Bernhard Hirzel was a Swiss

Swiss (people)

The Swiss are citizens or natives of Switzerland. The demonym derives from the toponym of Schwyz and has been in widespread use to refer to the Old Swiss Confederacy since the 16th century....

 theologian and Orientalist

Oriental studies

Oriental studies is the academic field of study that embraces Near Eastern and Far Eastern societies and cultures, languages, peoples, history and archaeology; in recent years the subject has often been turned into the newer terms of Asian studies and Middle Eastern studies...

.

He studied theology in Zürich

Zürich

Zurich is the largest city in Switzerland and the capital of the canton of Zurich. It is located in central Switzerland at the northwestern tip of Lake Zurich...

 (1819–31) and philology in Berlin

Berlin

Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...

 and Paris, promoted 1833 in Göttingen. He married Maria Elisa Tobler in 1833.
From 1833 he was reading in Zürich, and was elected professor for oriental languages in 1835. His lectures met with little interest, with only two out of 43 announced.
In 1837, he left Zürich for a position as pastor in Pfäffikon

Pfäffikon, Zurich

Pfäffikon is a municipality in the canton of Zurich in Switzerland. It is the seat of the district of the same name. It is not to be confused with Pfäffikon SZ on Lake Zurich but in the canton of Schwyz.-History:...

.

The election of David Strauss

David Strauss

David Friedrich Strauss was a German theologian and writer. He scandalized Christian Europe with his portrayal of the "historical Jesus," whose divine nature he denied...

, a free-thinking theologian and pioneer in the historical investigation of Jesus

Quest for the Historical Jesus

The quest for the historical Jesus is the attempt to use historical rather than religious methods to construct a verifiable biography of Jesus. As originally defined by Albert Schweitzer, the quest began in the 18th century with Hermann Samuel Reimarus, up to William Wrede in the 19th century...

, to the University of Zürich

University of Zurich

The University of Zurich , located in the city of Zurich, is the largest university in Switzerland, with over 25,000 students. It was founded in 1833 from the existing colleges of theology, law, medicine and a new faculty of philosophy....

 caused a tumult among the rural population, resulting in Hirzel leading a troop of insurgents to Zürich, which succeeded to force the city council to surrender (the Züriputsch

Züriputsch

The Züriputsch of 6 September 1839 was a putsch of the rural conservative population against the liberal rule of the city of Zürich on the eve of the formation of the Swiss federal state. The reason for the putsch was the appointment of the controversial German theologian David Strauss to the...

).
In 1845, Hirzel quit his post in Pfäffikon and again became reader at Zürich University, but was soon forced to flee because of his involvement in a case of financial fraud. He went into exile in Paris, where he committed suicide by taking poison in 1847.

Translations from the Sanskrit

• Sakuntala
  Sakùntala
  La leggenda di Sakùntala is a three-act opera by Franco Alfano, who wrote his own libretto, basing his work on Kalidasa's 5th-century BC drama Abhijñānaśākuntalam .-Première, Loss, Reconstruction, Rediscovery:...
  
  (Zürich 1833)
• Urwasi (Frauenfeld 1838)
• Meghaduta
  Meghaduta
  Meghadūta is a lyric poem written by Kālidāsa, considered to be one of the greatest Sanskrit poets.A short poem of 111 stanzas, it is one of Kālidāsa's most famous works...
  
  oder der Wolkenbote (Frauenfeld 1846)