page_title: Andreas Joseph Hofmann
section_title: Early life and education
hierarchical_section_title: Andreas Joseph Hofmann / Early life and education
caption_attribution_description: Deutsch: Priesterseminar Domerschulstr. 18, Würzburg
context_page_description: Andreas Joseph Hofmann was a German philosopher and revolutionary active in the Republic of Mainz. As Chairman of the Rhenish-German National Convention, the earliest parliament in Germany based on the principle of popular sovereignty, he proclaimed the first republican state in Germany, the Rhenish-German Free State, on 18 March 1793. A strong supporter of the French Revolution, he argued for an accession of all German territory west of the Rhine to France and served in the administration of the department Mont-Tonnerre under the French Directory and the French Consulate.
context_section_description: Hofmann was born in Zell am Main near Würzburg as the son of a surgeon. After the early death of his parents, he was educated by his uncle Fahrmann, likely Andreas Joseph Fahrmann (1742-1802), 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, Hofmann studied law at the University of Mainz and at the University of Würzburg. In 1777 he moved to Vienna to gain experience at the Reichshofrat or Aulic Council, one of the supreme courts of the Holy Roman Empire and became a Privatdozent in 1778. In Vienna, Hofmann was influenced by the enlightened principles of Josephinism. Besides philosophical publications such as 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, 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. He returned to Würzburg in 1783, and was soon after employed by the Prince of Hohenzollern-Hechingen.
caption: Former Jesuit college in Würzburg, now the Catholic seminary
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