personality , spoke a variety of languages ​​(including Latin, Polish, German, Russian, English, French, Coptic and Samaritan) and was active as a linguist, anthropologist and philosopher.

When Joseph Banks was dropped by the Admiralty as official scientific companion shortly before James Cook's second trip to the South Seas, his assignment went to Forster, who insisted on taking his son with him as an assistant. In July 1772 they sailed from Plymouth on board the Resolution and arrived back in England after three years. During a stay in Cape Town , Forster hired Anders Sparrman as his assistant.

Both Forsters kept diaries with full details of everything they saw on the trip. The material income from this trip, in particular the father's travel records, an abundance of herbal preparations, ethnographic and natural history collectibles, as well as around 600 mostly colored drawings by the son, became the basis of the following publications by the two and thus their international reputation.

The great collections of natural history and historical objects they had to gradually sell again due to recurring financial difficulties. After the contract for the drafting of the official travelogue was withdrawn against expectations, the Forsters published the Observations Made during a Voyage round the World (1777, German translation by Georg Forster 1778-80; see below section “Works”).

In view of the growing conflicts with the Admiralty because of the unauthorized publication and increasing debts in England, Forster's hopes were directed towards Germany, especially since father and son already had some friendly ties in England - including with the physicist Georg Christoph Lichtenberg and the anatomist Samuel Thomas von Soemmerring - had linked. The family was finally freed from their debts through a collection held by Duke Ferdinand von Braunschweig , which he organized under German Masonic lodges .

Last years in Germany

Memorial plaque for Johann Reinhold Forster in arch 61 on the Stadtgottesacker Halle

In November 1779 he was appointed professor of natural history and mineral research at the University of Halle. In September 1780 he entered the local Masonic lodge Zu den Drei Degen , in which, among other things, he held the office of lodge master and speaker. 1776 was accepted as a corresponding member of the Académie des sciences in Paris. In 1780 he became an honorary member of the Russian Academy of Sciences in St. Petersburg and in 1786 a foreign member of the Prussian Academy of Sciences . Since 1793 he was an elected member of the American Philosophical Society . He stayed in Halle until his death in 1798. His grave is in the Halle Stadtgottesacker in Bogen 61. The Forsters Passage in the archipelago of the South Sandwich Islands bears his name.

power

Forster, a follower of Carl von Linné and his binary nomenclature , was an extremely versatile naturalist and, among other things, contributed significantly to the ornithology of Europe and North America.

Honors

The plant genus Forstera L.f. is named after Johann Reinhold Forster and his son Johann Georg Adam Forster . from the family of the Phyllanthaceae .

Works

Contributions to ethnology and geography 1781 Titel.png

Some of the works and translations published under the name of Johann Reinhold Forster were not written by himself, but by his son Georg . On the other hand, in A Voyage round the World , written and published by Georg Forster in 1777 before the official travel report on Cook's second Pacific voyage, both Georg and his father's notes were included. A clear distinction between the works of Johann Reinhold Foster and those of his son is not always flawlessly possible due to their long-term close cooperation.

  • Observations Made during a Voyage round the World. 1778.
  • Descriptiones animalium. Published by Martin Hinrich Lichtenstein in 1844
  • The Resolution Journal of Johann Reinhold Forster. edited by Michael E. Hoare, Volume 1-4, Hakluyt Society, London 1982.
  • History of the discoveries and navigation in the north. Frankfurt / Oder 1784.

literature

Others

A 1805 is hewn and known in Siegerland studs in Siegen district Eiserfeld named Reinhold Forster Erbstollen . Forster is also the namesake for Forster Point , a headland of South Georgia in the South Atlantic .

Web links

Commons : Johann Reinhold Forster  - Collection of images, videos and audio files
Wikisource: Johann Reinhold Forster  - Sources and full texts

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ See Ludwig Uhlig: Georg Forster . Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 2004, ISBN 3-525-36731-7 , pp. 137 .
  2. ↑ Eugen Lennhoff, Oskar Posner, Dieter A. Binder: Internationales Freemaurerlexikon. Revised and expanded new edition of the 1932 edition. Munich 2003, ISBN 3-7766-2161-3 .
  3. ^ List of members since 1666: Letter F. Académie des sciences, accessed on November 14, 2019 (French).
  4. ^ Members of the previous academies. Johann Reinhold Forster. Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and Humanities , accessed on March 24, 2015 .
  5. ↑ Member History: J. Reinhold Forster. American Philosophical Society, accessed August 9, 2018 .
  6. ↑ Lotte Burkhardt: Directory of eponymous plant names . Extended Edition. Botanic Garden and Botanical Museum Berlin, Free University Berlin Berlin 2018. [1]
personal data
SURNAME Forster, Johann Reinhold
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German natural scientist
DATE OF BIRTH October 22, 1729
PLACE OF BIRTH Dirschau, Prussia ( Tczew , Poland )
DATE OF DEATH December 9, 1798
Place of death Hall adSaale