Karl Theodor Bayrhoffer

Karl Theodor Otto Christian August Bayrhoffer (; 14 October 1812 – 3 February 1888) was a German American philosopher, free-thinker, and publicist.

In 1834 he received his PhD from the University of Marburg, where he later became a professor of philosophy. In 1847 he founded the free-thinking movement in Marburg. He became a member of the Diet of Hesse-Kassel (or Hesse-Cassel) in 1848 and in 1850 was President of the Chamber. After impeachment and the defeat of his party, he was imprisoned for a time before emigrating to the United States. and settling in Wisconsin as a farmer. When his sons became old enough to manage the farm, he returned to his writing.

In his early writings, notably in Die Idee und Geschichte der Philosophie ("Idea and History of Philosophy", 1838), he appears as a zealous disciple of Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel. Afterward he became a champion of German Catholicism and wrote Researches into the Essence, History, and Criticism of Religion (1849).

Early life On 14 October 1812, in Marburg, Karl was born to Johann Peter Bayrhoffer, a university printer and bookseller, and Maria Luisa Jungst.

Career

Professor of philosophy Bayrhoffer received his doctorate (PhD) in Philosophy from the University of Marburg in 1834. In 1838 he requested a position as an associate professor of philosophy at the university and was given it initially without pay. By 1845 he was granted a full professorship. From 1846 through 1849 Bayrhoffer was suspended three times from the university for unlawful behavior related to his activities as a German Catholic dissident. While Bayrhoffer was president, the assembly and its liberal democratic constitution, regarded the most advanced of its time, faced considerable opposition in what is now known as the Autumn Crisis of 1850 when the estates assembly refused to allow the head of Hesse-Kassel government, Daniel Hassenpflug, to levy taxes without a constitutionally required budget proposal from the state. and his wife Charlotta Lindenmeyer.

Karl and Julia Creuzer had six children between 1841 and 1852 in Germany before emigrating to the United States. After Julia's death in 1853, Karl married Charlotte Draz in 1854. Karl and Charlotte had four children, including daughter Fanny J. Bayrhoffer Thelan.

Bayrhoffer died in Monroe, Wisconsin, on 3 February 1888, at the age of 75.

Works The Fundamental Problems of Metaphysics, Presented as an Attempt at Solving Them and Presented with Fragile Theoretical-Metaphysical Fragments (1835) The concept of the organic healing of man in relation to the healing methods of the present. In addition to the preview of the current crisis in world history (1837) The Idea and History of Philosophy (1838) Contributions to the Natural Philosophy (1839) The Nature of the Universe and the Laws of Humanism, Illustrated from the Viewpoint of Reason (1871)