:Andreas Joseph Hofmann

File:Würzburg Priesterseminar Domerschulstraße 18@03.JPG

Hofmann was born in Zell am Main near Würzburg as the son of a surgeon.{{cite book |last=Schweigard |first=Jörg |title=Die Liebe zur Freiheit ruft uns an den Rhein |year=2005 |publisher=Casimir Katz Verlag |location=Gernsbach |isbn=3-925825-89-4|pages=146|language=de}} After the early death of his parents, he was educated by his uncle Fahrmann, likely Andreas Joseph Fahrmann (1742–1802),{{refn|group=nb|Many sources claim that the uncle's name was "Franz Xaver Fahrmann", following Otto,{{Cite journal |last=Otto |first=Friedrich |date=1898 |title=A. J. Hofmann. Präsident des rheinisch-deutschen Nationalkonvents zu Mainz. Seine Sendung nach England in den Jahren 1793, 1794, 1795 nebst einigen anderen Nachrichten über sein Leben |url=http://archive.org/details/annalendesverein28vere |journal=Annalen des Vereins für Nassauische Altertumskunde und Geschichtsforschung |publisher=Wiesbaden |volume=28/29 |pages=77–92 |language=de |access-date=13 September 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160914112600/https://archive.org/details/annalendesverein28vere |archive-date=14 September 2016 |url-status=live }} but the only person matching either of the descriptions as professor of moral theology or of auxiliary bishop in Würzburg during the time in question is Andreas Joseph Fahrmann (1742–1802),{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5zAeg6UCgzEC&q=andreas%2520joseph%2520fahrmann%2520bischof&pg=PA198 |title=Reihenfolge der Bischöfe von Würzburg: Eine Festgabe |last=Himmelstein |first=Franz Xaver |date=1843 |language=de}}{{Cite book |url=http://archive.org/details/hierarchiacathol06eubeuoft |title=Hierarchia catholica medii aevi, sive Summorum pontificum, S.R.E. cardinalium, ecclesiarum antistitum series ... e documentis tabularii praesertim vaticani collecta, digesta, edita |last=Eubel |first=Conrad |date=1913 |publisher=Monasterii Sumptibus et typis librariae Regensbergianae |language=la |access-date=23 September 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170223145831/https://archive.org/details/hierarchiacathol06eubeuoft |archive-date=23 February 2017 |url-status=live }}{{Catholic-hierarchy|bishop|bfahr|Bishop Andreas Joseph Fahrmann|25 September 2019}}{{Cite web |url=https://vb2.uni-wuerzburg.de/solr/totenzettel/browse?q=fahrmann |title=Würzburger Totenzettel |website=vb2.uni-wuerzburg.de |access-date=2019-09-21}}{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=s95NAAAAcAAJ&q=moral&pg=PA63 |title=Nekrolog der Teutschen für das neunzehnte Jahrhundert |date=1802 |publisher=Perthes |pages=74 |language=de}} see also the {{ill|list of auxiliary bishops of Würzburg|de|Liste der Weihbischöfe in Würzburg}}. Otto's reference for Fahrmann is Franz Xaver von Wegele's history of the University of Würzburg, which does not give Fahrmann's first name.{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JnCZugEACAAJ&q=Geschichte+der+Universit%C3%A4t+W%C3%BCrzburg |title=Geschichte der Universität Würzburg. 1. Geschichte |last=Wegele|page=456 |first=Franz Xaver von |date=1969|orig-year=1882 |publisher=Stahel |language=de}} In Hofmanns CV for his application for the position in Mainz, he mentions an uncle Professor Fahrmann without first name.{{Citation |last1=Mathy |first1=Helmut |title=Eine neue Quelle zur Jugendgeschichte von Andreas Josef Hofmann, Präsident des Rheinisch-Deutschen Nationalkonvents |date=1995 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=bkS5AAAAIAAJ&q=fahrmann |work=Landesgeschichte und Reichsgeschichte |pages=321–333 |editor-last=Gerlich |editor-first=Alois |publisher=Steiner |language=de |access-date=2019-09-27 |last2=Dotzauer |first2=Winfried}} The Mainz University historian {{ill|Helmut Mathy|de}} presents the uncle's name as Franz Xaver Fahrmann, but cites the Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie article about Andreas Joseph Fahrmann{{Cite ADB|6|535|536|Fahrmann, Andreas Joseph|Heinrich Kellner|ADB:Fahrmann, Andreas Josef}} for details about Fahrmann's life.}} professor of moral theology at the University of Würzburg and later auxiliary bishop in the Diocese of Würzburg. After a one-year course in poetics and rhetoric at the Würzburg Jesuit college,{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=VBYoAAAAMAAJ&q=jesuitenseminars |title=Deutsche Jakobiner: Handbuch |date=1982 |publisher=Bundesarchiv und Stadt Mainz |language=de}} Hofmann studied law at the University of Mainz and at the University of Würzburg.Schweigard, Die Liebe zur Freiheit, p. 146 In 1777 he moved to Vienna to gain experience at the {{lang|de|Reichshofrat}} or Aulic Council, one of the supreme courts of the Holy Roman Empire{{Cite book |title=Die Universität Mainz 1477, 1977 : mit e. Bildteil 1946–1977 u. e. tabellar. Anh. |last=Mathy |first=Helmut |date=1977 |publisher=Krach |isbn=3874390411 |location=Mainz |pages=194–198 |oclc=5751732}} and became a {{lang|de|Privatdozent}} in 1778.{{Cite encyclopedia |title=Hofmann, Andreas Joseph |encyclopedia=Demokratische Wege. Deutsche Lebensläufe aus fünf Jahrhunderten: Ein Lexikon |publisher=Springer-Verlag |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=SD23DQAAQBAJ&pg=PA674 |last1=Haasis |first1=Hellmut G. |date=2016 |editor-last=Asendorf |editor-first=Manfred |pages=283–285 |language=de |isbn=9783476035516 |last2=Bockel |first2=Rolf von}} In Vienna, Hofmann was influenced by the enlightened principles of Josephinism. Besides philosophical publications such as {{lang|de|Ueber das Studium der philosophischen Geschichte}} (About the study of the history of philosophy), where Hofmann argued for the introduction of the history of philosophy as a subject in the Universities in Austria, following the example of Würzburg,{{Cite report |chapter-url=http://link.springer.com/10.1007/978-94-017-9966-9_9 |chapter=The Göttingen School and Popularphilosophie |last=Longo |first=Mario |title=Models of the History of Philosophy |series=International Archives of the History of Ideas Archives internationales d'histoire des idées |date=2015 |volume=216 |publisher=Springer Netherlands |doi=10.1007/978-94-017-9966-9_9 |location=Dordrecht |pages=515–693|isbn=978-94-017-9965-2 }} he started writing articles for various journals and founded a theatre journal in 1781. His satirical articles caused conflict with the authorities, and instead of being given a position at the newly re-founded University of Lviv as had been originally envisioned, he was forced to leave Austria.{{NDB|9|446||Hofmann, Andreas Joseph|Wolf-Heino Struck|116944218}} He returned to Würzburg in 1783, and was soon after employed by the Prince of Hohenzollern-Hechingen.

File:Mainzjakobiner.jpg

In 1784, Hofmann was made Chair of Philosophy in Mainz as part of the progressive reforms of Elector Friedrich Karl von Erthal that had made the University of Mainz one of the centres of Catholic Enlightenment.{{cite book |last=Rowe |first=Michael |title=From Reich to State: The Rhineland in the Revolutionary Age, 1780–1830 |year=2003 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=0-521-82443-5 |pages=61 }} Like many other future members of the {{ill|Jacobin Club of Mainz|de|Mainzer Jakobinerklub|fr|Club des jacobins de Mayence}}, he was a member of the secret society of the Illuminati (under the name Aulus Persius{{Cite journal |last=Kreutz |first=Wilhelm |date=1991 |title=Die Illuminaten des rheinisch-pfälzischen Raums und anderer außerbayerischer Territorien. Eine 'wiederentdeckte' Quelle zur Ausbreitung des radikal aufklärerischen Geheimordens in den Jahren 1781 und 1782 |journal=Francia |language=de |volume=18 |issue=2 |pages=115–149 |doi=10.11588/fr.1991.2.56842 |issn=2569-5452 }}) but the Illuminati were outlawed in 1785 and the lodge dissolved soon after.Schweigard, Die Liebe zur Freiheit, p. 87 Hofmann first taught History of Philosophy until 1791, when he also became chair of natural law. Besides philosophy and law, Hofmann also was talented in languages. He was proficient in Latin, Ancient Greek, French, Italian, and English, and offered classes in English on Alexander Pope over many years. Among his students were Klemens von Metternich, who later became Chancellor of State of the Austrian Empire and the architect of the reactionary European Restoration, and {{ill|Johann Adam von Itzstein|de}}, who became a leading liberal politician and member of the 1848 Frankfurt Parliament.{{Cite news |url=https://www.zeit.de/2012/29/Itzstein |title=Itzstein, unser Stern |last=Schweigard |first=Jörg |date=2012-07-27 |work=Die Zeit |access-date=2019-09-17 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120730093617/https://www.zeit.de/2012/29/Itzstein |archive-date=2012-07-30 |issue=29 |language=de}} As a liberal and progressive thinker, Hofmann supported the use of German instead of Latin in University lectures and in church.{{cite book |last=May |first=Georg |title=Das Recht des Gottesdienstes in der Diözese Mainz zur Zeit von Bischof Joseph Ludwig Colmar (1802–1818) |year=1987 |publisher=John Benjamins |language=de |isbn=90-6032-289-4 |pages=517–518}} Eventually he became disillusioned with the pace of the reforms in Mainz and welcomed the French Revolution from the start. As Hofmann declared his support of the ideas of the French Revolution openly in his lectures, he was soon spied on by the increasingly reactionary Mainz authorities,Schweigard, Die Liebe zur Freiheit, pp. 148–149 who had outlawed all criticism of state and religion on 10 September 1792.{{Cite journal |last=Wegert |first=Karl H. |title=Political Engagement and the German Intelligentsia, 1789–1800 |journal=Canadian Journal of History |date=1987 |volume=22 |issue=3 |pages=197–314 |id={{ProQuest|1297290053}} |doi=10.3138/cjh.22.3.297 }} However, before the investigation of his activities had progressed beyond the questioning of his students, the archbishop and his court fled from the advancing French troops under General Custine, who arrived in Mainz on 21 October 1792.{{cite book |last=Blanning |first=T. C. W. |author-link=T. C. W. Blanning |title=Reform and Revolution in Mainz 1743–1803 |year=1974 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |location=London |isbn=0-521-20418-6 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/reformrevolution0000blan/page/275 275] |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/reformrevolution0000blan/page/275 }}

File:Aristokratenkatechismus.png

Two days later, Hofmann helped found the Mainz Jacobin club and became one of its most active members. A popular and powerful orator, he criticised both the old regime of the Elector and the French military government in his speeches, which were especially supported by the more radical studentsSchweigard, Die Liebe zur Freiheit, p. 254 who idolised the incorruptible Hofmann.{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xBBqDAAAQBAJ&pg=PA134 |page=134 |title=The Internalized Revolution |last1=Bahr |first1=Ehrhard |last2=Saine |first2=Thomas P.|author-link2=Thomas P. Saine |date=2016 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=9781317203445 |language=en}} In late 1792, he published the {{lang|de|Aristokraten-Katechismus}}, a revolutionary pamphlet criticising the old regime and its instrumentalisation of religion to protect the absolutist order.Schweigard, Die Liebe zur Freiheit, p. 150 Hofmann and his supporters called for official posts to be reserved for native born citizens.Blanning, Reform and Revolution in Mainz, p. 285 Hofmann lectured in the rural areas of the French occupied territory,{{cite encyclopedia | last = Leser | first = Emanuel | encyclopedia =Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie | title = Hofmann, Andreas Joseph | url = http://daten.digitale-sammlungen.de/bsb00008370/images/index.html?seite=627 | access-date = 2019-09-11 | volume = 12 | pages = 625–626|language=de}} Text on Wikisource. calling for support of the general elections in February and March 1793 which he helped organize.Schweigard, Die Liebe zur Freiheit, p. 151 He was elected into the Rhenish-German National Convention as a representative of Mainz and became its president, beating Georg Forster in a contested election.{{Cite encyclopedia |title=Andreas Joseph Hofmann: Der Präsident des Rheinisch-Deutschen Nationalkonvents von 1793 |encyclopedia=Die Erste Adresse des Landes Rheinland-Pfalz : Geschichte des Deutschhauses in Mainz |publisher=Ph. von Zabern |location=Mainz am Rhein |last=Mathy |first=Helmut |date=1990 |editor-last=Mathy |editor-first=Helmut |page=64 |language=de |isbn=3805311362 |oclc=22861815}} On 18 March 1793 Hofmann declared the Rhenish-German Free State from the balcony of the Deutschhaus. Three days later, Hofmann signed the Convention's unanimously resolved decree asking for accession of the Free State to France. On 1 April 1793, Hofmann switched roles to become the president of the provisional administration.{{Cite encyclopedia |title=Andreas Joseph Hofmann, Präsident des Rheinisch-Deutschen Nationalkonvents |encyclopedia=Die Mainzer Republik : der Rheinisch-Deutsche Nationalkonvent |publisher=V. Hase & Koehler |location=Mainz |last=Scheel |first=Heinrich |date=1993 |editor-last=Landtag Rheinland-Pfalz |editor-link=Landtag of Rhineland-Palatinate |language=de|oclc=32666345 }}

File:Departementmt.png, by Louis Brion 1802]]

When the republic ended after the siege of Mainz, Hofmann was able to leave the city with the retreating French troops and went into exile in Paris, where he headed a society of exiled Mainz republicans, the {{lang|fr|Societé des patriotes Mayençais}} and was working towards an exchange of prisoners to free the German revolutionaries captured by the authorities.{{Cite journal |last=Cottebrune |first=Anne |date=2003-03-01 |title=Des " réfugiés mayençais " dans le Paris révolutionnaire : histoire d'un exil politique 1793–1799 |url=http://journals.openedition.org/ahrf/807 |journal=Annales historiques de la Révolution française |language=fr |issue=331 |pages=77–101 |doi=10.4000/ahrf.807 |issn=0003-4436 |access-date=20 September 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190619004137/https://journals.openedition.org/ahrf/807 |archive-date=19 June 2019 |url-status=live |doi-access=free }} After a short service in the military, where he commanded an equestrian regiment that fought against insurgent royalists in the Vendée and was wounded several times,Schweigard, Die Liebe zur Freiheit, p. 152 he was sent to England on espionage missions. However, at a Joseph Haydn concert in London on 2 June 1794, he was recognized and reported to the authorities by his former student Klemens Wenzel von Metternich. Hofmann went into hiding and returned to Paris via Hamburg, where he visited Friedrich Gottlieb Klopstock. In Paris, he was made chief of the bureau des étrangers by the French Directory. In his 1795 essay {{lang|fr|Des nouvelles limites de la republique française}}, he argued for the Rhine as natural Eastern border of France.{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=caFhDwAAQBAJ&q=%2522Des%2520nouvelles%2520limites%2520de%2520la%2520R%C3%A9publique%2520Fran%C3%A7aise%2522&pg=PA161 |title=Reimagining Politics After the Terror: The Republican Origins of French Liberalism |last=Jainchill |first=Andrew |date=2018 |publisher=Cornell University Press |isbn=9780801463532 |pages=161–162 |language=en}} When the incorporation of areas west of the Rhine into France had become a reality with the Treaty of Campo Formio, Hofmann returned to Mainz, where he became part of the government of the new {{lang|fr|département}} Mont-Tonnerre and was appointed by Napoleon as its {{lang|fr|receveur général}} (superior tax officer) in 1797,Schweigard, Die Liebe zur Freiheit, p. 153 the only non-native French holding this office.{{Cite journal |last=Dufraisse |first=Roger |date=1970 |title=Les notables de la rive gauche du Rhin à l'époque napoléonienne |journal=Revue d'Histoire Moderne & Contemporaine |volume=17 |issue=3 |pages=758–776 |doi=10.3406/rhmc.1970.2108 }} In 1801, he was elected as a member of the Mainz city council and refused an appointment as a member of the {{lang|fr|Corps législatif}} of the French Consulate.{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LeSO3QiiBosC&q=hoffmann%2520mont%2520tonnerre&pg=PA3 |title=Bulletin des Lois de la République |date=1801 |publisher=De Lʻimprimerie De La République |language=fr}}{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rL1nAAAAMAAJ&q=hofmann |title=L'Allemagne à l'époque napoléonienne |last1=Dufraisse |first1=Roger |last2=France) |first2=Deutsches Historisches Institut (Paris |date=1992 |publisher=Bouvier |isbn=9783416023771 |language=fr}} In 1803, he was forced to resign as {{lang|fr|receveur général}} after one of his subordinates had committed fraud,{{Cite book |url=https://www.perspectivia.net/publikationen/phs/faber_andreas-van-recum |title=Andreas van Recum, 1765–1828: Ein rheinischer Kosmopolit |last=Faber |first=Karl-Georg |date=1969 |pages=202 |language=de |access-date=18 September 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190513100958/https://www.perspectivia.net/publikationen/phs/faber_andreas-van-recum |archive-date=13 May 2019 |url-status=live }} and 750,000 francs were missing from his coffers.

After Napoleon's defeat and the return of Mainz to German control, Hofmann moved to his late wife's estates in Winkel. While he was no longer active as a revolutionary, he was suspicious to the authorities as a Jacobin, and his house was searched in the 1830s. Hofmann spent his retirement pursuing activities such as breeding domestic canariesMathy, Andreas Joseph Hofmann, p. 68 but became a somewhat famous figure among Vormärz liberals and was visited by intellectuals such as Hoffmann von Fallersleben and {{ill|Ludwig Walesrode|de}}. He died on 6 September 1849, having witnessed the failure of the 1848 revolution, and was buried without a Catholic funeral.

Andreas Joseph Hofmann was the son of Anton Hofmann, a surgeon, and of Magdalena Fahrmann. In 1788, he married Catharina Josepha Rivora (1763–1799),{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Z1kXAQAAIAAJ&q=%2522Rivora%2522+%2522Winkel%2522 |title=Nassauische Biographie: Kurzbiographien aus 13 Jahrhunderten |last=Renkhoff |first=Otto |date=1992 |publisher=Historische Kommission für Nassau |isbn=9783922244905 |pages=339 |language=de}} the daughter of Peter Maria Rivora and Christina Schumann. They had three daughters, of which two died early. His daughter Charlotte Sturm died in 1850 and bequeathed most of her belongings to Charlotte Lehne, the granddaughter of Hofmann's student Friedrich Lehne.{{Cite journal |last=Hell |first=Walter |date=2003-03-17 |title=Die Lehnes: Dichter – Politiker – Wissenschaftler |journal=Der Ausscheller. Mitteilungsblatt des Stadtarchivs Oestrich-Winkel |volume=3-4|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071010143741/http://www.oestrich-winkel.de/data/articles/pdf/253_477.pdf|archive-date=2007-10-10|url=http://www.oestrich-winkel.de/data/articles/pdf/253_477.pdf}}

None of Hofmann's personal papers and correspondence have been preserved, and there is no known picture of him.Schweigard, Die Liebe zur Freiheit, p. 147 Overall, there is far less known about Hofmann's life than about most of the other leading members of the Mainz Jacobin club.

In 2018, a road in Winkel was named {{lang|de|Andreas-Joseph-Hofmann-Straße}}.{{Cite web |url=https://www.spd-oestrich-winkel.de/2018/02/05/bericht-von-der-oeffentlichen-sitzung-der-stadtverordnetenversammlung-am-05-02-2018/ |title=Bericht von der Stadtverordnetenversammlung am 5.2.2018 › SPD Oestrich-Winkel |date=5 February 2018 |language=de-DE |access-date=2019-09-25 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190925191434/https://www.spd-oestrich-winkel.de/2018/02/05/bericht-von-der-oeffentlichen-sitzung-der-stadtverordnetenversammlung-am-05-02-2018/ |archive-date=25 September 2019 |url-status=live }}

• {{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0u0GAAAAcAAJ |title=Ueber das Studium der philosophischen Geschichte |last=Hofmann |first=Andreas Joseph |date=1779|place=Vienna |publisher=Ghelensche Erben |language=de}}
• {{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=s18AAAAAcAAJ |title=Der Aristokraten-Katechismus: ein wunderschönes Büchlein, gar erbaulich zu lesen : für Junge und Alte |last=Hofmann |first=Andreas Joseph |date=1792|place=Mainz |language=de}}
• {{Cite book|title=Des nouvelles limites de la republique française|last=Hofmann |first=Andreas Joseph |date=1795|place=Paris|language=fr}}

• {{ill|Johann Adam von Itzstein|de||fr||ru|Ицштейн, Иоганн Адам фон}} (1775–1855)
• {{ill|Friedrich Lehne|de||fr|Frédéric Lehné}} (1771–1836){{Cite news |url=https://www.zeit.de/2018/28/deutschland-frankreich-republikaner-friedrich-lehne |title=Deutschland und Frankreich: Mehr Wiedervereinigung wagen |last=Erenz |first=Benedikt |date=2018-07-14 |work=Die Zeit |access-date=2019-09-20 |language=de-DE |issn=0044-2070 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180714092809/https://www.zeit.de/2018/28/deutschland-frankreich-republikaner-friedrich-lehne |archive-date=14 July 2018 |url-status=live }}{{Cite news |url=https://www.fr.de/kultur/literatur/grabgelaeute-glueckes-10962248.html |title=Grabgeläute des Glückes |date=2018-08-29 |access-date=2019-09-20 |language=de |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190406213212/https://www.fr.de/kultur/literatur/grabgelaeute-glueckes-10962248.html |archive-date=6 April 2019 |url-status=live }}
• Klemens von Metternich (1773–1859)
• {{ill|Johannes Weitzel|de}} (1771–1837){{Cite book |title=Vom Mainzer Rad zum hessischen Löwen : Aufsätze zur Rheingauer Geschichte |last=Hell, Walter |date=2008 |publisher=Sutton |isbn=9783866803565 |location=Erfurt |pages=46–55 |oclc=301964822}}Schweigard, Die Liebe zur Freiheit, p. 206

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Category:1752 births

Category:1849 deaths

Category:Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz alumni

Category:People from Würzburg (district)

Category:18th-century German philosophers

Category:German revolutionaries

Category:Spies of the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars

Category:German male writers

Category:Jacobins

Category:19th-century German philosophers