Johann Gottfried Herder had been employed as teacher and preacher at the cathedral school of Riga (Livonia, now Latvia) for five years, when, at the age of twenty-five, he seized the opportunity to free himself from the burden of his daily duties by going on a voyage. Dissatisfied with his social life and his work as a literary critic in a merchant town, he resigned his position, certain that it was most important for him to analyze his life up to this point, to reconstitute himself as an authentic person, and to make plans for the future. He desperately wanted to see the world and, realizing that he had turned into “ein Tintenfass von gelehrter Schriftstellerei” [“an inkpot of erudite scribbling”, all quotations from

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Citation: Hoffmeister, Gerhart. "Journal meiner Reise im Jahr 1769". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 14 May 2008 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=24353, accessed 23 November 2024.]