Johann Georg Adam Forster (
November 27, 1754 –
January 10, 1794) was a
German naturalist,
ethnologist,
travel writer,
journalist, and
revolutionary. At an early age, he accompanied his father on several scientific expeditions, including
James Cook's second voyage to the
Pacific. His report from that journey,
A Voyage Round the World, contributed significantly to the ethnology of the people of
Polynesia and remains a respected work among both scientists and ordinary readers. As a result of the report Forster was admitted to the
Royal Society at the early age of twenty-two and came to be considered one of the founders of modern scientific travel literature. After returning to continental Europe, Forster turned towards academia. He traveled to
Paris to seek out a
discussion with the American revolutionary
Benjamin Franklin in
1777. He taught
natural history at the
Collegium Carolinum in
Kassel (1778-1784), and later at
Academy of Vilna (Vilnius University) (1784–1787). He then (1788) became
head librarian at the
University of Mainz. Most of his scientific work during this time consisted of essays on
botany and ethnology, but he also prefaced and translated many books about travels and explorations, including a German translation of Cook's diaries. Forster was a central figure of the
Enlightenment in Germany, and corresponded with most of its adherents, including his close friend
Georg Christoph Lichtenberg. His ideas and personality influenced
Alexander von Humboldt, one of the great scientists of the 19th century]. When the
French took control of
Mainz in 1792, Forster became one of the founders of the
Jacobin Club there and went on to play a leading role in the
Mainz Republic, the earliest
republican state in Germany. During July 1793 and while he was in
Paris as a delegate of the young Mainz Republic,
Prussian and
Austrian coalition forces regained control of the city and Forster was declared an outlaw. Unable to return to Germany and separated from his friends and family, he died in Paris of illness in early 1794.
