Editing Georg Forster (section)

== Forster at universities ==
The publication of ''A Voyage Round the World'' brought Forster scientific recognition all over Europe.<ref>{{cite journal|last=Gray|first=Sally Hatch|url=http://openinquiryarchive.net/2012/04/28/disinterested-pleasure-and-aesthetic-autonomy/|title=Disinterested Pleasure and Aesthetic Autonomy in Georg Forster's Voyage 'round the World|journal=Open Inquiry Archive|volume=1|issue=5|year=2012|access-date=23 May 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121024105542/http://openinquiryarchive.net/2012/04/28/disinterested-pleasure-and-aesthetic-autonomy/|archive-date=24 October 2012|url-status=live}}</ref> The respectable [[Royal Society]] made him a member on 9 January 1777,<ref>{{Cite web|url = http://www.royalsoc.co.uk/downloaddoc.asp?id=778|title = Fellows of the Royal Society – F|access-date = 8 May 2015|publisher = Royal Society|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20071008133318/http://www.royalsoc.co.uk/downloaddoc.asp?id=778|archive-date = 8 October 2007}}</ref> though he was not even 23 years old. He was granted similar titles from academies ranging from [[Berlin Society of Friends of Natural Science|Berlin]] to [[Royal Madrilenian Academy of Medicine|Madrid]].{{sfn|Uhlig|2004|p=75}} These appointments, however, were unpaid.

He travelled to Paris to seek out a discussion with the American revolutionary [[Benjamin Franklin]] in 1777.<ref>{{Cite magazine|url = http://harpers.org/blog/2008/04/georg-forsters-recollection-of-benjamin-franklin/|title = Georg Forster's Recollection of Benjamin Franklin|date = 13 April 2008|access-date = 8 May 2015|magazine = Harper's Magazine|last1 = Horton|first1 = Scott|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20150708031910/http://harpers.org/blog/2008/04/georg-forsters-recollection-of-benjamin-franklin/|archive-date = 8 July 2015|url-status = live}}</ref> In 1778, he went to Germany to take a teaching position as a Natural History professor at the [[Collegium Carolinum (Kassel)|Collegium Carolinum]] in [[Kassel]], where he met [[Therese Huber|Therese Heyne]], the daughter of classicist [[Christian Gottlob Heyne]]. They married in 1785 (which was after he left Kassel) and had two surviving children, [[Therese Forster]] and Clara Forster, but an unhappy marriage. She would eventually leave him for [[Ludwig Ferdinand Huber]] and became one of the first independent female writers in Germany. . From his time in Kassel on, Forster actively corresponded with important figures of the [[Age of Enlightenment|Enlightenment]], including [[Gotthold Ephraim Lessing|Lessing]], [[Johann Gottfried Herder|Herder]], [[Christoph Martin Wieland|Wieland]] and [[Johann Wolfgang von Goethe|Goethe]]. He also initiated cooperation between the Carolinum in Kassel and the [[University of Göttingen]] where his friend [[Georg Christoph Lichtenberg]] worked. Together, they founded and published the scientific and literary journal ''Göttingisches Magazin der Wissenschaften und Litteratur''.{{sfn|Saine|1972|p=27}} Forster's closest friend, [[Samuel Thomas von Sömmering]], arrived in Kassel shortly after Forster, and both were soon involved with the [[Rosicrucian]]s in Kassel, where Forster took the secret name ''Amadeus Sragorisinus Segenitor''.<ref name="harp_intro">{{Cite encyclopedia |title=Das Abenteuer der Freiheit und die Liebe zur Welt |encyclopedia=Georg Forster: Reise um die Welt : illustriert von eigener Hand |publisher=Eichborn |location=Frankfurt am Main |last=Harpprecht |first=Klaus |date=2007 |page=22 |isbn=978-3-8218-6203-3 |oclc=173842524}}</ref>

[[File:ForsterUniversitaetsstrasse.jpg|thumb|right|The house in which Georg Forster lived during his time in [[Mainz]], with a commemorative plaque next to the door]]
However, by 1783 Forster saw that his involvement with the Rosicrucians not only led him away from real science, but also deeper into debt{{sfn|Saine|1972|p=33}} (it is said he was not good at money{{sfn|Thomas|Berghof|2000|p=xx}}); for these reasons Forster was happy to accept a proposal by the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth [[Commission of National Education]] and became Chair of Natural History at [[Vilnius University]] in 1784.{{sfn|Reintjes|1953|p=50}} Initially, he was accepted well in [[Vilnius]], but he felt more and more isolated with time. Most of his contacts were still with scientists in Germany; especially notable is his dispute with [[Immanuel Kant]] about the definition of [[race (classification of human beings)|race]].{{sfn|Saine|1972|pp=43–48}} In 1785, Forster traveled to [[University of Halle|Halle]] where he submitted his thesis on the plants of the South Pacific for a doctorate in medicine.<ref name="OnTheContinent">{{cite book |last1=Aulie |first1=Richard P. |author-link=Richard P. Aulie |date=1999 |title=The Voyages of Captain James Cook |chapter-url=http://www.captaincooksociety.com/home/detail/on-the-continent |publisher=Captain Cook Study Unit |access-date=14 May 2015 |chapter=On the Continent}}</ref> Back in Vilnius, Forster's ambitions to build a real natural history scientific centre could not get appropriate financial support from the authorities in Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. Moreover, his famous speech on natural history in 1785 went almost unnoticed and was not printed until 1843. These events led to high tensions between him and the local community.<ref name="Bodi">{{cite book|last=Bodi|first=Leslie|chapter=Georg Forster: The "Pacific Expert" of eighteenth-century Germany|title=Literatur, Politik, Identität – Literature, Politics, Cultural Identity|pages=29, 54|publisher=Röhrig Universitätsverlag|year=2002|isbn=3-86110-332-X}}</ref> Eventually, he broke the contract six years short of its completion as [[Catherine II of Russia]] had offered him a place on a journey around the world (the [[Mulovsky expedition]]) for a high honorarium and a position as a professor in [[Saint Petersburg]].<ref name="King">{{cite journal|last=King|first=Robert J.|year=2008|title=The Mulovsky expedition and Catherine II's North Pacific empire|journal=Australian Slavonic and East European Studies|volume=21|issue=1/2|pages=101–126|url=http://miskinhill.com.au/journals/asees/21:1-2/mulovsky-expedition|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091025062759/http://miskinhill.com.au/journals/asees/21:1-2/mulovsky-expedition|archive-date=25 October 2009}}</ref> This resulted in a conflict between Forster and the influential Polish scientist [[Jędrzej Śniadecki]]. However, the Russian proposal was withdrawn and Forster left Vilnius. He then settled in [[Mainz]], where he became head librarian of the [[University of Mainz]], a position held previously by his friend [[Johannes von Müller]], who made sure Forster would succeed him when Müller moved to the administration of [[Prince-elector|Elector]] [[Friedrich Karl Josef von Erthal]].{{sfn|Saine|1972|p=59}}

Forster regularly published essays on contemporary explorations and continued to be a very prolific translator; for instance, he wrote about Cook's third journey to the South Pacific, and about the [[Mutiny on the Bounty|''Bounty'']] expedition, as well as translating Cook's and [[William Bligh|Bligh]]'s diaries from these journeys into German.<ref>{{cite journal|last=King|first=Robert J.|title=The Call of the South Seas: Georg Forster and the expeditions to the Pacific of Lapérouse, Mulovsky and Malaspina|journal=Georg-Forster-Studien|volume=XIII|year=2008}}</ref> From his London years, Forster was in contact with Sir [[Joseph Banks]], the initiator of the Bounty expedition and a participant in Cook's first journey. While at the University of Vilnius he wrote the article "Neuholland und die brittische Colonie in Botany-Bay", published in the ''Allgemeines historisches Taschenbuch'' (Berlin, December 1786), an essay on the future prospects of the English colony founded in [[New South Wales]] in 1788.<ref>{{Cite book|title = Neuholland und die brittische Colonie in Botany-Bay|last = Sprengel|first = Matthias Christian|publisher = Australasian Hydrographic Society|year = 2008|url = http://www.australiaonthemap.org.au/content/view/47/59/|orig-year = 1787|trans-title = New Holland and the British Colony at Botany Bay|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20080719062302/http://www.australiaonthemap.org.au/content/view/47/59/|archive-date = 19 July 2008|chapter = German text (Google Books)|chapter-url = https://books.google.com/books?id=MvM9AAAAcAAJ&q=Taschenbuch+1787+Forster&pg=PA11|others = Translated by Robert J. King}}</ref>

Another interest of his was [[indology]] – one of the main goals of his failed expedition to be financed by Catherine II had been to reach India. He translated the [[Sanskrit]] play ''[[Shakuntala]]'' using a [[Latin]] version provided by Sir [[William Jones (philologist)|William Jones]]; this strongly influenced [[Johann Gottfried Herder]], and triggered German interest in the culture of India.{{sfn|Ackerknecht|1955|p=85}}