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class="clearFix" id="pageContent"> <div id="pageColumnMain"> <h2>Johann Georg Adam Forster (1754–1794)</h2> <p class="authorName">by <a href="/biographies/author/?author=472">Leslie Bodi</a></p> <div class="publish-notice publish-notice--major-project" style="background-color:#dee9f2;color:#153449;"> <p>This article was published:</p> <ul> <li> in the <a href="https://adb.anu.edu.au/biographies/project/?name=australian-dictionary-biography-volume-1" style="color:#905d27;"> <span class="publish-notice__project-name">Australian Dictionary of Biography, Volume 1</span> </a> , 1966 </li> <li>online in 2006</li> </ul> </div> <div class="biographyContent textContent" id="2553">  <div class="print"> <div class="mainPic"><a href="http://nla.gov.au/nla.pic-an9455835" title="Johann Georg Adam Forster (1754-1794), by Daniel Beyel (after John Francis Rigaud) [right, with his father Johann Reinhold Forster] , 1781?"><img src="/uploads/adb/2056/thumbs/A010370_246x550.jpg" alt="Johann Georg Adam Forster (1754-1794), by Daniel Beyel (after John Francis Rigaud) [right, with his father Johann Reinhold Forster] , 1781?" width='246' height='314' /></a> </div> <p class="caption"><span class="captionName">Johann Georg Adam Forster </span>(1754-1794), by Daniel Beyel (after John Francis Rigaud) [right, with his father Johann Reinhold Forster] , 1781?</p><p class="credit"><a href="http://nla.gov.au/nla.pic-an9455835">National Library of Australia, nla.pic-an9455835</a></p></div> <p>Johann Georg Adam Forster (1754-1794), German writer, traveller and revolutionary, was born on 26 November 1754 at Nassenhüben, near Danzig. In 1765 he accompanied his father, <a title="Forster, Johann Reinhold (1729 - 1798)" href="forster-johann-reinhold-2057">Johann Reinhold Forster</a>, on a voyage of scientific exploration to Russia. Then the family settled in England, living in Warrington and London. At 12 Georg Forster was already translating French, Swedish and Russian books into English and German, and for a time he taught languages. In 1772-75 he was his father's assistant on Captain <a title="Cook, James (1728 - 1779)" href="cook-james-1917">James Cook</a>'s second voyage. Because of J. R. Forster's quarrel with the Admiralty, <em>A Voyage Round the World in His Britannic Majesty's Sloop Resolution</em> … (1777) had to be written by Georg Foster. Its scientific as well as literary merits soon made it one of the most popular travel-books of the time. Forster was made a fellow of the Royal Society and became a member of other learned bodies. He went to Germany in 1778, where he was received with enthusiasm and met many outstanding writers, philosophers and scientists. From 1779 to 1784 he was a professor at the Collegium Carolinum in Kassel. He then held the chair of natural history at the University of Vilna in Poland, and in 1785 married Therese Heyne, daughter of the professor of classics at Göttingen. Frustrated by the lack of research facilities, he was happy to accept the position of a university librarian in Mainz in 1788. Accompanied by Alexander von Humboldt, he travelled down the lower Rhine to the Netherlands and England in 1790; his description of this voyage, <em>Ansichten vom Niederrhein</em> … (Berlin, 1791-94), is one of the most accomplished works of German classical prose.</p> <p>When Mainz was taken by the troops of the French Republic in October 1792, Forster, after some hesitation, joined the Jacobin Club. He soon became a high official in the provisional administration and the editor of a revolutionary newspaper. He went to Paris in March 1793 on an official mission, but could not return to Mainz any more. He was outlawed by the German sovereigns, forsaken by his wife and friends and, after the fall of the Gironde, regarded with some suspicion by the Jacobins. He was, however, still entrusted with smaller diplomatic tasks and wrote a series of articles in support of the Revolution. Lonely and friendless, he died in Paris on 10 January 1794.</p> <p>Georg Forster's books and essays cover a wide range: travel, botany, geography, ethnography, literature, aesthetics, philosophy and politics. Elegant and thorough, his writings are imbued with the open-minded humanistic spirit of German classicism and an activist, radical philosophy. More than anyone else, he and his father were instrumental in conveying to their countrymen the new and ever increasing knowledge gained by the scientific voyages of discovery. He had always planned to write an encyclopedic work on the South Seas, but continual financial pressure obliged him to dissipate his energies on smaller works and translations.</p> <p>Forster published a comprehensive account of Cook's life, personality and scientific achievements as a preface to his translation of the third voyage, <em>Des Capitain Jacob Cook's dritte Entdeckungs-Reise</em> (Berlin, 1787). His essay 'Neuholland und die brittische Kolonie in Botany-Bay', November 1786, is probably the earliest piece of competent information given to the German public about Australia. Forster describes its geography, inhabitants and natural resources, and presents very optimistic views about the future of the penal settlement in Botany Bay. He reviewed books on Australia by <a title="Tench, Watkin (1758? - 1833)" href="tench-watkin-2719">Watkin Tench</a> (1789), Governor <a title="Phillip, Arthur (1738 - 1814)" href="phillip-arthur-2549">Arthur Phillip</a> (1790) and <a title="White, John (1756? - 1832)" href="white-john-2787">John White</a> (1791). In 1793 his wife wrote an epistolary novel (<em>Abentheuer auf einer Reise nach Neu-Holland</em>) about life in New South Wales and on Norfolk Island; this was first published under the name of her second husband, L. F. Huber, in 1801.</p> </div> <div class="infoList"> <h3>Select Bibliography</h3> <ul> <li>L. Bodi, ‘Georg Forster: The “Pacific Expert” of Eighteenth Century Germany’, <em>Historical Studies, Australia and New Zealand</em>, vol 8, no 32, May 1959, pp 345-63.</li> </ul> </div> <div class="infoList"> <div class="treelink"><h3 class="treelink">Related Entries in NCB Sites</h3><p class="treelink"><a class="treelink" href="/treeview/2056">view family tree</a></p></div> <ul> <li><a href="https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/forster-johann-reinhold-2057">Forster, Johann Reinhold</a> (father)<span class="linkicon"><a href="https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/forster-johann-reinhold-2057"><img src="/images/site/adb/siteIcon.jpg" alt="go to ADB entry" title="go to ADB entry"/></a></span></li> </ul> </div> <div class="citation"> <h3>Citation details</h3> <p>Leslie Bodi, 'Forster, Johann Georg Adam (1754–1794)', Australian Dictionary of Biography, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/forster-johann-georg-adam-2056/text2553, published first in hardcopy 1966, accessed online 29 November 2024.</p> <p id="origPubDetails"><strong>This article was published in hardcopy in <em><strong>Australian Dictionary of Biography</strong></em>, Volume 1, (Melbourne University Press), 1966</strong></p> <p style="margin-top: 20px;">View the <a href="/frontpages/fp1.pdf" target="_blank">front pages</a> for Volume 1</p> </div> <div id="printFooter"> <p class="floatLeft">© Copyright Australian Dictionary of Biography, 2006-2024</p> </div> </div> <script type="text/javascript"> $(function() { Shadowbox.init({ counterType: 'skip', continuous: true, overlayOpacity: 0.80 }); }); </script> <div id="pageSidebar"> <div class="mainPic"><a href="http://nla.gov.au/nla.pic-an9455835" title="Johann Georg Adam Forster (1754-1794), by Daniel Beyel (after John Francis Rigaud) [right, with his father Johann Reinhold Forster] , 1781?"><img src="/uploads/adb/2056/thumbs/A010370_246x550.jpg" alt="Johann Georg Adam Forster (1754-1794), by Daniel Beyel (after John Francis Rigaud) [right, with his father Johann Reinhold Forster] , 1781?" width='246' height='314' /></a> </div> <p class="caption"><span class="captionName">Johann Georg Adam Forster </span>(1754-1794), by Daniel Beyel (after John Francis Rigaud) [right, with his father Johann Reinhold Forster] , 1781?</p><p class="credit"><a href="http://nla.gov.au/nla.pic-an9455835">National Library of Australia, nla.pic-an9455835</a></p> <div class="lifeSummary"> <h3>Life Summary <span><a href ="/lifesummary/forster-johann-georg-adam-2056" target="_blank">[details]</a></span></h3> <h5>Alternative Names</h5> <ul class="altnames"> <li>Forster, Johann George Adam</li> </ul> <h5>Birth</h5> <p> <a href="/biographies/birth/?bdate=26111754">26 November</a>, <a href="/biographies/birth/?bdate=1754">1754</a> <br /> <a href="/biographies/search/?query=birthLocation%3A%22Germany%22">Germany</a> </p> <h5>Death</h5> <p> <a href="/biographies/death/?ddate=10011794">10 January</a>, <a href="/biographies/death/?ddate=1794">1794</a> (aged 39) <br /> <a href="/biographies/search/?query=deathLocation%3A%22Paris%2C%20France%22">Paris</a>, <a href="/biographies/search/?query=deathLocation%3A%22France%22">France</a> </p> <div class="life-summary__heading-container"> <h5 class="life-summary__heading--note">Cultural Heritage</h5> <button class="life-summary__note-button" title="View explanatory note" data-note-text-id="life-summary-cultural"> <img src="/images/down_arrow.png" class="life-summary__button-image"> </button> </div> <p class="life-summary__note-text" id="life-summary-cultural"> Includes subject's nationality; their parents' nationality; the countries in which they spent a significant part of their childhood, and their self-identity. </p><ul> <li> <a href="/biographies/search/?query=ethnicity%3A%22English%22">English</a> </li> <li> <a href="/biographies/search/?query=ethnicity%3A%22German%22">German</a> </li> </ul> <h5> Occupation or Descriptor </h5> <ul> <li> <a href="/biographies/occupation/?occupation=explorer&rpp=200">explorer</a> </li> <li> <a href="/biographies/occupation/?occupation=naturalist&rpp=200">naturalist</a> </li> </ul> </div> </div> </div> </div> <footer> <div class="clearFix" id="footer"> <h3>Australian Dictionary of Biography</h3> <p>An initiative of the <a href="https://history.cass.anu.edu.au/centres/ncb">National Centre of Biography</a> at the <a href="https://www.anu.edu.au/">Australian National University</a></p> <div class="clearFix"> <p class="floatLeft">© Copyright Australian Dictionary of Biography, 2006-2024</p> <p class="floatLeft cdp"><a href="/copyright/">Copyright</a> · <a href="/disclaimer/">Disclaimer</a> · <a href="/privacy/">Privacy Policy</a> · <a href="/contact-us/">Contact Us</a></p> </div> </div> </footer> </body> </html>