Andreas Joseph Hofmann

Andreas Joseph Hofmann (July 14, 1752 – September 6, 1849) was a German philosopher and revolutionary active in the Republic of Mainz. As Chairman of the Rhenish-German National Convention, the earliest parliament in Germany based on the principle of popular sovereignty, he proclaimed the first republican state in Germany, the Rhenish-German Free State, on March 18, 1793. A strong supporter of the French Revolution, he argued for an accession of all German territory west of the Rhine to France and served in the administration of the department Mont-Tonnerre under the French Directory and the French Consulate.

Hofmann was born in Zell am Main near Würzburg as son of a surgeon. After the early death of his parents, he was educated by his uncle Franz Xaver Fahrmann, professor of moral theology at the University of Würzburg. After a year at a Jesuit seminary, Hofmann studied law at the University of Mainz and at the University of Würzburg.

After some years at the Reichshofrat in Vienna, Hofmann was forced to leave due to his critical publications and returned to Mainz in 1784, where he was hired at the University during the progressive reforms by Elector Friedrich Karl von Erthal. He taught History of Philosophy until 1791, when he became chair of natural justice. Hofmann was a liberal and progressive thinker (for instance, he supported the use of German instead of Latin in University lectures and in church). However, he became disillusioned with the pace of the reforms in Mainz and welcomed the French Revolution from the start. As he declared his support openly in his lectures, he was soon spied on by the Mainz authorities. However, before the investigation of his activities had progressed beyond the questioning of his students, the archbishop and his court fled from the advancing French troops under General Custine, who arrived in Mainz on October 21, 1792.

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