Gottfried Achenwall

Gottfried Achenwall (20 October 1719 – 1 May 1772) was a German philosopher and statistician. He is counted among the inventors of statistics.

Achenwall was born in Elbing (now Elbląg). Beginning in 1738 he studied in Jena, Halle, again Jena and Leipzig. In the years 1743 to 1746 he worked as controller in Dresden. He was awarded his magister in 1746 by the philosophical faculty of Leipzig and went in the following to Marburg to work as assistant professor lecturing history, statistics, natural and international law. In 1748 he was called to Göttingen to become extraordinary professor of philosophy, in 1753 extraordinary professor of law and regular professor of philosophy. In 1761 professor of natural law and politics, in 1762 doctor of both laws.

In 1765, Achenwall became court counsellor of the Royal British and the Electoral court of Hanover. With financial support from King George III he travelled to Switzerland and France in 1751 and to Holland and England in 1759.

Publications

• Abriß der neuen Staatswissenschaft der vornehmen Europäischen Reiche und Republiken, 1749, in the following editions titled Staatsverfassung der Europäischen Reiche im Grundrisse, 1752 ff.
• (with Johann Stephan Pütter:) Naturrecht, 1750, 1753
• Jus Naturae, 2 vol., 1755-56 ff, edition VII in 1781 with a preface from Johann Henrick Christian de Selchow.
• Grundsätze der Europäischen Geschichte, zur politischen Kenntnis der heutigen vornehmsten Staaten, 1754, 2^nd edition 1759 titled Die Geschichte der heutigen vornehmsten Staaten im Grundrisse, 5^th edition 1779
• Entwurf der Europäischen Staatshändel des 17. und 18. Jahrhunderts, 1756, 4^th edition 1759
• Staatsklugheit nach ihren ersten Grundsätzen, 1761, 4^th edition 1759
• Juris gentium Europaei practici primae lineae, 1775, unfinished.

Sources

• Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie - online version and facsimile