Georg Forster
Encyclopedia
Johann Georg Adam Forster (November 27, 1754 – January 10, 1794) was a German
naturalist
, ethnologist
, travel writer
, journalist
, and revolutionary
. At an early age, he accompanied his father on several scientific expeditions, including James Cook
's second voyage to the Pacific
. His report from 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 traveled to Paris
to seek out a discussion with the American revolutionary Benjamin Franklin
in 1777. He taught natural history
at the Collegium Carolinum in Kassel
(1778–1784), and later at Academy of Vilna (Vilnius University)
(1784–1787). He then (1788) 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 travels and explorations, 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 became one of the founders of the Jacobin Club
there and went on to play 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.
(Mokry Dwór) near Danzig
(Gdańsk), in the Polish province of Royal Prussia
.
He was the oldest of seven surviving children of Johann Reinhold Forster
and Justina Elisabeth (née Nicolai). His father was a naturalist, scientist and a Reformed
pastor
. In 1765, the Russian
tsarina
Catherine II
gave the pastor an assignment to travel in Russia on a research journey and investigate the situation of a German colony
on the Volga River
. Georg, then ten years old, joined him. They reached the Kirghiz
steppe
on the lower Volga. On the journey, they discovered several new species. The young Forster learned there how to conduct scientific research and how to practice cartography
. He also became fluent in Russian
.
The report from this journey, which included sharp criticism of the governor of Saratov
, was not well-received at court, and the Forsters claimed they had not obtained fair payment for their work and had to move house. They chose to settle in England in 1766. The father took up teaching at the Dissenter
's Academy in Warrington
and also translation work. The young Forster, only thirteen years old, published his first book: an English translation of Lomonosov
's history of Russia, which was well-received in scientific circles.
In 1772, Forster's father Johann became a member of the Royal Society
. This and the withdrawal of Joseph Banks
resulted in his invitation by the British
admiralty
to join James Cook
's second expedition
to the Pacific
(1772–1775). Georg Forster joined his father in the expedition again and was appointed as a draughtsman
to his father. Johann Forster's task was to work on a scientific report from the journey that was to be published after their return.
They embarked on the HMS Resolution
on July 13, 1772 in Plymouth
. The route led first to the South Atlantic
, then through the Indian Ocean
and the Southern Ocean
to the island of Polynesia
and finally around Cape Horn
back to England, where the expedition arrived on July 30, 1775. During the three-year journey, the explorers visited New Zealand
, the Tonga
islands, New Caledonia
, Tahiti
, the Marquesas Islands
and Easter Island
. They went further south than anybody before them, almost discovering Antarctica. The journey conclusively disproved the Terra Australis
Incognita theory, which claimed there was a big, habitable continent in the South.
Supervised by his father, Georg Forster first took up the studies of zoology
and botanics of the southern seas, mostly by drawing animals and plants. However, Georg also pursued his own interests which led to completely independent explorations in comparative geography
and ethnology
. He quickly learned the languages of the Polynesian islands. His reports on the people of Polynesia are well regarded even to today, as they show Forster's description of the inhabitants of the southern islands with empathy, sympathy and largely without Western
or Christian
prejudices.
Unlike Louis Antoine de Bougainville
, whose reports from a journey to Tahiti a few years earlier had initiated uncritical noble savage
romanticism, Forster had a very sophisticated picture of the societies
of the South Pacific islands. He described various social structure
s and religion
s that he encountered on the Society Islands
, Easter Island
and in Tonga
and New Zealand
, and ascribed this diversity to the difference in living conditions of these people. At the same time he also observed that the languages of these fairly widely scattered islands are quite similar. About the inhabitants of the Nomuka
islands (in the Ha'apai island group of present-day Tonga), he wrote that their languages, vehicles, weapons, furniture, clothes, tattoos, style of beard, in short all of their being matched perfectly with what he had already seen while studying tribes on Tongatapu
. However, he wrote, "we could not observe any subordination among them, though this had strongly characterised the natives of Tonga-Tabboo, who seemed to descend even to servility in their obeisance to the king."
The ethnographical
items that were collected by Georg and Reinhold Forster are currently presented as the Cook-Forster-Sammlung (Cook-Forster Collection) in the Sammlung für Völkerkunde
anthropological collection in Göttingen
. Another collection of items collected by the Forsters is on display at the Pitt Rivers Museum
in Oxford.
The journey was rich in scientific results. However, the relationship between the Forsters and Cook and his officers was often problematic, due to the elder Forster's fractious temperament as well as Cook's refusal to allow more time for botanizing and other scientific observation. Cook refused scientists on his third journey after his experiences with the Forsters.
, although willing to pay the promised money, was irritated with Johann Reinhold Forster's opening chapter and tried to have him edited. However, Forster did not want to have his writing corrected "like a theme of a School-boy," and stubbornly refused any compromise in this direction. As a result, the official account was written by Cook, and the Forsters were deprived of the right to compile the account and did not obtain payment for their work. During the negotiations, the younger Forster decided to release an unofficial account of their travels. In 1777, the book A Voyage round the World in His Britannic Majesty's Sloop Resolution, Commanded by Capt. James Cook, during the Years, 1772, 3, 4, and 5 was published. This report was the first account of Cook's second voyage (it appeared six weeks before the official publication) and was intended for the general public. The English version and his own translation into German (published 1778–1780) earned the young author real fame. The poet Christoph Martin Wieland
praised the book as the most important one of his time, and even today it remains one of the most important journey descriptions ever written. The book also had a significant impact on German literature, culture and science. For instance, Alexander von Humboldt
was greatly influenced by it and it inspired many ethnologists
of later times.
Forster wrote well-polished German prose, which was not only scientifically accurate and objective, but also exciting and easy to read. This was different from conventional travel literature
of the time, insofar as it present more than a mere collection of data - it also demonstrated coherent, colourful and reliable ethnographical
facts that resulted from detailed and sympathetic observation. He often interrupted the description to enrich it with philosophical
remarks about his observations. His main focus was always on the people he encountered: their behaviour, their customs, habits, religions and forms of social organisation. In A Voyage round the World he even presented the songs sung by the people of Polynesia
, complete with lyrics and notation
. The book is one of the most important sources concerning the societies of the Southern Pacific from the times before European influence had become significant.
Both Forsters also published descriptions of their South Pacific travels in the Magazin von merkwürdigen neuen Reisebeschreibungen ("Magazine of strange new travel accounts") in Berlin, and Georg published a translation of "A Voyage to the South Sea, by Lieutenant William Bligh
, London 1792" in 1791–1793.
made him a member on 9 January 1777 though he was not even 23 years old. He was granted similar titles from Academies ranging from Berlin
to Madrid
. These appointment did not give him money though. In 1778, he went to Germany to take a teaching position as a Natural History professor at the Collegium Carolinum in Kassel
, where he met Therese Heyne
, a classical philologist
's daughter. She later became one of the first independent female writers in Germany. They married in 1785 (which was after he left Kassel) and had three children, but their marriage was not happy. From the time in Kassel on, Forster was in active correspondence with important figures of the Enlightenment
, including Lessing
, Herder
, Wieland
and Goethe
. He also initiated cooperation between the Carolinum in Kassel and the University of Göttingen where his friend Georg Christoph Lichtenberg
worked. Together, they founded and published the scientific and literary journal Göttingisches Magazin der Wissenschaften und Litteratur. Forster's closest friend, Samuel Thomas von Sömmering
, arrived in Kassel shortly after Forster, and both were soon involved with the Rosicrucian
s in Kassel.
However, by 1783 Forster saw that his involvement with the Rosicrucians not only led him away from real science, but also deeper into debt (it is said he was not good at money); for these reason Forster was happy to accept a proposal by the Polish Komisja Edukacji Narodowej
(Commission of National Education) and became Chair of Natural History at Vilnius University
in 1784. Initially, he was accepted well in Vilnius
, but he felt more and more isolated with time. Most of his contacts were still with scientists in Germany; especially notable is his dispute with Immanuel Kant
about the definition of race. In 1785, Forster travelled to Halle where he submitted his thesis about the plants of the South Pacific for a doctorate in medicine. Back in Vilnius, Forster's ambitions to build a real natural history scientific centre could not get appropriate financial support from the Polish authorities. Moreover, his famous speech on natural history in 1785 went almost unnoticed and was not printed until 1843. These events led to high tensions between him and the local community. Eventually, he broke the contract six years short of its completion as Catherine II of Russia
had given him an offer to take part in a journey around the world (the Mulovsky expedition
) for a high honorarium and a position as a professor in Saint Petersburg
. This resulted in a conflict between Forster and the influential Polish scientist Jędrzej Śniadecki
. However, the Russian proposal was withdrawn and Forster left Vilnius. He then settled in Mainz
, where he became head librarian of the University of Mainz, a position his friend Johannes von Müller
had held before, who made sure Forster would succeed him when Müller moved to the administration of Elector Friedrich Karl Josef von Erthal.
Forster regularly published essays on the scientific and discovery expeditions of his times and continued to be a very prolific translator; for instance, he wrote about Cook's
third journey to the South Pacific, and about the Bounty
expedition, as well as translating Cook's and Bligh's diaries from these journeys into German. From his London years, Forster was in contact with Sir Joseph Banks
, the initiator of the Bounty expedition and a participant in Cook's first journey. While at the University of Vilnius he wrote the article, "Neuholland und die brittische Colonie in Botany-Bay", published in the Allgemeines historisches Taschenbuch, (Berlin,Dezember 1786), a remarkably prescient essay on the future prospects of the English colony founded in New South Wales in 1788.
Another field of his interest was indology
(One of the main goals of his failed expedition to be financed by Catherine II had been to reach India
). He translated the Sanskrit
play Shakuntala
using a Latin
version provided by Sir William Jones
: this strongly influenced Herder
and triggered German interest in the culture of India.
started from Mainz on a long journey through the Southern Netherlands
, the United Provinces
, and England
, which eventually finished in Paris. The impressions from the journey were described in a three volume publication Ansichten vom Niederrhein, von Brabant, Flandern, Holland, England und Frankreich im April, Mai und Juni 1790 (Views of the Lower Rhine, from Brabant, Flanders, Holland, England, and France in April, May and June 1790), published 1791–1794. Goethe said about the book: "One wants, after one has finished reading, to start it over, and wishes to travel with such a good and knowledgeable observer." The book includes considerations in the field of the history of art
that were as influential for the discipline as A Voyage round the world was for ethnology
. Forster belongs, for example, to the first writers who gave just treatment to the Gothic architecture
of Cologne Cathedral
, which was widely perceived as "barbarian" at that time. The book conformed well to the early Romanticism
intellectual movements in German-speaking Europe.
Forster's main interest, however, was again focused on the social behaviour of people, as 15 years earlier in the Pacific. The national uprisings in Flanders
and Brabant
and of course the revolution in France
sparked his curiosity. The journey through these regions, together with the Netherlands and England, where citizens' freedoms were equally well developed, in the end helped him to sort out his own political judgements. From that time on he started to be a confident opponent of the ancien régime. Similarly to other German scholars, he welcomed the outbreak of the revolution as a clear consequence of the Enlightenment. As early as July 30, 1789, shortly after he heard about the Storming of the Bastille
, he wrote to his father-in-law, philologist Christian Gottlob Heyne
that it was beautiful to see what philosophy had nurtured in people's minds and then had realized in the state. To educate people about their rights in this way, he wrote, was after all the surest way; the rest would then result as if by itself.
on October 21, 1792. Two days later, Forster joined others in establishing a Jacobin Club
called "Freunde der Freiheit und Gleichheit" ("Friends of Freedom and Equality") in the Electoral Palace
. From early 1793 he was actively involved in organizing the Mainz Republic. This first republic located on German soil was constituted on the principles of democracy
, and encompassed areas on the left bank of the Rhine between Landau
and Bingen
. Forster became vice-president of the republic's temporary administration and a candidate in the elections to the local parliament, the Rheinisch-Deutscher Nationalkonvent (Rhenish-German National Convention). From January to March of 1793, he was an editor of Die neue Mainzer Zeitung oder Der Volksfreund (The new Mainz newspaper or The People's Friend). In his first article he wrote:
("The freedom of the press
finally reigns within these walls where the printing press
was invented.)
The freedom did not last too long, though. The Mainz Republic existed only until the retreat of the French troops in July 1793 after the Siege of Mainz.
Forster was not present in Mainz during the siege. As representatives of the Mainz National Convention, he and Adam Lux
had been sent to Paris
to apply for Mainz — which was unable to exist as an independent state — to become a part of the French Republic
. The application was accepted, but had no effect, since Mainz was conquered by Prussian and Austrian troops, and the old order was restored.
Based on a decree
by Emperor Francis II
inflicting punishments on German subjects who collaborated with the French revolutionary government, Forster was declared an outlaw in the name of the Emperor (under the Reichsacht
), a prize of 100 ducats was set on his head and he could not return to Germany. Devoid of all means of making a living and without his wife, who had stayed in Mainz with their children and her later husband Ludwig Ferdinand Huber
, he remained in Paris. At this point the revolution in Paris had entered the stage of the Reign of Terror
introduced by the Committee of Public Safety
under the rule of Maximilien Robespierre
. Forster had the opportunity to experience the difference between the promises of the revolution of happiness for all and its cruel practice. In contrast to many other German supporters of the revolution, like for instance Friedrich Schiller
, Forster did not turn back from his revolutionary ideals under the pressure of the terror regime. He viewed the events in France as a force of nature which could not be slowed down and which had to release its own energies to avoid being even more destructive.
Yet before the reign of terror reached its climax, Georg Forster died of a stroke
after a rheumatic illness in his small attic apartment at Rue des Moulins in Paris in January 1794, at the age of thirty-nine.
. He worked in Russia, England, Poland and in several German countries of his times. Finally, he finished his life in France. He worked in different milieus and travelled a lot from his youth on. It was his view that this, together with his scientific upbringing based on the principles of the Enlightenment
, gave him a wide perspective on different ethnic and national communities:
In his opinion all human beings have the same abilities with regard to reason, feelings and imagination, but these basic ingredients are used in different ways and in different environments, which gives rise to different cultures and civilisations. According to him it is obvious that the culture on Tierra del Fuego is at a lower level of development than the European culture, but he also admits that the conditions of life there are much more difficult and this gives people very little chance to develop a higher culture. Based on these opinions he was classified as one of the main examples of 18th century German cosmopolitanism
.
In contrast to the attitude expressed in these writings and to his Enlightenment background, he used insulting terms expressing prejudices against Poles in his private letters during his stay in Vilnius and in a diary from the journey through Poland, but he never published any manifestation of this attitude. These insults only became known after his death, when his private correspondence and diaries were released to the public. Since Forster's published descriptions of other nations were seen as impartial scientific observations, Forster's disparaging description of Poland in his letters and diaries was often taken at face value in Imperial and Nazi Germany, where it was used as a means of science-based support for a purported German superiority. The spreading of the "Polnische Wirtschaft" (Polish economy) stereotype is most likely due to the influence of his letters.
Forster's attitude brought him into conflict with people of different nations he encountered and made him welcome nowhere, as he was too revolutionary and antinational for Germans, proud and opposing in his dealings with Englishmen, too unconcerned about Polish science for Poles, and too insignificant politically and ignored while in France.
Some interest in Forster's life and revolutionary actions was revived in the context of the liberal sentiments leading up to the 1848 revolution
.
Remembering Forster was ostracised in the Germany of Wilhelm II and more so in the Third Reich, where interest in Forster was limited to his stance on Poland from his private letters. Interest in Forster resumed in the 1960s in East Germany, where Forster was interpreted as a champion of class struggle
. The GDR research station in Antarctica that was opened on 1987-10-25 was named after Forster. In West Germany, the search for democratic traditions in German history also lead to a more diversified picture of him in the 1970s. A scholarship program of the Alexander von Humboldt foundation for foreign scholars from developing countries is named after him. His reputation as one of first and most outstanding German ethnologists
is indisputable, and his works are seen as crucial in the development of ethnology in Germany into a separate branch of science.
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
naturalist
Natural history
Natural history is the scientific research of plants or animals, leaning more towards observational rather than experimental methods of study, and encompasses more research published in magazines than in academic journals. Grouped among the natural sciences, natural history is the systematic study...
, ethnologist
Ethnology
Ethnology is the branch of anthropology that compares and analyzes the origins, distribution, technology, religion, language, and social structure of the ethnic, racial, and/or national divisions of humanity.-Scientific discipline:Compared to ethnography, the study of single groups through direct...
, travel writer
Travel literature
Travel literature is travel writing of literary value. Travel literature typically records the experiences of an author touring a place for the pleasure of travel. An individual work is sometimes called a travelogue or itinerary. Travel literature may be cross-cultural or transnational in focus, or...
, journalist
Journalist
A journalist collects and distributes news and other information. A journalist's work is referred to as journalism.A reporter is a type of journalist who researchs, writes, and reports on information to be presented in mass media, including print media , electronic media , and digital media A...
, and revolutionary
Revolutionary
A revolutionary is a person who either actively participates in, or advocates revolution. Also, when used as an adjective, the term revolutionary refers to something that has a major, sudden impact on society or on some aspect of human endeavor.-Definition:...
. At an early age, he accompanied his father on several scientific expeditions, including James Cook
James Cook
Captain James Cook, FRS, RN was a British explorer, navigator and cartographer who ultimately rose to the rank of captain in the Royal Navy...
's second voyage to the Pacific
Pacific Ocean
The Pacific Ocean is the largest of the Earth's oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic in the north to the Southern Ocean in the south, bounded by Asia and Australia in the west, and the Americas in the east.At 165.2 million square kilometres in area, this largest division of the World...
. His report from that journey, A Voyage Round the World, contributed significantly to the ethnology of the people of Polynesia
Polynesia
Polynesia is a subregion of Oceania, made up of over 1,000 islands scattered over the central and southern Pacific Ocean. The indigenous people who inhabit the islands of Polynesia are termed Polynesians and they share many similar traits including language, culture and beliefs...
and remains a respected work. As a result of the report Forster was admitted to the Royal Society
Royal Society
The Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge, known simply as the Royal Society, is a learned society for science, and is possibly the oldest such society in existence. Founded in November 1660, it was granted a Royal Charter by King Charles II as the "Royal Society of London"...
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 traveled to Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
to seek out a discussion with the American revolutionary Benjamin Franklin
Benjamin Franklin
Dr. Benjamin Franklin was one of the Founding Fathers of the United States. A noted polymath, Franklin was a leading author, printer, political theorist, politician, postmaster, scientist, musician, inventor, satirist, civic activist, statesman, and diplomat...
in 1777. He taught natural history
Natural history
Natural history is the scientific research of plants or animals, leaning more towards observational rather than experimental methods of study, and encompasses more research published in magazines than in academic journals. Grouped among the natural sciences, natural history is the systematic study...
at the Collegium Carolinum in Kassel
Kassel
Kassel is a town located on the Fulda River in northern Hesse, Germany. It is the administrative seat of the Kassel Regierungsbezirk and the Kreis of the same name and has approximately 195,000 inhabitants.- History :...
(1778–1784), and later at Academy of Vilna (Vilnius University)
Vilnius University
Vilnius University is the oldest university in the Baltic states and one of the oldest in Eastern Europe. It is also the largest university in Lithuania....
(1784–1787). He then (1788) became head librarian
Librarian
A librarian is an information professional trained in library and information science, which is the organization and management of information services or materials for those with information needs...
at the University of Mainz. Most of his scientific work during this time consisted of essays on botany
Botany
Botany, plant science, or plant biology is a branch of biology that involves the scientific study of plant life. Traditionally, botany also included the study of fungi, algae and viruses...
and ethnology, but he also prefaced and translated many books about travels and explorations, including a German translation of Cook's diaries.
Forster was a central figure of the Enlightenment
Age of Enlightenment
The Age of Enlightenment was an elite cultural movement of intellectuals in 18th century Europe that sought to mobilize the power of reason in order to reform society and advance knowledge. It promoted intellectual interchange and opposed intolerance and abuses in church and state...
in Germany, and corresponded with most of its adherents, including his close friend Georg Christoph Lichtenberg
Georg Christoph Lichtenberg
Georg Christoph Lichtenberg was a German scientist, satirist and Anglophile. As a scientist, he was the first to hold a professorship explicitly dedicated to experimental physics in Germany...
. His ideas and personality influenced Alexander von Humboldt
Alexander von Humboldt
Friedrich Wilhelm Heinrich Alexander Freiherr von Humboldt was a German naturalist and explorer, and the younger brother of the Prussian minister, philosopher and linguist Wilhelm von Humboldt...
, one of the great scientists of the 19th century. When the French
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
took control of Mainz
Mainz
Mainz under the Holy Roman Empire, and previously was a Roman fort city which commanded the west bank of the Rhine and formed part of the northernmost frontier of the Roman Empire...
in 1792, Forster became one of the founders of the Jacobin Club
Jacobin Club
The Jacobin Club was the most famous and influential political club in the development of the French Revolution, so-named because of the Dominican convent where they met, located in the Rue St. Jacques , Paris. The club originated as the Club Benthorn, formed at Versailles from a group of Breton...
there and went on to play a leading role in the Mainz Republic, the earliest republican
Republicanism
Republicanism is the ideology of governing a nation as a republic, where the head of state is appointed by means other than heredity, often elections. The exact meaning of republicanism varies depending on the cultural and historical context...
state in Germany. During July 1793 and while he was in Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
as a delegate of the young Mainz Republic, Prussian
Kingdom of Prussia
The Kingdom of Prussia was a German kingdom from 1701 to 1918. Until the defeat of Germany in World War I, it comprised almost two-thirds of the area of the German Empire...
and Austrian
Habsburg Monarchy
The Habsburg Monarchy covered the territories ruled by the junior Austrian branch of the House of Habsburg , and then by the successor House of Habsburg-Lorraine , between 1526 and 1867/1918. The Imperial capital was Vienna, except from 1583 to 1611, when it was moved to Prague...
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.
Early life
Forster was born in the small village of NassenhubenMokry Dwór, Pomeranian Voivodeship
Mokry Dwór is a village in the administrative district of Gmina Pruszcz Gdański, within Gdańsk County, Pomeranian Voivodeship, in northern Poland. It lies approximately north-east of Pruszcz Gdański and south-east of the regional capital Gdańsk....
(Mokry Dwór) near Danzig
Gdansk
Gdańsk is a Polish city on the Baltic coast, at the centre of the country's fourth-largest metropolitan area.The city lies on the southern edge of Gdańsk Bay , in a conurbation with the city of Gdynia, spa town of Sopot, and suburban communities, which together form a metropolitan area called the...
(Gdańsk), in the Polish province of Royal Prussia
Royal Prussia
Royal Prussia was a Region of the Kingdom of Poland and of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth . Polish Prussia included Pomerelia, Chełmno Land , Malbork Voivodeship , Gdańsk , Toruń , and Elbląg . It is distinguished from Ducal Prussia...
.
He was the oldest of seven surviving children of Johann Reinhold Forster
Johann Reinhold Forster
Johann Reinhold Forster was a German Lutheran pastor and naturalist of partial Scottish descent who made contributions to the early ornithology of Europe and North America...
and Justina Elisabeth (née Nicolai). His father was a naturalist, scientist and a Reformed
Reformed churches
The Reformed churches are a group of Protestant denominations characterized by Calvinist doctrines. They are descended from the Swiss Reformation inaugurated by Huldrych Zwingli but developed more coherently by Martin Bucer, Heinrich Bullinger and especially John Calvin...
pastor
Pastor
The word pastor usually refers to an ordained leader of a Christian congregation. When used as an ecclesiastical styling or title, this role may be abbreviated to "Pr." or often "Ps"....
. In 1765, the Russian
Russian Empire
The Russian Empire was a state that existed from 1721 until the Russian Revolution of 1917. It was the successor to the Tsardom of Russia and the predecessor of the Soviet Union...
tsarina
Tsaritsa
Tsaritsa , formerly spelled czaritsa , is the title of a female autocratic ruler of Bulgaria or Russia, or the title of a tsar's wife....
Catherine II
Catherine II of Russia
Catherine II, also known as Catherine the Great , Empress of Russia, was born in Stettin, Pomerania, Prussia on as Sophie Friederike Auguste von Anhalt-Zerbst-Dornburg...
gave the pastor an assignment to travel in Russia on a research journey and investigate the situation of a German colony
Volga German
The Volga Germans were ethnic Germans living along the River Volga in the region of southern European Russia around Saratov and to the south. Recruited as immigrants to Russia in the 18th century, they were allowed to maintain German culture, language, traditions and churches: Lutherans, Reformed,...
on the Volga River
Volga River
The Volga is the largest river in Europe in terms of length, discharge, and watershed. It flows through central Russia, and is widely viewed as the national river of Russia. Out of the twenty largest cities of Russia, eleven, including the capital Moscow, are situated in the Volga's drainage...
. Georg, then ten years old, joined him. They reached the Kirghiz
Kyrgyzstan
Kyrgyzstan , officially the Kyrgyz Republic is one of the world's six independent Turkic states . Located in Central Asia, landlocked and mountainous, Kyrgyzstan is bordered by Kazakhstan to the north, Uzbekistan to the west, Tajikistan to the southwest and China to the east...
steppe
Steppe
In physical geography, steppe is an ecoregion, in the montane grasslands and shrublands and temperate grasslands, savannas, and shrublands biomes, characterized by grassland plains without trees apart from those near rivers and lakes...
on the lower Volga. On the journey, they discovered several new species. The young Forster learned there how to conduct scientific research and how to practice cartography
Cartography
Cartography is the study and practice of making maps. Combining science, aesthetics, and technique, cartography builds on the premise that reality can be modeled in ways that communicate spatial information effectively.The fundamental problems of traditional cartography are to:*Set the map's...
. He also became fluent in Russian
Russian language
Russian is a Slavic language used primarily in Russia, Belarus, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan. It is an unofficial but widely spoken language in Ukraine, Moldova, Latvia, Turkmenistan and Estonia and, to a lesser extent, the other countries that were once constituent republics...
.
The report from this journey, which included sharp criticism of the governor of Saratov
Saratov
-Modern Saratov:The Saratov region is highly industrialized, due in part to the rich in natural and industrial resources of the area. The region is also one of the more important and largest cultural and scientific centres in Russia...
, was not well-received at court, and the Forsters claimed they had not obtained fair payment for their work and had to move house. They chose to settle in England in 1766. The father took up teaching at the Dissenter
Dissenter
The term dissenter , labels one who disagrees in matters of opinion, belief, etc. In the social and religious history of England and Wales, however, it refers particularly to a member of a religious body who has, for one reason or another, separated from the Established Church.Originally, the term...
's Academy in Warrington
Warrington
Warrington is a town, borough and unitary authority area of Cheshire, England. It stands on the banks of the River Mersey, which is tidal to the west of the weir at Howley. It lies 16 miles east of Liverpool, 19 miles west of Manchester and 8 miles south of St Helens...
and also translation work. The young Forster, only thirteen years old, published his first book: an English translation of Lomonosov
Mikhail Lomonosov
Mikhail Vasilyevich Lomonosov was a Russian polymath, scientist and writer, who made important contributions to literature, education, and science. Among his discoveries was the atmosphere of Venus. His spheres of science were natural science, chemistry, physics, mineralogy, history, art,...
's history of Russia, which was well-received in scientific circles.
Around the world with Captain Cook
Royal Society
The Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge, known simply as the Royal Society, is a learned society for science, and is possibly the oldest such society in existence. Founded in November 1660, it was granted a Royal Charter by King Charles II as the "Royal Society of London"...
. This and the withdrawal of Joseph Banks
Joseph Banks
Sir Joseph Banks, 1st Baronet, GCB, PRS was an English naturalist, botanist and patron of the natural sciences. He took part in Captain James Cook's first great voyage . Banks is credited with the introduction to the Western world of eucalyptus, acacia, mimosa and the genus named after him,...
resulted in his invitation by the British
Kingdom of Great Britain
The former Kingdom of Great Britain, sometimes described as the 'United Kingdom of Great Britain', That the Two Kingdoms of Scotland and England, shall upon the 1st May next ensuing the date hereof, and forever after, be United into One Kingdom by the Name of GREAT BRITAIN. was a sovereign...
admiralty
Admiralty
The Admiralty was formerly the authority in the Kingdom of England, and later in the United Kingdom, responsible for the command of the Royal Navy...
to join James Cook
James Cook
Captain James Cook, FRS, RN was a British explorer, navigator and cartographer who ultimately rose to the rank of captain in the Royal Navy...
's second expedition
Second voyage of James Cook
The second voyage of James Cook 1772–1775, commissioned by the British government with advice from the Royal Society, was designed to circumnavigate the globe as far south as possible to finally determine whether there was any great southern landmass, or Terra Australis...
to the Pacific
Pacific Ocean
The Pacific Ocean is the largest of the Earth's oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic in the north to the Southern Ocean in the south, bounded by Asia and Australia in the west, and the Americas in the east.At 165.2 million square kilometres in area, this largest division of the World...
(1772–1775). Georg Forster joined his father in the expedition again and was appointed as a draughtsman
Technical drawing
Technical drawing, also known as drafting or draughting, is the act and discipline of composing plans that visually communicate how something functions or has to be constructed.Drafting is the language of industry....
to his father. Johann Forster's task was to work on a scientific report from the journey that was to be published after their return.
They embarked on the HMS Resolution
HMS Resolution (Cook)
HMS Resolution was a sloop of the Royal Navy, and the ship in which Captain James Cook made his second and third voyages of exploration in the Pacific...
on July 13, 1772 in Plymouth
Plymouth
Plymouth is a city and unitary authority area on the coast of Devon, England, about south-west of London. It is built between the mouths of the rivers Plym to the east and Tamar to the west, where they join Plymouth Sound...
. The route led first to the South Atlantic
Atlantic Ocean
The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's oceanic divisions. With a total area of about , it covers approximately 20% of the Earth's surface and about 26% of its water surface area...
, then through the Indian Ocean
Indian Ocean
The Indian Ocean is the third largest of the world's oceanic divisions, covering approximately 20% of the water on the Earth's surface. It is bounded on the north by the Indian Subcontinent and Arabian Peninsula ; on the west by eastern Africa; on the east by Indochina, the Sunda Islands, and...
and the Southern Ocean
Southern Ocean
The Southern Ocean comprises the southernmost waters of the World Ocean, generally taken to be south of 60°S latitude and encircling Antarctica. It is usually regarded as the fourth-largest of the five principal oceanic divisions...
to the island of Polynesia
Polynesia
Polynesia is a subregion of Oceania, made up of over 1,000 islands scattered over the central and southern Pacific Ocean. The indigenous people who inhabit the islands of Polynesia are termed Polynesians and they share many similar traits including language, culture and beliefs...
and finally around Cape Horn
Cape Horn
Cape Horn is the southernmost headland of the Tierra del Fuego archipelago of southern Chile, and is located on the small Hornos Island...
back to England, where the expedition arrived on July 30, 1775. During the three-year journey, the explorers visited New Zealand
New Zealand
New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...
, the Tonga
Tonga
Tonga, officially the Kingdom of Tonga , is a state and an archipelago in the South Pacific Ocean, comprising 176 islands scattered over of ocean in the South Pacific...
islands, New Caledonia
New Caledonia
New Caledonia is a special collectivity of France located in the southwest Pacific Ocean, east of Australia and about from Metropolitan France. The archipelago, part of the Melanesia subregion, includes the main island of Grande Terre, the Loyalty Islands, the Belep archipelago, the Isle of...
, Tahiti
Tahiti
Tahiti is the largest island in the Windward group of French Polynesia, located in the archipelago of the Society Islands in the southern Pacific Ocean. It is the economic, cultural and political centre of French Polynesia. The island was formed from volcanic activity and is high and mountainous...
, the Marquesas Islands
Marquesas Islands
The Marquesas Islands enana and Te Fenua `Enata , both meaning "The Land of Men") are a group of volcanic islands in French Polynesia, an overseas collectivity of France in the southern Pacific Ocean. The Marquesas are located at 9° 00S, 139° 30W...
and Easter Island
Easter Island
Easter Island is a Polynesian island in the southeastern Pacific Ocean, at the southeasternmost point of the Polynesian triangle. A special territory of Chile that was annexed in 1888, Easter Island is famous for its 887 extant monumental statues, called moai, created by the early Rapanui people...
. They went further south than anybody before them, almost discovering Antarctica. The journey conclusively disproved the Terra Australis
Terra Australis
Terra Australis, Terra Australis Ignota or Terra Australis Incognita was a hypothesized continent appearing on European maps from the 15th to the 18th century...
Incognita theory, which claimed there was a big, habitable continent in the South.
Supervised by his father, Georg Forster first took up the studies of zoology
Zoology
Zoology |zoölogy]]), is the branch of biology that relates to the animal kingdom, including the structure, embryology, evolution, classification, habits, and distribution of all animals, both living and extinct...
and botanics of the southern seas, mostly by drawing animals and plants. However, Georg also pursued his own interests which led to completely independent explorations in comparative geography
Geography
Geography is the science that studies the lands, features, inhabitants, and phenomena of Earth. A literal translation would be "to describe or write about the Earth". The first person to use the word "geography" was Eratosthenes...
and ethnology
Ethnology
Ethnology is the branch of anthropology that compares and analyzes the origins, distribution, technology, religion, language, and social structure of the ethnic, racial, and/or national divisions of humanity.-Scientific discipline:Compared to ethnography, the study of single groups through direct...
. He quickly learned the languages of the Polynesian islands. His reports on the people of Polynesia are well regarded even to today, as they show Forster's description of the inhabitants of the southern islands with empathy, sympathy and largely without Western
Western culture
Western culture, sometimes equated with Western civilization or European civilization, refers to cultures of European origin and is used very broadly to refer to a heritage of social norms, ethical values, traditional customs, religious beliefs, political systems, and specific artifacts and...
or Christian
Christianity
Christianity is a monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus as presented in canonical gospels and other New Testament writings...
prejudices.
Louis Antoine de Bougainville
Louis-Antoine, Comte de Bougainville was a French admiral and explorer. A contemporary of James Cook, he took part in the French and Indian War and the unsuccessful French attempt to defend Canada from Britain...
, whose reports from a journey to Tahiti a few years earlier had initiated uncritical noble savage
Noble savage
The term noble savage , expresses the concept an idealized indigene, outsider , and refers to the literary stock character of the same...
romanticism, Forster had a very sophisticated picture of the societies
Society
A society, or a human society, is a group of people related to each other through persistent relations, or a large social grouping sharing the same geographical or virtual territory, subject to the same political authority and dominant cultural expectations...
of the South Pacific islands. He described various social structure
Social structure
Social structure is a term used in the social sciences to refer to patterned social arrangements in society that are both emergent from and determinant of the actions of the individuals. The usage of the term "social structure" has changed over time and may reflect the various levels of analysis...
s and religion
Religion
Religion is a collection of cultural systems, belief systems, and worldviews that establishes symbols that relate humanity to spirituality and, sometimes, to moral values. Many religions have narratives, symbols, traditions and sacred histories that are intended to give meaning to life or to...
s that he encountered on the Society Islands
Society Islands
The Society Islands are a group of islands in the South Pacific Ocean. They are politically part of French Polynesia. The archipelago is generally believed to have been named by Captain James Cook in honor of the Royal Society, the sponsor of the first British scientific survey of the islands;...
, Easter Island
Easter Island
Easter Island is a Polynesian island in the southeastern Pacific Ocean, at the southeasternmost point of the Polynesian triangle. A special territory of Chile that was annexed in 1888, Easter Island is famous for its 887 extant monumental statues, called moai, created by the early Rapanui people...
and in Tonga
Tonga
Tonga, officially the Kingdom of Tonga , is a state and an archipelago in the South Pacific Ocean, comprising 176 islands scattered over of ocean in the South Pacific...
and New Zealand
New Zealand
New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...
, and ascribed this diversity to the difference in living conditions of these people. At the same time he also observed that the languages of these fairly widely scattered islands are quite similar. About the inhabitants of the Nomuka
Nomuka
Nomuka is a small island in the southern part of the Haapai group of islands in the Kingdom of Tonga. It is part of the Nomuka Group of islands, also called the Otu Muomua....
islands (in the Ha'apai island group of present-day Tonga), he wrote that their languages, vehicles, weapons, furniture, clothes, tattoos, style of beard, in short all of their being matched perfectly with what he had already seen while studying tribes on Tongatapu
Tongatapu
Tongatapu is the main island of the Kingdom of Tonga and the location of its capital Nukualofa. It is located in Tonga's southern island group, to which it gives its name, and is the country's most populous island, with approximately 71,260 residents , 70.5% of the national population...
. However, he wrote, "we could not observe any subordination among them, though this had strongly characterised the natives of Tonga-Tabboo, who seemed to descend even to servility in their obeisance to the king."
The ethnographical
Ethnography
Ethnography is a qualitative method aimed to learn and understand cultural phenomena which reflect the knowledge and system of meanings guiding the life of a cultural group...
items that were collected by Georg and Reinhold Forster are currently presented as the Cook-Forster-Sammlung (Cook-Forster Collection) in the Sammlung für Völkerkunde
Sammlung für Völkerkunde
The Sammlung für Völkerkunde at the Institute of Cultural and Social Anthropology of the University of Göttingen is one of Germany's most important ethnological collections...
anthropological collection in Göttingen
Göttingen
Göttingen is a university town in Lower Saxony, Germany. It is the capital of the district of Göttingen. The Leine river runs through the town. In 2006 the population was 129,686.-General information:...
. Another collection of items collected by the Forsters is on display at the Pitt Rivers Museum
Pitt Rivers Museum
The Pitt Rivers Museum is a museum displaying the archaeological and anthropological collections of the University of Oxford in Oxford, England. The museum is located to the east of the Oxford University Museum of Natural History, and can only be accessed through that building.The museum was...
in Oxford.
The journey was rich in scientific results. However, the relationship between the Forsters and Cook and his officers was often problematic, due to the elder Forster's fractious temperament as well as Cook's refusal to allow more time for botanizing and other scientific observation. Cook refused scientists on his third journey after his experiences with the Forsters.
A founder of modern travel literature
These conflicts continued after the journey with the problem of who should write the official account of the travels. Lord SandwichJohn Montagu, 4th Earl of Sandwich
John Montagu, 4th Earl of Sandwich, PC, FRS was a British statesman who succeeded his grandfather, Edward Montagu, 3rd Earl of Sandwich, as the Earl of Sandwich in 1729, at the age of ten...
, although willing to pay the promised money, was irritated with Johann Reinhold Forster's opening chapter and tried to have him edited. However, Forster did not want to have his writing corrected "like a theme of a School-boy," and stubbornly refused any compromise in this direction. As a result, the official account was written by Cook, and the Forsters were deprived of the right to compile the account and did not obtain payment for their work. During the negotiations, the younger Forster decided to release an unofficial account of their travels. In 1777, the book A Voyage round the World in His Britannic Majesty's Sloop Resolution, Commanded by Capt. James Cook, during the Years, 1772, 3, 4, and 5 was published. This report was the first account of Cook's second voyage (it appeared six weeks before the official publication) and was intended for the general public. The English version and his own translation into German (published 1778–1780) earned the young author real fame. The poet Christoph Martin Wieland
Christoph Martin Wieland
Christoph Martin Wieland was a German poet and writer.- Biography :He was born at Oberholzheim , which then belonged to the Free Imperial City of Biberach an der Riss in the south-east of the modern-day state of Baden-Württemberg...
praised the book as the most important one of his time, and even today it remains one of the most important journey descriptions ever written. The book also had a significant impact on German literature, culture and science. For instance, Alexander von Humboldt
Alexander von Humboldt
Friedrich Wilhelm Heinrich Alexander Freiherr von Humboldt was a German naturalist and explorer, and the younger brother of the Prussian minister, philosopher and linguist Wilhelm von Humboldt...
was greatly influenced by it and it inspired many ethnologists
Ethnology
Ethnology is the branch of anthropology that compares and analyzes the origins, distribution, technology, religion, language, and social structure of the ethnic, racial, and/or national divisions of humanity.-Scientific discipline:Compared to ethnography, the study of single groups through direct...
of later times.
Forster wrote well-polished German prose, which was not only scientifically accurate and objective, but also exciting and easy to read. This was different from conventional travel literature
Travel literature
Travel literature is travel writing of literary value. Travel literature typically records the experiences of an author touring a place for the pleasure of travel. An individual work is sometimes called a travelogue or itinerary. Travel literature may be cross-cultural or transnational in focus, or...
of the time, insofar as it present more than a mere collection of data - it also demonstrated coherent, colourful and reliable ethnographical
Ethnography
Ethnography is a qualitative method aimed to learn and understand cultural phenomena which reflect the knowledge and system of meanings guiding the life of a cultural group...
facts that resulted from detailed and sympathetic observation. He often interrupted the description to enrich it with philosophical
Philosophy
Philosophy is the study of general and fundamental problems, such as those connected with existence, knowledge, values, reason, mind, and language. Philosophy is distinguished from other ways of addressing such problems by its critical, generally systematic approach and its reliance on rational...
remarks about his observations. His main focus was always on the people he encountered: their behaviour, their customs, habits, religions and forms of social organisation. In A Voyage round the World he even presented the songs sung by the people of Polynesia
Polynesia
Polynesia is a subregion of Oceania, made up of over 1,000 islands scattered over the central and southern Pacific Ocean. The indigenous people who inhabit the islands of Polynesia are termed Polynesians and they share many similar traits including language, culture and beliefs...
, complete with lyrics and notation
Musical notation
Music notation or musical notation is any system that represents aurally perceived music, through the use of written symbols.-History:...
. The book is one of the most important sources concerning the societies of the Southern Pacific from the times before European influence had become significant.
Both Forsters also published descriptions of their South Pacific travels in the Magazin von merkwürdigen neuen Reisebeschreibungen ("Magazine of strange new travel accounts") in Berlin, and Georg published a translation of "A Voyage to the South Sea, by Lieutenant William Bligh
William Bligh
Vice Admiral William Bligh FRS RN was an officer of the British Royal Navy and a colonial administrator. A notorious mutiny occurred during his command of HMAV Bounty in 1789; Bligh and his loyal men made a remarkable voyage to Timor, after being set adrift in the Bounty's launch by the mutineers...
, London 1792" in 1791–1793.
Forster at universities
The publication of A Voyage round the World brought Forster scientific recognition all over Europe. The respectable Royal SocietyRoyal Society
The Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge, known simply as the Royal Society, is a learned society for science, and is possibly the oldest such society in existence. Founded in November 1660, it was granted a Royal Charter by King Charles II as the "Royal Society of London"...
made him a member on 9 January 1777 though he was not even 23 years old. He was granted similar titles from Academies ranging from 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...
to Madrid
Madrid
Madrid is the capital and largest city of Spain. The population of the city is roughly 3.3 million and the entire population of the Madrid metropolitan area is calculated to be 6.271 million. It is the third largest city in the European Union, after London and Berlin, and its metropolitan...
. These appointment did not give him money though. In 1778, he went to Germany to take a teaching position as a Natural History professor at the Collegium Carolinum in Kassel
Kassel
Kassel is a town located on the Fulda River in northern Hesse, Germany. It is the administrative seat of the Kassel Regierungsbezirk and the Kreis of the same name and has approximately 195,000 inhabitants.- History :...
, where he met Therese Heyne
Therese Huber
-Life:Therese Huber was born Therese Heyne in Göttingen as daughter of the influential classical philologist Christian Gottlob Heyne. She married traveller and ethnologist Georg Forster in 1785. They lived in Wilno 1785–1787 and in Göttingen and Mainz 1788–1792 and had three children, but an...
, a classical philologist
Philology
Philology is the study of language in written historical sources; it is a combination of literary studies, history and linguistics.Classical philology is the philology of Greek and Classical Latin...
's daughter. She later became one of the first independent female writers in Germany. They married in 1785 (which was after he left Kassel) and had three children, but their marriage was not happy. From the time in Kassel on, Forster was in active correspondence with important figures of the Enlightenment
Age of Enlightenment
The Age of Enlightenment was an elite cultural movement of intellectuals in 18th century Europe that sought to mobilize the power of reason in order to reform society and advance knowledge. It promoted intellectual interchange and opposed intolerance and abuses in church and state...
, including Lessing
Gotthold Ephraim Lessing
Gotthold Ephraim Lessing was a German writer, philosopher, dramatist, publicist, and art critic, and one of the most outstanding representatives of the Enlightenment era. His plays and theoretical writings substantially influenced the development of German literature...
, Herder
Johann Gottfried Herder
Johann Gottfried von Herder was a German philosopher, theologian, poet, and literary critic. He is associated with the periods of Enlightenment, Sturm und Drang, and Weimar Classicism.-Biography:...
, Wieland
Christoph Martin Wieland
Christoph Martin Wieland was a German poet and writer.- Biography :He was born at Oberholzheim , which then belonged to the Free Imperial City of Biberach an der Riss in the south-east of the modern-day state of Baden-Württemberg...
and Goethe
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe was a German writer, pictorial artist, biologist, theoretical physicist, and polymath. He is considered the supreme genius of modern German literature. His works span the fields of poetry, drama, prose, philosophy, and science. His Faust has been called the greatest long...
. He also initiated cooperation between the Carolinum in Kassel and the University of Göttingen where his friend Georg Christoph Lichtenberg
Georg Christoph Lichtenberg
Georg Christoph Lichtenberg was a German scientist, satirist and Anglophile. As a scientist, he was the first to hold a professorship explicitly dedicated to experimental physics in Germany...
worked. Together, they founded and published the scientific and literary journal Göttingisches Magazin der Wissenschaften und Litteratur. Forster's closest friend, Samuel Thomas von Sömmering
Samuel Thomas von Sömmering
Samuel Thomas von Sömmerring was a German physician, anatomist, anthropologist, paleontologist and inventor. Sömmerring discovered the macula in the retina of the human eye...
, arrived in Kassel shortly after Forster, and both were soon involved with the Rosicrucian
Rosicrucian
Rosicrucianism is a philosophical secret society, said to have been founded in late medieval Germany by Christian Rosenkreuz. It holds a doctrine or theology "built on esoteric truths of the ancient past", which, "concealed from the average man, provide insight into nature, the physical universe...
s in Kassel.
However, by 1783 Forster saw that his involvement with the Rosicrucians not only led him away from real science, but also deeper into debt (it is said he was not good at money); for these reason Forster was happy to accept a proposal by the Polish Komisja Edukacji Narodowej
Komisja Edukacji Narodowej
The Commission of National Education was the central educational authority in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, created by the Sejm and king Stanisław August Poniatowski on October 14, 1773...
(Commission of National Education) and became Chair of Natural History at Vilnius University
Vilnius University
Vilnius University is the oldest university in the Baltic states and one of the oldest in Eastern Europe. It is also the largest university in Lithuania....
in 1784. Initially, he was accepted well in Vilnius
Vilnius
Vilnius is the capital of Lithuania, and its largest city, with a population of 560,190 as of 2010. It is the seat of the Vilnius city municipality and of the Vilnius district municipality. It is also the capital of Vilnius County...
, but he felt more and more isolated with time. Most of his contacts were still with scientists in Germany; especially notable is his dispute with Immanuel Kant
Immanuel Kant
Immanuel Kant was a German philosopher from Königsberg , researching, lecturing and writing on philosophy and anthropology at the end of the 18th Century Enlightenment....
about the definition of race. In 1785, Forster travelled to Halle where he submitted his thesis about the plants of the South Pacific for a doctorate in medicine. Back in Vilnius, Forster's ambitions to build a real natural history scientific centre could not get appropriate financial support from the Polish authorities. Moreover, his famous speech on natural history in 1785 went almost unnoticed and was not printed until 1843. These events led to high tensions between him and the local community. Eventually, he broke the contract six years short of its completion as Catherine II of Russia
Catherine II of Russia
Catherine II, also known as Catherine the Great , Empress of Russia, was born in Stettin, Pomerania, Prussia on as Sophie Friederike Auguste von Anhalt-Zerbst-Dornburg...
had given him an offer to take part in a journey around the world (the Mulovsky expedition
Mulovsky expedition
The Mulovsky expedition was a Russian naval expedition planned by Catherine II of Russia, to be led by Captain Grigory Ivanovich Mulovsky Григорiй Ивановичъ Муловскiй...
) for a high honorarium and a position as a professor in Saint Petersburg
Saint Petersburg
Saint Petersburg is a city and a federal subject of Russia located on the Neva River at the head of the Gulf of Finland on the Baltic Sea...
. This resulted in a conflict between Forster and the influential Polish scientist Jędrzej Śniadecki
Jedrzej Sniadecki
Jędrzej Śniadecki was a Polish writer, physician, chemist and biologist. His achievements include the creation of modern Polish terminology in the field of chemistry.-Life and work:...
. However, the Russian proposal was withdrawn and Forster left Vilnius. He then settled in Mainz
Mainz
Mainz under the Holy Roman Empire, and previously was a Roman fort city which commanded the west bank of the Rhine and formed part of the northernmost frontier of the Roman Empire...
, where he became head librarian of the University of Mainz, a position his friend Johannes von Müller
Johannes von Müller
Johannes von Müller was a Swiss historian.-Biography:He was born at Schaffhausen, where his father was a clergyman and rector of the gymnasium. In his youth, his maternal grandfather, Johannes Schoop , roused in him an interest in the history of his country...
had held before, who made sure Forster would succeed him when Müller moved to the administration of Elector Friedrich Karl Josef von Erthal.
Forster regularly published essays on the scientific and discovery expeditions of his times and continued to be a very prolific translator; for instance, he wrote about Cook's
James Cook
Captain James Cook, FRS, RN was a British explorer, navigator and cartographer who ultimately rose to the rank of captain in the Royal Navy...
third journey to the South Pacific, and about the Bounty
Mutiny on the Bounty
The mutiny on the Bounty was a mutiny that occurred aboard the British Royal Navy ship HMS Bounty on 28 April 1789, and has been commemorated by several books, films, and popular songs, many of which take considerable liberties with the facts. The mutiny was led by Fletcher Christian against the...
expedition, as well as translating Cook's and Bligh's diaries from these journeys into German. From his London years, Forster was in contact with Sir Joseph Banks
Joseph Banks
Sir Joseph Banks, 1st Baronet, GCB, PRS was an English naturalist, botanist and patron of the natural sciences. He took part in Captain James Cook's first great voyage . Banks is credited with the introduction to the Western world of eucalyptus, acacia, mimosa and the genus named after him,...
, the initiator of the Bounty expedition and a participant in Cook's first journey. While at the University of Vilnius he wrote the article, "Neuholland und die brittische Colonie in Botany-Bay", published in the Allgemeines historisches Taschenbuch, (Berlin,Dezember 1786), a remarkably prescient essay on the future prospects of the English colony founded in New South Wales in 1788.
Another field of his interest was indology
Indology
Indology is the academic study of the history and cultures, languages, and literature of the Indian subcontinent , and as such is a subset of Asian studies....
(One of the main goals of his failed expedition to be financed by Catherine II had been to reach India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
). He translated the Sanskrit
Sanskrit
Sanskrit , is a historical Indo-Aryan language and the primary liturgical language of Hinduism, Jainism and Buddhism.Buddhism: besides Pali, see Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit Today, it is listed as one of the 22 scheduled languages of India and is an official language of the state of Uttarakhand...
play Shakuntala
Shakuntala
In Hindu mythology Shakuntala is the wife of Dushyanta and the mother of Emperor Bharata. Her story is told in the Mahabharata and dramatized by Kalidasa in his play Abhijñānaśākuntalam .-Etymology:Rishi Kanva found her in forest as a baby surrounded by Shakunta birds...
using a Latin
Latin
Latin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. It, along with most European languages, is a descendant of the ancient Proto-Indo-European language. Although it is considered a dead language, a number of scholars and members of the Christian clergy speak it fluently, and...
version provided by Sir William Jones
William Jones (philologist)
Sir William Jones was an English philologist and scholar of ancient India, particularly known for his proposition of the existence of a relationship among Indo-European languages...
: this strongly influenced Herder
Johann Gottfried Herder
Johann Gottfried von Herder was a German philosopher, theologian, poet, and literary critic. He is associated with the periods of Enlightenment, Sturm und Drang, and Weimar Classicism.-Biography:...
and triggered German interest in the culture of India.
Views from the Lower Rhine
In the spring of 1790, Forster and the young Alexander von HumboldtAlexander von Humboldt
Friedrich Wilhelm Heinrich Alexander Freiherr von Humboldt was a German naturalist and explorer, and the younger brother of the Prussian minister, philosopher and linguist Wilhelm von Humboldt...
started from Mainz on a long journey through the Southern Netherlands
Southern Netherlands
Southern Netherlands were a part of the Low Countries controlled by Spain , Austria and annexed by France...
, the United Provinces
Dutch Republic
The Dutch Republic — officially known as the Republic of the Seven United Netherlands , the Republic of the United Netherlands, or the Republic of the Seven United Provinces — was a republic in Europe existing from 1581 to 1795, preceding the Batavian Republic and ultimately...
, and England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
, which eventually finished in Paris. The impressions from the journey were described in a three volume publication Ansichten vom Niederrhein, von Brabant, Flandern, Holland, England und Frankreich im April, Mai und Juni 1790 (Views of the Lower Rhine, from Brabant, Flanders, Holland, England, and France in April, May and June 1790), published 1791–1794. Goethe said about the book: "One wants, after one has finished reading, to start it over, and wishes to travel with such a good and knowledgeable observer." The book includes considerations in the field of the history of art
History of art
The History of art refers to visual art which may be defined as any activity or product made by humans in a visual form for aesthetical or communicative purposes, expressing ideas, emotions or, in general, a worldview...
that were as influential for the discipline as A Voyage round the world was for ethnology
Ethnology
Ethnology is the branch of anthropology that compares and analyzes the origins, distribution, technology, religion, language, and social structure of the ethnic, racial, and/or national divisions of humanity.-Scientific discipline:Compared to ethnography, the study of single groups through direct...
. Forster belongs, for example, to the first writers who gave just treatment to the Gothic architecture
Gothic architecture
Gothic architecture is a style of architecture that flourished during the high and late medieval period. It evolved from Romanesque architecture and was succeeded by Renaissance architecture....
of Cologne Cathedral
Cologne Cathedral
Cologne Cathedral is a Roman Catholic church in Cologne, Germany. It is the seat of the Archbishop of Cologne and the administration of the Archdiocese of Cologne. It is renowned monument of German Catholicism and Gothic architecture and is a World Heritage Site...
, which was widely perceived as "barbarian" at that time. The book conformed well to the early Romanticism
Romanticism
Romanticism was an artistic, literary and intellectual movement that originated in the second half of the 18th century in Europe, and gained strength in reaction to the Industrial Revolution...
intellectual movements in German-speaking Europe.
Forster's main interest, however, was again focused on the social behaviour of people, as 15 years earlier in the Pacific. The national uprisings in Flanders
Flanders
Flanders is the community of the Flemings but also one of the institutions in Belgium, and a geographical region located in parts of present-day Belgium, France and the Netherlands. "Flanders" can also refer to the northern part of Belgium that contains Brussels, Bruges, Ghent and Antwerp...
and Brabant
Duchy of Brabant
The Duchy of Brabant was a historical region in the Low Countries. Its territory consisted essentially of the three modern-day Belgian provinces of Flemish Brabant, Walloon Brabant and Antwerp, the Brussels-Capital Region and most of the present-day Dutch province of North Brabant.The Flag of...
and of course the revolution in France
French Revolution
The French Revolution , sometimes distinguished as the 'Great French Revolution' , was a period of radical social and political upheaval in France and Europe. The absolute monarchy that had ruled France for centuries collapsed in three years...
sparked his curiosity. The journey through these regions, together with the Netherlands and England, where citizens' freedoms were equally well developed, in the end helped him to sort out his own political judgements. From that time on he started to be a confident opponent of the ancien régime. Similarly to other German scholars, he welcomed the outbreak of the revolution as a clear consequence of the Enlightenment. As early as July 30, 1789, shortly after he heard about the Storming of the Bastille
Storming of the Bastille
The storming of the Bastille occurred in Paris on the morning of 14 July 1789. The medieval fortress and prison in Paris known as the Bastille represented royal authority in the centre of Paris. While the prison only contained seven inmates at the time of its storming, its fall was the flashpoint...
, he wrote to his father-in-law, philologist Christian Gottlob Heyne
Christian Gottlob Heyne
Christian Gottlob Heyne was a German classical scholar and archaeologist as well as long-time director of the Göttingen State and University Library.-Biography:He was born in Chemnitz, Electorate of Saxony...
that it was beautiful to see what philosophy had nurtured in people's minds and then had realized in the state. To educate people about their rights in this way, he wrote, was after all the surest way; the rest would then result as if by itself.
Foundation of the Mainz Republic
The French revolutionary army under General Custine gained control over MainzMainz
Mainz under the Holy Roman Empire, and previously was a Roman fort city which commanded the west bank of the Rhine and formed part of the northernmost frontier of the Roman Empire...
on October 21, 1792. Two days later, Forster joined others in establishing a Jacobin Club
Jacobin Club
The Jacobin Club was the most famous and influential political club in the development of the French Revolution, so-named because of the Dominican convent where they met, located in the Rue St. Jacques , Paris. The club originated as the Club Benthorn, formed at Versailles from a group of Breton...
called "Freunde der Freiheit und Gleichheit" ("Friends of Freedom and Equality") in the Electoral Palace
Electoral Palace Mainz
250 px|thumb|The Electoral Palace, from the southThe Electoral Palace in Mainz is the former city Residenz of the Archbishop of Mainz, who was also Prince-Elector of his electoral state within the Holy Roman Empire...
. From early 1793 he was actively involved in organizing the Mainz Republic. This first republic located on German soil was constituted on the principles of democracy
Democracy
Democracy is generally defined as a form of government in which all adult citizens have an equal say in the decisions that affect their lives. Ideally, this includes equal participation in the proposal, development and passage of legislation into law...
, and encompassed areas on the left bank of the Rhine between Landau
Landau
Landau or Landau in der Pfalz is an autonomous city surrounded by the Südliche Weinstraße district of southern Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It is a university town , a long-standing cultural centre, and a market and shopping town, surrounded by vineyards and wine-growing villages of the...
and Bingen
Bingen am Rhein
Bingen am Rhein is a town in the Mainz-Bingen district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany.The settlement’s original name was Bingium, a Celtic word that may have meant “hole in the rock”, a description of the shoal behind the Mäuseturm, known as the Binger Loch. Bingen was the starting point for the...
. Forster became vice-president of the republic's temporary administration and a candidate in the elections to the local parliament, the Rheinisch-Deutscher Nationalkonvent (Rhenish-German National Convention). From January to March of 1793, he was an editor of Die neue Mainzer Zeitung oder Der Volksfreund (The new Mainz newspaper or The People's Friend). In his first article he wrote:
("The freedom of the press
Freedom of the press
Freedom of the press or freedom of the media is the freedom of communication and expression through vehicles including various electronic media and published materials...
finally reigns within these walls where the printing press
Printing press
A printing press is a device for applying pressure to an inked surface resting upon a print medium , thereby transferring the ink...
was invented.)
The freedom did not last too long, though. The Mainz Republic existed only until the retreat of the French troops in July 1793 after the Siege of Mainz.
Forster was not present in Mainz during the siege. As representatives of the Mainz National Convention, he and Adam Lux
Adam Lux
Adam Lux was a German revolutionary and sympathiser of the French Revolution.-Early life:Lux was born in Obernburg am Main, a village belonging to the Electorate of Mainz, as a farmer's son...
had been sent to Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
to apply for Mainz — which was unable to exist as an independent state — to become a part of the French Republic
French First Republic
The French First Republic was founded on 22 September 1792, by the newly established National Convention. The First Republic lasted until the declaration of the First French Empire in 1804 under Napoleon I...
. The application was accepted, but had no effect, since Mainz was conquered by Prussian and Austrian troops, and the old order was restored.
Death in revolutionary Paris
Decree
A decree is a rule of law issued by a head of state , according to certain procedures . It has the force of law...
by Emperor Francis II
Francis II, Holy Roman Emperor
Francis II was the last Holy Roman Emperor, ruling from 1792 until 6 August 1806, when he dissolved the Empire after the disastrous defeat of the Third Coalition by Napoleon at the Battle of Austerlitz...
inflicting punishments on German subjects who collaborated with the French revolutionary government, Forster was declared an outlaw in the name of the Emperor (under the Reichsacht
Reichsacht
The imperial ban was a form of outlawry in the Holy Roman Empire. At different times, it could be declared by the Holy Roman Emperor, by courts like the Vehmgericht or the Reichskammergericht, or by the Reichstag....
), a prize of 100 ducats was set on his head and he could not return to Germany. Devoid of all means of making a living and without his wife, who had stayed in Mainz with their children and her later husband Ludwig Ferdinand Huber
Ludwig Ferdinand Huber
Ludwig Ferdinand Huber , German author, was born in Paris, the son of Michael Huber , who did much to promote the study of German literature in France....
, he remained in Paris. At this point the revolution in Paris had entered the stage of the Reign of Terror
Reign of Terror
The Reign of Terror , also known simply as The Terror , was a period of violence that occurred after the onset of the French Revolution, incited by conflict between rival political factions, the Girondins and the Jacobins, and marked by mass executions of "enemies of...
introduced by the Committee of Public Safety
Committee of Public Safety
The Committee of Public Safety , created in April 1793 by the National Convention and then restructured in July 1793, formed the de facto executive government in France during the Reign of Terror , a stage of the French Revolution...
under the rule of Maximilien Robespierre
Maximilien Robespierre
Maximilien François Marie Isidore de Robespierre is one of the best-known and most influential figures of the French Revolution. He largely dominated the Committee of Public Safety and was instrumental in the period of the Revolution commonly known as the Reign of Terror, which ended with his...
. Forster had the opportunity to experience the difference between the promises of the revolution of happiness for all and its cruel practice. In contrast to many other German supporters of the revolution, like for instance Friedrich Schiller
Friedrich Schiller
Johann Christoph Friedrich von Schiller was a German poet, philosopher, historian, and playwright. During the last seventeen years of his life , Schiller struck up a productive, if complicated, friendship with already famous and influential Johann Wolfgang von Goethe...
, Forster did not turn back from his revolutionary ideals under the pressure of the terror regime. He viewed the events in France as a force of nature which could not be slowed down and which had to release its own energies to avoid being even more destructive.
Yet before the reign of terror reached its climax, Georg Forster died of a stroke
Stroke
A stroke, previously known medically as a cerebrovascular accident , is the rapidly developing loss of brain function due to disturbance in the blood supply to the brain. This can be due to ischemia caused by blockage , or a hemorrhage...
after a rheumatic illness in his small attic apartment at Rue des Moulins in Paris in January 1794, at the age of thirty-nine.
Views on nations and their culture
Forster had partial Scottish roots and was born in Polish Royal PrussiaRoyal Prussia
Royal Prussia was a Region of the Kingdom of Poland and of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth . Polish Prussia included Pomerelia, Chełmno Land , Malbork Voivodeship , Gdańsk , Toruń , and Elbląg . It is distinguished from Ducal Prussia...
. He worked in Russia, England, Poland and in several German countries of his times. Finally, he finished his life in France. He worked in different milieus and travelled a lot from his youth on. It was his view that this, together with his scientific upbringing based on the principles of the Enlightenment
Age of Enlightenment
The Age of Enlightenment was an elite cultural movement of intellectuals in 18th century Europe that sought to mobilize the power of reason in order to reform society and advance knowledge. It promoted intellectual interchange and opposed intolerance and abuses in church and state...
, gave him a wide perspective on different ethnic and national communities:
Cosmopolitanism
Cosmopolitanism is the ideology that all human ethnic groups belong to a single community based on a shared morality. This is contrasted with communitarian and particularistic theories, especially the ideas of patriotism and nationalism...
.
In contrast to the attitude expressed in these writings and to his Enlightenment background, he used insulting terms expressing prejudices against Poles in his private letters during his stay in Vilnius and in a diary from the journey through Poland, but he never published any manifestation of this attitude. These insults only became known after his death, when his private correspondence and diaries were released to the public. Since Forster's published descriptions of other nations were seen as impartial scientific observations, Forster's disparaging description of Poland in his letters and diaries was often taken at face value in Imperial and Nazi Germany, where it was used as a means of science-based support for a purported German superiority. The spreading of the "Polnische Wirtschaft" (Polish economy) stereotype is most likely due to the influence of his letters.
Forster's attitude brought him into conflict with people of different nations he encountered and made him welcome nowhere, as he was too revolutionary and antinational for Germans, proud and opposing in his dealings with Englishmen, too unconcerned about Polish science for Poles, and too insignificant politically and ignored while in France.
Legacy
After Forster's death his works were mostly forgotten, except in professional circles. This was partly due to his involvement in the French revolution. However, his reception changed with the politics of the times, with different periods focusing on different parts of his work. In the period of rising nationalism after the Napoleonic times he was regarded in Germany as a "traitor to his country", overshadowing the perception of his work as an author and scientist. This attitude rose even though the philosopher Karl Wilhelm Friedrich Schlegel wrote about Forster at the beginning of 19th century:Some interest in Forster's life and revolutionary actions was revived in the context of the liberal sentiments leading up to the 1848 revolution
Revolutions of 1848 in the German states
The Revolutions of 1848 in the German states, also called the March Revolution – part of the Revolutions of 1848 that broke out in many countries of Europe – were a series of loosely coordinated protests and rebellions in the states of the German Confederation, including the Austrian Empire...
.
Class struggle
Class struggle is the active expression of a class conflict looked at from any kind of socialist perspective. Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels wrote "The [written] history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggle"....
. The GDR research station in Antarctica that was opened on 1987-10-25 was named after Forster. In West Germany, the search for democratic traditions in German history also lead to a more diversified picture of him in the 1970s. A scholarship program of the Alexander von Humboldt foundation for foreign scholars from developing countries is named after him. His reputation as one of first and most outstanding German ethnologists
Ethnology
Ethnology is the branch of anthropology that compares and analyzes the origins, distribution, technology, religion, language, and social structure of the ethnic, racial, and/or national divisions of humanity.-Scientific discipline:Compared to ethnography, the study of single groups through direct...
is indisputable, and his works are seen as crucial in the development of ethnology in Germany into a separate branch of science.
Works
- A Voyage round the World in His Britannic Majesty's Sloop Resolution, Commanded by Capt. James Cook, during the Years, 1772, 3, 4, and 5 (1777) (preview)
- Journal of travels in Poland (August–November, 1784), The Warsaw Voice, 1990 31 8–9
- De Plantis Esculentis Insularum Oceani Australis Commentatio Botanica (1786) available online at Project Gutenberg
- Florulae Insularum Australium Prodromus (1786) available online at Project Gutenberg
- Essays on the moral and natural geography, natural history and philosophy (1789–1797)
- Views of the Lower Rhine, Brabant, Flanders (three volumes, 1791–1794)
- "Neuholland und die brittische Colonie in Botany-Bay", Allgemeines historisches Taschenbuch: oder Abriss der merkwürdigsten neuen Welt-Begebenheiten für 1787, enthaltend Zusätze zu der für das Jahr 1786 herausgegebenen Geschichte der wichtigsten Staats- und Handelsveränderungen von Ostindien, von M.C. Sprengel, Professor der Geschichte auf der Universität zu Halle, Berlin, bei Haude und Spener, Dezember 1786, Zusatz 7, S.xxxiii-liv; supplement to: Historisch-genealogischer Calender oder Jahrbuch der merkwürdigsten neuen Weltbegebenheiten für 1787. Re-published in Georg Forster’s Kleine SchriftenKleine Schriftenis a German phrase often used as a title for a collection of articles and essays written by a single scholar over the course of a career. "Collected Papers" is an English equivalent. These shorter works were usually published previously in various periodicals or in collections of papers written...
: Ein Beytrag zur Völker- und Länderkunde, Naturgeschichte und Philosophie des Lebens, gesammlet von Georg Forster, Erster Theil, Leipzig, Kummer, 1789, S.233-74.(English translation at: web.mala.bc.ca/Black/AMRC/index.htm?home.htm&2) - Letters (posthumous compilation of his correspondence, 1828)
- Werke in vier Bänden, Gerhard Steiner (editor). Leipzig 1971
- Ansichten vom Niederrhein, Gerhard Steiner (editor). Frankfurt am Main: Insel, 1989. ISBN 3-458-32836-X
- Reise um die Welt, Gerhard Steiner (editor). Frankfurt am Main: Insel, 1983. ISBN 3-458-32457-7
- Über die Beziehung der Staatskunst auf das Glück der Menschheit und andere Schriften, Wolfgang Rödel (editor). Frankfurt am Main: Insel, 1966. – A little collection of political essays, notes, and speeches of republican thinkers and writers.
- Georg Forsters Werke, Sämtliche Schriften, Tagebücher, Briefe, Deutschen Akademie der Wissenschaften zu Berlin, G. Steiner et al. Berlin: Akademie 1958
- Georg Forster, Revolutions-Briefe, Kurt Kersten, Athenaeum Verlag, 1981
- Georg Forster, Briefe an Ernst Friedrich Hector Falcke. Neu aufgefundene Forsteriana aus der Gold- und Rosenkreuzerzeit, Michael Ewert, Hermann Schüttler (editors). Georg-Forster-Studien Beiheft 4. Kassel: Kassel University Press 2009. ISBN 978-3-89958-485-1
External links
- The Forster Collection at the Pitt Rivers Museum
- Georg Forster society in Kassel
- Letter recommending Georg Forster to the Royal SocietyRoyal SocietyThe Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge, known simply as the Royal Society, is a learned society for science, and is possibly the oldest such society in existence. Founded in November 1660, it was granted a Royal Charter by King Charles II as the "Royal Society of London"...
- Edition of Forster's works at the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of the Sciences
- Drawing of a Chinstrap PenguinChinstrap PenguinThe Chinstrap Penguin is a species of penguin which is found in the South Sandwich Islands, Antarctica, the South Orkneys, South Shetland, South Georgia, Bouvet Island and Balleny...
by Georg Forster - Biography at the Australian Dictionary of BiographyAustralian Dictionary of BiographyThe Australian Dictionary of Biography is a national, co-operative enterprise, founded and maintained by the Australian National University to produce authoritative biographical articles on eminent people in Australia's history....
- Forster comments after hearing of the death of Benjamin Franklin
