The Encyclopedia Americana (1920)/Feuerbach, Paul Johann Anselm von

FEUERBACH, Paul Johann Anselm von, powl yō'hän än'zelm fon, German jurist and criminal law reformer: b. Hainichen, near Jena, 14 Nov. 1775; d. Frankfort-on-Main, 29 May 1833. He was professor at Jena (1801), Kiel (1802), Landshut (1804); planned a new penal code for Bavaria, which was enunciated in 1813, and was subsequently adopted by other governments. He was later president of the Court of Appeals at Anspach. Among his best-known works are ‘Critique of Natural Law’ (1796); ‘Anti-Hobbes’ (1798); ‘Lehrbuch des gemeinen in Deutschland geltenden peinlichen Privatrechts’ (1801); ‘Merkwürdige Kriminalrechtsfälle’ (1808-11); ‘Kaspar Hauser: An Instance of a Crime Against a Soul’ (1832). His works rendered notable service in the humanizing of judicial punishment and in paving the way for a psychological treatment of criminal cases.