Karl Friedrich Bahrdt

Karl Friedrich Bahrdt (August 25, 1741 – April 23, 1792), also spelled Carl Friedrich Bahrdt, was an unorthodox German biblical scholar, theologian, and polemicist. Controversial during his day, he is sometimes considered an "enfant terrible" and one of the most immoral characters in German learning.

Bahrdt was born on August 25, 1741, at Bischofswerda, Upper Lusatia, where his father was pastor of the local church. The elder Bahrdt was later a professor, canon, and general superintendent at Leipzig. He received his early education at the celebrated school of Pforta, but some commenters have found his training to have been grossly neglected.

At sixteen, he enrolled in the University of Leipzig, where he studied under the mystic Christian August Crusius, who was then head of the theological faculty. The boy varied the monotony of his studies by pranks which revealed his unbalanced character, including an attempt to raise spirits with the aid of Dr Faust's Höllenzwang ().

After graduation, he lectured on biblical exegesis for a time as an adjunct to his father before becoming a catechist (Katechet) at the church of St Peter. He proved an eloquent and popular preacher and returned to the university as a visiting professor (professor extraordinarius) of biblical philology. He published a popular book of devotions, The Christian in Solitude, but was required to resign his positions and leave the Leipzig in 1768 on account of his irregular conduct.

Christian Adolph Klotz was then able to secure him the chair in biblical antiquities at the University of Erfurt. As the post was unpaid and Bahrdt was now married, he made his actual living as an inn-keeper and from private tutoring. Once he completed his doctorate of theology at Erlangen, he was able to persuade the faculty at Erfurt to appoint him professor designate of theology and began reading lectures. His orthodoxy had by this time completely vanished: Bahrdt was now an extreme rationalist and determined to popularize the position. He was not dismissed on this account, however, but left Erfurt in 1771 on account of his debts and the personal and professional quarrels he had become embroiled in with his colleagues.

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