Karl Friedrich Köppen (26 April 1808 – 26 April 1863) was a German teacher and political journalist. He was one of the Young Hegelians.
Life Köppen was born in a pastor's family in Nieder-Görne, a small municipality in the Altmark. He studied theology at the University of Berlin from 1827 to 1831, but later turned to religio-critical Hegelianism. After his studies and military service in 1833, he taught at the secondary school Dorotheenstädtischer. In 1837, he met Karl Marx, with whom he developed a close friendship.
In 1840 he became one of the most active associates of Arnold Ruge, the founder of the Hallischen Jahrbücher (1841: Deutsche Jahrbücher). He wrote many reviews on political and scientific literature. Contemporary journalistic practice has been strongly influenced by his opinions reviews. He thus began a renewal of the Enlightenment as Köppen's criticism of classical literature, idealist philosophy and Romanticism. Köppen's views were deeply indebted to Karl Marx and he dedicated his book Frederick the Great and his Opponents to Marx.
He died in Berlin.
Works Literarische Einleitung in die nordische Mythologie. Berlin: Bechtold und Hartje, 1837 Friedrich der Große und seine Widersacher. Leipzig: Verlag Otto Wigand, 1840 Die Religion des Buddha. 2 vol., Berlin: F. Schneider 1857–1859. Vol. 1, Die Religion des Buddha und ihre Entstehung, Vol. 2, Die lamaische Hierarchie und Kirche Hexen und Hexenprozesse. Zur Geschichte des Aberglaubens und des inquisitorischen Prozesses. 2. Aufl., Leipzig: O. Wigand, 1858 Ausgewählte Schriften. edited by Heinz Pepperle. 2 vol., Berlin: Akademie-Verlag, 2003
References
Sources
Further reading Hirsch, Helmut (1936). Zur Genesis der Karl Friedrich Köppen-Forschung. Ein unverzichtbarer Rechenschaftsbericht. In: Lars Lambrecht (ed.): Philosophie, Literatur und Politik vor den Revolutionen von 1848. Zur Herausbildung der demokratischen Bewegungen in Europa (= Forschungen zum Junghegelianismus. Vol. 1), P. Lang, Frankfurt am Main, pp. 355-. ISBN 3-631-30567-2 Mode, H. (1978). C. F. Köppen, Pioneer of German Buddhist Research. A Friend of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. In: The Maha Bodhi. International Buddhist Monthly. Calcutta 1/1978 Schmidt, Walter (1986). Karl Friedrich Köppen, Friedrich Engels und die Terreur in der Großen Französischen Revolution. In: Beiträge zur Marx-Engels-Forschung 26, 15–23. ISSN 0232-8577 Marchand, S. (2023). "On Buddhist Studies in Nineteenth-Century Germany". In Learning from the West, Learning from the East. Leiden, The Netherlands: Brill, pp 253–283
External links Literature by and about Karl Friedrich Köppen in the catalog of the German National Library