Andreas Joseph Hofmann
Andreas Joseph Hofmann ( * July 14 1752 in Zell am Main; † 6 September 1849 in angle ( Rheingau) ) was a German philosopher and revolutionary, and one of the main actors of the Republic of Mainz. As chairman of the Rhenish- German National Convention, he called on 18 March 1793, the first Republic in Germany, the Rhenish- German Free State. He was a staunch supporter of the French Revolution, propagated the Rhine as a natural German -French border and later worked under the Directory and the Consulate in the administration of the Territory Thunder Mountain.
Life
Youth and Education
After the early death of Hofmann's father, a surgeon, he was brought up by his uncle Franz Xaver driving man, a professor of moral theology at the University of Würzburg. After a year at a Jesuit seminary, he studied law at the Universities of Mainz and Würzburg.
As a revolutionary in Mainz
After a few years on Reichshofrat in Vienna Hofmann had to leave the city because of several critical publications. He returned in 1784 back to Mainz, where he got a job at the University during the Progressive reforms of Elector Friedrich Karl Joseph von Erthal. Until 1791, he taught history of philosophy; 1791, the Department of Natural Law was conferred on him. Hofmann was a liberal and progressive thinkers. So he advocated, for example, that lectures and church services should be held in German. Dissatisfied with the slow pace of reforms in the Electorate of Mainz, he was from the beginning a supporter of the French Revolution and was spied on by the kurmainzischen authorities. When the French army under General Custine occupied Mainz on 21 October 1792, the Elector and his court had already fled.
Two days later, Hofmann was one of the founders of the Mainz Jacobin Club and became one of the most active members. The popular and talk mighty Hofmann criticized in his many speeches both the ancien regime of the Elector and the policy of the French military government. He helped in the organization of elections to the Rhenish- German National Convention, in particular in rural areas, was elected to the first democratic German Parliament and intended to be its president. On March 18, 1793 Hofmann called from the balcony of the German house of the first republic on German soil, the Rhenish- German Free State.
In French service
After the end of the Republic in the siege of Mainz Hofmann was able to leave the city with the retreating French. He went into exile in Paris, where he was active in the Societé des Réfugiés Mayençais, an association of exiled revolutionaries in Mainz. After a short time in the army, he was sent as a spy to London, but was there recognized by his former students Klemens von Metternich, who had studied in Mainz and was forced to flee. After his return to Paris, he became head of the bureau of étrangers under the Directory. After the left bank of the Rhine came back under French control, Hofmann 1797 top tax official of the Department of thunder mountain and returned to Mainz.
After Napoleon 's final defeat Hofmann retired from public life and spent the rest of his life in angle ( Rheingau), where he died in September 1849.
Writings
- The Aristocrat's catechism. A beautiful book, Mainz 1792