Karl Philipp Moritz (1757–1793)

Karl Philipp Moritz (1757–1793) was born into a poor and firmly Pietist family. He first worked as a hatter's apprentice and actor before starting to study theology, which he funded by teaching English and translating. From 1789, he was the professor of archaeology in Berlin. He published the popular travelogue Reisen eines Deutschen in England im Jahr 1782 (1783) on his journey to England. He followed this with a similar description of his journey through Italy, during which he befriended Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749–1832), the three-volume Reisen eines Deutschen in Italien in den Jahren 1786 bis 1788 (1792–1793). His opus magnum, the autobiographical novel Anton Reiser with Pietist tinges, appeared between 1785 and 1790 in four volumes.

Heinrich Sintzenich (1752–1812), Karl Philipp Moritz, mezzotint, 1793; source: Wahl, Hans / Kippenberg, Anton: Goethe und seine Welt, Leipzig 1932, p. 106, wikimedia commons, http://de.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Datei:CarlPhilippMoritzS106.jpg&filetimestamp=20070129205958, public domain.