Joseph von Gorres

Joseph von Görres , 1776-1848, German historian, journalist, and writer. As lecturer on philosophy at the Univ. of Heidelberg he befriended Joachim von Arnim and Clemens Brentano, whose folk song collection he followed with a collection of folk tales, Deutsche Volksbücher (1807). A typical romantic, Görres investigated Middle Eastern myths and edited the epic Lohengrin (1813). At first he supported the French Revolution, but he later became a liberal nationalist with a violent hatred for Napoleon I; his principal work, Germany and the Revolution (1819, tr. 1820), greatly influenced contemporary politics. From 1814 to 1816, Görres edited the Rheinische Merkur. This newspaper, although suppressed in the period of reaction, set the style of modern political journalism. A Roman Catholic, Görres wrote books and essays on religious subjects and many works on literature, history, and folklore.

Görres, Johann Joseph von (1776–1848), German Catholic writer. After various adventures, he returned to the RC faith in 1824, and in 1827 he was offered a professorship at Munich; here he became the centre of a circle of RC scholars including J. J. I. von Döllinger and J. A. Möhler. When in 1837 the Abp. of Cologne, C. A. von Droste-Vischering, was deposed and imprisoned by the Prussian government, Görres took up his cause in his tract Athanasius (1838), which brought all Catholic Germany to the defence of the Church. His writings gave an impetus to the study of the mystics and contributed to the spread of Catholic ideas in Germany.