Karl Philipp Moritz

born Sept. 15, 1756, Hameln, Hannover
[Germany]
died June 26, 1793, Berlin, Prussia
German novelist whose most important
works are his two autobiographical
novels, Andreas Hartknopf (1786) and
Anton Reiser, 4 vol. (1785–90). The
latter is, with J.W. von Goethe’s
Wilhelm Meister, the most mature
18th-century German novel of
contemporary life.
Moritz’ family was very poor, and he
was apprenticed to a hatter, but patrons
helped him to study theology. His
restless and unhappy nature led him to
abandon theology in an attempt to become
an actor. This attempt failed, however,
and, after completing his studies, he
taught in Dessau and Potsdam and finally
in a Gymnasium in Berlin, where he was
briefly editor of the Vossische Zeitung
(with which Gotthold Ephraim Lessing had
been associated). In 1786 he traveled to
Italy, where he met Goethe, whom he
later advised on artistic theory. After
his return to Berlin in 1789 he became
professor of aesthetics and archaeology
at the Academy of Arts.