The New International Encyclopædia/Förster, Friedrich Christoph

FÖRSTER, Friedrich Christoph (1791-1868). A German historian and poet, brother of Ernst, the painter. He was born near Camburg, Saxe-Meiningen, and studied theology at Jena, but subsequently devoted his attention for a time chiefly to archæology and the history of art. On the uprising of Prussia against France in 1813 he joined the Lützow sharp-shooters together with Theodor Körner, and, like him, wrote spirited war-songs, many of which appeared in his Gedichte (1838). At the close of the war he was appointed professor in the school of engineering and artillery in Berlin, but on account of certain democratic writings he was dismissed in 1817. He then became connected with various literary journals, among them the Neue Berliner Monatsschrift and the Vossische Zeitung, and in 1829 was made curator in the Royal Museum of Berlin. His writings include: Albrecht von Wallenstein (1834); Gustav Adolf (1833), an historical drama; Preussens Helden in Krieg und Frieden (1846), a severely criticised history of Prussia from 1640 to 1815; and a partial autobiography published posthumously in 1873, under the title Kunst und Leben.