Portal:Germany/Selected article/2006/August

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Georg 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. From 1778-1784, Forster taught Natural History at the Collegium Carolinum in Kassel and continued later at Vilnius University (1784-1787) until he accepted the position of head librarian at the University of Mainz in 1788. 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. 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, he died in Paris of illness in early 1794. More...