The Society

‘Honouring the stirrings of freedom in German history’ and thus ‘drawing more attentively and energetically on its buried memory’ – in the spirit of these words by Gustav Heinemann, those interested in Georg Forster came together more than a decade ago in Kassel, one of the places where he worked. At the beginning of 1989, the Georg Forster Society was founded as a scientific society.

According to its statutes, its work serves both to ‘preserve the philosophical, political and scientific ideas and research represented by Georg Forster and his colleagues’ and to ‘mediate between this tradition of timeless freshness and the tasks facing us in our time; These include, crucially, commemorating the political exile of the German intelligentsia and honouring their contributions to German culture.’

Today's approach to Georg Forster, particularly after years of political exploitation of Forster by the former GDR, focuses on his entire personality and encompasses the circumnavigator, ethnologist and cultural researcher as well as the essayist and travel writer, the natural scientist, the founder of German Indology, the art connoisseur and art critic, but also the democrat and revolutionary.

The immense breadth of his scientific interests and his educational activities, his work as a cultural mediator and his conscious shift from theory to practice – all this is what defines Georg Forster from today's perspective and explains the interest in the work and person of a long-suppressed and misunderstood contemporary of Goethe and the French Revolution.

The Georg Forster Society aims to communicate and promote the work and spirit of Georg Forster. To this end, it regularly organises academic conferences, symposia and public lectures. It organises exhibitions and generally promotes research on Georg Forster.

Since 1997, it has been publishing the Georg Forster Studies, to which supplements have also been added since 1998.

Any ‘natural person’ interested in Georg Forster can become a member of the Georg Forster Society, as can associations, scientific institutes, authorities, etc. The annual membership fee for active members is EUR 25 or a reduced rate of EUR 15 (e.g. students, unemployed persons, etc.). This includes a free annual subscription to the latest volume of Georg Forster Studies and the option to purchase additional copies and older volumes at a reduced member price.

The Georg Forster Society is recognised as a non-profit organisation by the Kassel-Hofgeismar tax office. Membership fees and donations are tax deductible. A corresponding certificate will be issued at the beginning of the following year.

We would be delighted to welcome you as a member of the Georg Forster Society.

Statutes of the Georg Forster Society. (Link follows)