Paul Follen

Paul Follen ( born May 5, 1799 in Giessen, † October 3, 1844 in Dutzow, Missouri, USA; Also: Paul Follenius ) was a German American lawyer, writer and farmer.

His father was the law officer Christoph Follenius, (1759-1833), his mother Rosine Follenius ( 1766-1799 ). The father influenced him through a Christian education.

He was the brother of Adolf Ludwig Follen and Charles Follen. His sister Louise was forced to emigrate with her husband Philipp Friedrich Wilhelm Vogt in Switzerland. Their son, the scientist Carl Vogt then emigrated permanently to the 48'er revolution in Switzerland. Paul was married to Maria Münch, the sister of his friend Friedrich Münch.

During his studies, he became in 1817 a member of the Christian- Teutonic fraternity / mirror honor fraternity and in 1819 the old fraternity Germania Giessen, Giessen.

1833 founded the court lawyer Follen with his brother Pastor Friedrich Münch Giessen Emigration Society to build a German -populated state as a model for a future German republic in the United States. They managed to bring 500 -be emigrants to America in 1834. The utopia of their own state had to be abandoned soon.

Münch and Follen settled near the confluence of the Missouri and Mississippi in Dutzow in Warren County ( Missouri) as a farmer. The place was founded in 1832 by Baron von Bock.

Even his brother, Charles Follen 1819 had planned to establish a German university in America. He then fled to Basel but only until he was expelled in 1824 and emigrated to the United States.