The Society

"To honor the freedom movements of German history" and thus "to connect more attentively and energetically to their buried memory" - in the spirit of these words by Gustav Heinemann, people interested in Georg Forster came together over 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.

Its work serves - in the wording of the statutes - both the "cultivation of the philosophical, political and scientific ideas and research represented by Georg Forster and his fellow campaigners", as well as the "mediation between this tradition of unspoiled freshness and the tasks facing us today; these include, crucially, the commemoration of the political exiles of the German intelligentsia and the appreciation of their contributions to German culture".

Today's approach to Georg Forster, especially after the years of Forster's political instrumentalization 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 naturalist, the founder of German Indology and the art observer and critic, but also the democrat and revolutionary.

The immense breadth of his scientific interests and his Enlightenment activities, his work as a cultural mediator and the conscious step he took from theory to practice; from today's perspective, all this is what defines Georg Forster and justifies the interest in the work and person of a long suppressed and misjudged contemporary of Goethe and the French Revolution.

The aim of the Georg Forster Society is to communicate and promote the work and spirit of Georg Forster. With this in mind, it regularly organizes academic conferences, symposia and public lectures. It organizes exhibitions and generally promotes research on Georg Forster.

Since 1997, it has published the Georg Forster Studies, which have also been accompanied by supplements since 1998.

All "natural persons" interested in Georg Forster can become members of the Georg Forster Society, as well as associations, scientific institutes, authorities, etc. The annual membership fee is EUR 25 for active members or EUR 15 at a reduced rate (e.g. students, unemployed etc.). This includes the annual free delivery of the latest volume of Georg Forster Studies as well as the opportunity to obtain additional copies and older volumes at a reduced membership price.

The Georg Forster Society is recognized as a non-profit organization 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