Justus Möser

Last updated
Justus Moser Justus-moeser 1.jpg
Justus Möser

Justus Möser (December 14, 1720, Osnabrück January 8, 1794, Osnabrück) was a German jurist and social theorist, best known for his innovative history of Osnabrück which stressed social and cultural themes.

Osnabrück Place in Lower Saxony, Germany

Osnabrück is a city in the federal state of Lower Saxony in north-west Germany. It is situated in a valley penned between the Wiehen Hills and the northern tip of the Teutoburg Forest. With a population of 168,145 Osnabrück is one of the four largest cities in Lower Saxony. The city is the centrepoint of the Osnabrück Land region as well as the District of Osnabrück.



Having studied law at the universities of Jena and Göttingen, he settled in his native town as a lawyer and was soon appointed advocatus patriae (state attorney) by his fellow citizens. From 1762 to 1768 he was justiciarius (chief justice) of the criminal court in Osnabrück, and in 1768 was made Geheimer Referendar (privy councillor of justice). For 20 years, he was the legal adviser of the lay Protestant bishop of Osnabrück, Prince Frederick, Duke of York and Albany, a son of George III of the United Kingdom and of his Queen consort Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz.

Jurisprudence theoretical study of law, by philosophers and social scientists

Jurisprudence or legal theory is the theoretical study of law, principally by philosophers but, from the twentieth century, also by social scientists. Scholars of jurisprudence, also known as jurists or legal theorists, hope to obtain a deeper understanding of legal reasoning, legal systems, legal institutions, and the role of law in society.

University of Jena university located in Jena, Thuringia, Germany


University of Göttingen university in the city of Göttingen, Germany

The University of Göttingen is a public research university in the city of Göttingen, Germany. Founded in 1734 by George II, King of Great Britain and Elector of Hanover, and starting classes in 1737, the Georgia Augusta was conceived to promote the ideals of the Enlightenment. It is the oldest university in the state of Lower Saxony and the largest in student enrollment, which stands at around 31,500.

In addition to being a statesman and administrator, Möser was also a publicist, historian, and social analyst. His history of Osnabrück (1768; 2nd ed. 1780; 3rd ed. 1819) was and remains highly regarded. In his Patriotische Phantasien (1775-1786; 2nd ed. by his daughter, IWJ von Voigts, 1804; new ed. by Reinhard Zöllner, 1871) he pleaded for a natural, organic development of the state in place of arbitrary laws imposed by the sovereign.

In his review of Justus Moser's economic views, Jerry Muller (1990) is careful to point out that Moser was likely a "precursor of modern conservatism" for his views on 18th Century capitalism would offend many a 21st Century conservative. Muller (1990) points out that "for Moser the expansion of the market was primarily a threat, ... in tandem, cameralism and capitalism threatened to erode the existing ... institutions which he so valued." Muller (1990) added more on this point: "New forms of capitalist economic organization ... have led to the disappearance of the link between ownership of property and civic responsibility. Men are so involved in acquisition ... that they no longer have time for political concerns and public life."


Cameralism was a German science of administration in the 18th and early 19th centuries that aimed at strong management of a centralized economy for mainly the state's benefit. The discipline in its most narrow definition concerned the management of the state's finances. According to David F. Lindenfeld, it was divided into three: public finance, Oeconomie and Polizei. Here Oeconomie did not mean exactly 'economics', nor Polizei 'public policy' in the modern senses.

Thus Jerry Muller (2002) argues that Möser's views on the economic and political aspects of society contrast sharply with those of his much more renowned contemporary, Adam Smith, and anticipate some of the ideas of the German Historical School and the social market economy. In some ways, Möser can be seen as the German counterpart to Edmund Burke. Knudson (1986) sees him as a man of the enlightenment who sought to understand the world around him. He only came to be seen as a man of the right after the French Revolution had pushed everything much further left.

Adam Smith 18th-century Scottish moral philosopher and political economist

Adam Smith was a Scottish economist, philosopher and author as well as a moral philosopher, a pioneer of political economy and a key figure during the Scottish Enlightenment, also known as ''The Father of Economics'' or ''The Father of Capitalism''. Smith wrote two classic works, The Theory of Moral Sentiments (1759) and An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations (1776). The latter, often abbreviated as The Wealth of Nations, is considered his magnum opus and the first modern work of economics. In his work, Adam Smith introduced his theory of absolute advantage.

The German Historical School of Jurisprudence is a 19th-century intellectual movement in the study of German law. With Romanticism as its background, it emphasized the historical limitations of the law. It stood in opposition to an earlier movement called Vernunftrecht.

The social market economy, also called Rhine capitalism, is a socioeconomic model combining a free market capitalist economic system alongside social policies that establish both fair competition within the market and a welfare state. It is sometimes classified as a coordinated market economy. The social market economy was originally promoted and implemented in West Germany by the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) under Chancellor Konrad Adenauer in 1949. Its origins can be traced to the interwar Freiburg school of economic thought.

Möser's Vermischte Schriften (1797–98, published by Nicolai with a biography) balances its insights into human nature with humour and witty sallies. He was also a poet of some repute, and in 1749 published a tragedy, Arminius. Möser also wrote short stories. [1] A statue of him by Drake was unveiled in Osnabrück in 1836.

Christoph Friedrich Nicolai German writer

Christoph Friedrich Nicolai was a German writer and bookseller.

Friedrich Drake German sculptor

Friedrich Drake was a German sculptor, best known for his huge memorial statues.

His collected works in 10 volumes, Sämtliche Werke, were published by B.R. Abeken, 1842-1844. They are online in German at the Internet Archive. Johann Goethe was interested in his writings and included information about him in his own autobiography. [2]


Related Research Articles

Johann Joachim Winckelmann German art historian and archaeologist

Johann Joachim Winckelmann was a German art historian and archaeologist. He was a pioneering Hellenist who first articulated the difference between Greek, Greco-Roman and Roman art. "The prophet and founding hero of modern archaeology", Winckelmann was one of the founders of scientific archaeology and first applied the categories of style on a large, systematic basis to the history of art. Many consider him the father of the discipline of art history. He was one of the first to separate Greek Art into periods, and time classifications. His would be the decisive influence on the rise of the neoclassical movement during the late 18th century. His writings influenced not only a new science of archaeology and art history but Western painting, sculpture, literature and even philosophy. Winckelmann's History of Ancient Art (1764) was one of the first books written in German to become a classic of European literature. His subsequent influence on Lessing, Herder, Goethe, Hölderlin, Heine, Nietzsche, George, and Spengler has been provocatively called "the Tyranny of Greece over Germany."

Johann Gottfried Herder German philosopher, theologian, poet, and literary critic

Johann GottfriedHerder was a German philosopher, theologian, poet, and literary critic. He is associated with the Enlightenment, Sturm und Drang, and Weimar Classicism. Like Lessing, Goethe and Schleiermacher, in many respects, Herder was a Spinozist.

Democratic capitalism, also known as capitalist democracy, is a political, economic and social ideology that involves the combination of a liberal democratic political system with a capitalist economic system. It is based on a tripartite arrangement of a private sector-driven market economy based predominantly on a liberal democratic policy, economic incentives through free markets, fiscal responsibility and a liberal moral-cultural system which encourages pluralism. This ideology supports a capitalist economy subject to control by a democratic political system that is supported by the majority. It stands in contrast to corporatism by limiting the influence of special interest groups, including corporate lobbyists, on politics.

Bernhard Rudolf Abeken was a German philologist and literature historian.

Jakob Michael Reinhold Lenz German writer

Jakob Michael Reinhold Lenz was a Baltic German writer of the Sturm und Drang movement.

Walhalla memorial museum

The Walhalla is a hall of fame that honors laudable and distinguished people in German history – "politicians, sovereigns, scientists and artists of the German tongue"; thus the celebrities honored are drawn from Greater Germany, a wider area than today's Germany, and even as far away as Britain in the case of several Anglo-Saxons who are honored. The hall is a neo-classical building above the Danube River, east of Regensburg in Bavaria.

Karl August, Grand Duke of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach German noble

Karl August, sometimes anglicised as Charles Augustus, was the sovereign Duke of Saxe-Weimar and of Saxe-Eisenach from 1758, Duke of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach from its creation in 1809, and grand duke from 1815 until his death. He is noted for the intellectual brilliance of his court.

Justus Jonas German Lutheran reformer

Justus Jonas, the Elder, or simply Justus Jonas, was a German Lutheran theologian and reformer. He was a Jurist, Professor and Hymn writer. He is best known for his translations of the writings of Martin Luther and Philipp Melanchthon. He accompanied Martin Luther in his final moments.

Johann Heinrich Jung German ophthalmologist, economist and author

Johann Heinrich Jung, better known by his assumed name Heinrich Stilling, was a German author.

Weimar Classicism

Weimar Classicism was a German literary and cultural movement, whose practitioners established a new humanism, from the synthesis of ideas from Romanticism, Classicism, and the Age of Enlightenment.


Conservatism in Germany has encompassed a wide range of theories and ideologies in the last three hundred years, but most historical conservative theories supported the monarchical/hierarchical political structure.

Johann Friedrich August Göttling German chemist

Johann Friedrich August Göttling was a notable German chemist.



The Volkstum is the entire utterances of a Volk or ethnic minority over its lifetime, expressing a "Volkscharakter" this unit had in common. It was the defining idea of the Völkisch movement.

Herbord Sigismund Ludwig von Bar German politician

Herbord Sigismund Ludwig von Bar was a lawyer in the Electorate of Brunswick-Lüneburg who became a politician and public official, serving at one stage as president of the provisional parliament in the Kingdom of Hanover. His career spanned the French occupation and its aftermath.

Jonathan B. Knudsen was an American historian who specialized in 18th Century German history, a translator from German to English, and a Professor of history at Wellesley College. He did his graduate work at the University of California, Berkeley and was the last advisee of Hans Rosenberg. His other graduate advisors were Gerald Feldman and Wolfgang Sauer (de).