Georg Kerner

Johann Georg Kerner (9 April 1770 – 7 April 1812) was a physician and a political journalist who became a critical chronicler of the French Revolution.

Life Provenance and kinships (Johann) Georg Kerner was the elder brother of the poet-writer Justinus Kerner. The brothers were born in Ludwigsburg, a short distance to the north of Stuttgart. Their father, Christoph Ludwig Kerner (1744–1799) was an Oberamtmann (senior government administrator) in Württemberg (like his father before him), a loyal servant of Duke Karl Eugen and a stern father to his sons.

Georg was the eldest of his parents' twelve recorded children. (Justinus was the youngest.) However, only two of the daughters and four of the sons survived to adulthood. One of the daughters later became the mother of the industrialising politician Ferdinand von Steinbeis (1807–1893). One of the other sons, Karl von Kerner served in the Württemberg army, ennobled in 1806 and later becoming Interior Minister, in which capacity he made an important contribution to modernising the steel industry.

Early years As a schoolboy attending the Latin school (classical/grammaer school) in his home town Kerner, who was physically small and weak, suffered both from his father's severity and from bullying by schoolmates. His contrarian spirit remained unbroken, however, even after his father secured his admission in 1779 to the élite Karlsschule (military and general academy) in Stuttgart, The tribute was generous, but sadly misleading. Georg Kerner's greatest purpose, the goal of his life, was a free united socially coherent Germany. In 1812 that remained a dream.

Output (selection)

Über den wichtigen Einfluß gut eingerichteter Kranken-Anstalten und Armen-Häuser auf das Wohl eines Staates. Rede zum Namenstag des Herzogs Karl Eugen. Stuttgart 1790 Einige Bemerkungen über Tochtergeschwülste. Doktorarbeit Stuttgart 1791 Briefe aus Paris. In: Klio. vol 1, sections 2–4, 1705, pp. 245–261, 310–379 and 424–506 plus vol 2, section 5, 1795, pp. 90–126 Der Nordstern. Ein politisches Wochenblatt. 1.–19. Stück, 1802 Reise über den Sund. Cotta, Tübingen 1803 Das blaue Fieber (Gedicht gegen Napoleon), not earlier than 1806 Über das Hamburgische Entbindungshaus und das Entbindungswesen der Armenanstalt. Hamburg 1810