Karl von Knoblauch

Karl von Knoblauch, also from Knoblauch zu Hatzbach or on Hatzbach , more rarely Carl (born November 3, 1756 in Dillenburg , † September 6, 1794 in Bernburg (Saale) ) was a German lawyer and Bergrat in the service of the princes of Orange-Nassau in Dillenburg and as a philosophical author a representative of the materialistic and religious-critical late Enlightenment .

family

Karl von Knoblauch comes from the noble family of Knoblauch zu Hatzbach , which belongs to the old Hessian knighthood . His parents were George Philipp Reinhard von Knoblauch zu Hatzbach (1700–1759), born in Hatzbach , a Nassau-Orange officer and, most recently, chief hunter in Dillenburg, and Auguste (1711–1792), a born von Röder from Harzgerode ; he was her only son. Karl married on September 23, 1792 in Ballenstedt Wilhelmine born von Bodé (born September 23, 1766 in Worms , † February 12, 1826 in Marburg ), the daughter of a princely Nassau-Saarbrück government councilor; the couple had a son Carl August Wilhelm Achaz von Knoblauch zu Hatzbach (born September 18, 1793 in Dillenburg, † March 11, 1855 in Marburg).

Professional career

Karl von Knoblauch began his studies in 1773 at the High School in Herborn with the subjects of mathematics and philosophy. In 1775 he moved to the University of Giessen to study law , which he continued and completed the following year until 1778 at the University of Göttingen . Thereupon he became - in accordance with the training in Göttingen, where the outstanding constitutional lawyer of his time Johann Stephan Pütter taught - at the Cabinet of Orange-Nassau for the German home countries in Dillenburg in 1778 first of all law firm auditor , then in 1782 law firm professor and finally judiciary in 1786 ; In 1792 it also became a mountain ridge.

Karl von Knoblauch saw his real destiny less in his legal-administrative function than in philosophical-literary activity in the sense of the Enlightenment , through which he has a certain importance in philosophical discourse to this day. Although a lawyer by training, he was mainly in scientific correspondence with a number of thinkers who argued mathematically and scientifically, including the lawyer and engineer Jakob Mauvillon (1743–1794) in Braunschweig and the physicist and mathematician Georg Christoph Lichtenberg (1742–1799) in Göttingen, also the geodesist Georg Friedrich Werner (1754–1798) in Gießen. The radical-enlightenment content of two letters intercepted at the post office in Kassel in the so-called "letter opening affair" led in 1791 to the demands of the absolutist and counter-Enlightenment Landgrave Wilhelm IX. von Hessen-Kassel to the employers of Knoblauchs in Dillenburg and Mavillions in Braunschweig after their dismissal, whereupon they instead received certificates of confidence from their princes.

Philosophical approaches and reception

In a letter to Mauvillon dated October 22, 1781, Karl von Knoblauch locates his philosophical “awakening experience” in Göttingen, without it being made clear to which individuals his personal developmental step was connected; The fact that many of his later correspondence partners (incl. Mauvillon) belonged to the lodge suggests a connection with Freemasonry :

“This is where my terms developed. Here I became a skeptic, here I entered into interesting connections, the finite involuntary tearing of which when I left Göttingen (1778) was the most painful event of my life [...]. Mauvillon's letters (see writings), p. 199 "

His first publications appeared anonymously or pseudonymously in the journal Der Teutsche Merkur (born 1787-88) edited by Christoph Martin Wieland or with fictitious print locations, dealt with miracles and beliefs in miracles and were critically received by Wieland and Jacob Hermann Obereits . Here Knoblauch shows himself in an anti-structural position that characterizes his work throughout. He appears as a strict mathematician and adherent of the convictions of the rationalist and founder of modern biblical criticism Baruch de Spinoza , although in Ueber Fauns and Satyrs and other pieces he also allows artistic-literary claims to come into play. Martin Mulsow establishes a connection between the rationalistic approaches of Knoblauch and the materialistic philosophy of Georg Friedrich Werner in Gießen, as is particularly evident in Werner's Aetiology - a monistic theory of nature based on a theory of consciousness (see literature).

In his Political-Philosophical Discussions , also first published in Teutscher Merkur (born 1788–90) - his main "political science" work - he brings legal approaches and his philosophical trains of thought together with concepts of mercantilism and the then emerging forest science : his contribution to the physiocratism of his Time. As a contributor to Teutscher Merkur (since 1791: Neuer Teutscher Merkur ), in the magazine Das Graue Ungeheuer published by Wilhelm Ludwig Wekhrlin , Johann August Eberhard's Philosophical Magazine , the Minerva of Johann Wilhelm Daniel von Archenholz and the journal Genius der Zeit des August Adolph von Hennings, he proves to be an expert on the philosophical principles of Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz , Immanuel Kant and Christian Wolff , which he endeavored to bring to a new level. He also translated excerpts from the works of the Enlightenmentists Paul Henri Thiry d'Holbach , Denis Diderot and Claude Adrien Helvétius from French.

Karl von Knoblauch received a certain amount of attention during his lifetime, primarily through his journalistic publications. A stronger perception as a thinker in the philosophical-historical discourse did not resume until the 1990s after his death, as can be seen from the publication of some of his writings by Edgar Bauer (under the pseudonym Martin von Geismar) in Vormärz and from contributions by Otto Fischer (see literature ) in the 1950s in East Germany, where he is portrayed as the forerunner of the state ideology that was understood as “materialistic” and “atheistic”. The lack of reception since the 19th century may be due to the anti-Enlightenment tendencies of the time and the anonymity of many of his writings, but not least his early death: He died - only 37 years old - in Bernburg on a vacation trip.

Fonts (incomplete)

Single fonts

• Antihyperphysics for the edification of the sensible , o. O. 1789 (also in the library of the German enlightenment , see below).
• Dialogues on some subjects of political economy and philosophy , o.O. 1789. ( digitized version )
• Antithaumaturgy, or the doubting of miracles , Loretto [di Berlin] 1790.
• The night watch of the hermit at Athos , 3 parts, Germania [di Nuremberg] 1790 (also in the library of the German Enlightenment , see below).
• The supernatural examined by a volunteer , Germanien [di Weißenfels] 1790 (also in the library of the German Enlightenment , see below).
• About fauns, satyrs, Panen and Silenians. Some conversations , 2 parts, Berlin 1790 a. 1791. ( Digitization of the 1st part ) ( Digitization of the 2nd part ).
• Political-Philosophical Conversations , Volume 1 [all], Berlin 1791 (articles previously published in Neuer Teuschen Merkur ). ( Digitized version )
• Euclides antithaumaturgicus, or demonstrative proof of the impossibility of hyperphysical events , Germania [di Weißenfels] 1791.
• Principles of reason and experience in their application to the miraculous , o.O. 1791. ( digitized version )
• Paperback for enlighteners and non-enlighteners to the year 1791 , Berlin 1791. ( digitized version )
• Notes about a very strange note from the German messenger of the gods. A conversation, but not a conversation with the gods. [Casting] 1791.
• About sylphs, gnomes, salamanders and ondines , 2 parts, Weißenfels and Leipzig 1793. ( digitized version )
• About Pan and his relationship to Sylvanus. An antiquarian philosophical treatise. Biel [di Gießen] 1794. ( digitized version )
• Small writings , Herborn in the Hohenschulbuchhandlung 1798.
• Excerpts from Knoblauch's writings in Martin von Geismar (ed.): Library of the German Enlightenment of the eighteenth century , 5th issue, Leipzig 1847, pp. 253-300. ( Digitized version )

Magazine articles

in the New German Mercury :

• Something about the right of a state to vomit and withhold letters that are not written to it. In: NTM 1791, Item 9, pp. 139-142.
• An anecdote that deserves to be known , ibid., Piece 12, pp. 554–446.
• Arrival of the Cathagers on the Gorilla Islands. A fragment from a future commentary by Hanno's Periplus. In: NTM 1792, Item 1, pp. 48-67.

in the Minerva :

• Journey to the Rhinelander in the spring of 1793 . `` M. '' 1793, piece 7, pp. 17-31.
• Contribution to the history of scholars , ibid, pp. 366–371.

Farther:

• Declaration about the article in the 1st part of the Wiener Zeitschrift, titled: About the right and non-right to vomit and suppress letters . In: '' Schleswigsches Journal '' (1792), piece 5, pp. 110-114.
• Are there really rights of mankind, and are men exactly the same in respect of them? In: Philosophisches Magazin 4 (1793), Item 4, pp. 424–446

Letters

• Mauvillon's correspondence or letters from various scholars to Lieutenant Colonel Mauvillon, who died in the service of Duke Braunschweig. Edited by his son Friedrich Wilhelm von Mauvillon , Braunschweig 1801, pp. 190–230.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ See Ulrich Joos u. a. (Ed.): Georg Christoph Lichtenberg. Correspondence, Volume V.2 (Directories, Subject Index) , p. 958
2. ↑ On this Knobloch's contributions in the New German Merkur etc. (see writings)
3. ^ Knoblauch "had been a Freemason himself since his time in Göttingen. in the later 1780s member of the German Union Bahrdts "(so Mondot, see literature)

literature

• Karl Damian Achaz von Knoblauch zu Hatzbach:  Knoblauch, Karl von . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 16, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1882, p. 307 f.
• [Karl Damian Achaz von Knoblauch zu Hatzbach:] Brief history of the Knoblauch family from u. to Hatzbach. An excerpt from the detailed story, which is written in 2 manuscript booklets in folio format. Hamel: Marburg 1890, esp.p. 30f. ( Digitized version )
• Otto Finger: Karl von Knoblauch a German atheist of the 18th century . In: German Journal for Philosophy 6 (1958), pp. 924–948.
• Gerhard Katschnig: A Tuscan Dialogue in the Face of the French Revolution - Karl von Knoblauch's “Political-Philosophical Conversations” . In: Franz Eybl (Ed.): Houses and Alliances . Bochum 2016 (= The Eighteenth Century and Austria, Vol. 30), pp. 137–148.
• Johann Georg Meusel: Lexicon of the German writers who died from 1750 to 1800 . Seventh volume. Gerhard Fleischer d. J., Leipzig 1808, p. 136 f. ( Digitized version )
• Jean Mondot: Knoblauch zu Hatzbach, Karl von . In: Killy Literature Lexicon , 2nd ed., Volume 6, de Gruyter: Berlin 2009, p. 525.
• Martin Mulsow: Karl von Knoblauch and Georg Friedrich Werner as materialists. A Giessen-Dillenburg constellation . In: Enlightenment 24 (2012) [Topic: Radical Late Enlightenment in Germany], pp. 91–112.