FREIHERR VON ADOLF

FRANZ

See also:

• FRIEDRICH, JOHANN (1836— )

FRIEDRICH

See also:

• FREIHERR VON ADOLF FRANZ FRIEDRICH KNIGGE (1752-1796)

KNIGGE (1752-1796)  , German author, was born on the family estate of Bredenbeck near Hanover on the 16th of October 1752 . After studying law at Gottingen he was attached successively to the courts of Hesse-Cassel and Weimar as gentleman-in-waiting . Retiring from court service in 1777, he lived a private life with his family in Frankfort-on-Main, Hanau, Heidelberg and Hanover until 1791, when he was appointed Oberhauptmann (civil administrator) in Bremen, where he died on the 6th of May 1796 . Knigge, under the name "Philo," was one of the most active members of the Illuminati, a mutual moral and intellectual improvement society founded by Adam Weishaupt (1748—1830) at Ingolstadt, and which later became affiliated to the Free-masons . Knigge is known as the author of several novels, among which Der Roman meines Lebens (1781—1787; new ed., 18o5) and Die Reise with Braunschweig (1792), the latter a rather coarsely comic story, are best remembered . His chief literary achievement was, however, Uher den Umgang mit Menschen (1788), in which he lays down rules to be observed for a peaceful, happy and useful life; it has been often reprinted . Knigge's Schriften were published in 12 volumes (1804-1806) . See K . Goedeke, Adolf, Freiherr von Knigge (1844) ; and H . Klencke, Aus einer alien Kiste (Briefe, Handschriften and Dokumente aus dem Nachlasse Knigges) (1853) .