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 "Aufklärung " (q. v .) that characterised the 18th. His last work was entitled "Disraeli's Romantic and Bismarck's Socialistic Imperialism" (1809-1882).