A daring Biblical critic, and violent polemic on political as well as theological subjects; born at Saxe-Altenburg; regarded the Christian religion as overlaid and obscured by accretions foreign to it; denied the historical truth of the Gospels, and, like a true disciple of Hegel, ascribed the troubles of the 19th century to the overmastering influence of the "Enlightenment" or the "Aufklarung" that characterised the 18th. His last work was entitled "Disraeli's Romantic and Bismarck's Socialistic Imperialism" (1809-1882).