Education
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.
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). 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. 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. Möser"s Vermischte Schriften (1797-1798, 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. A statue of him by Drake was unveiled in Osnabrück in 1836.
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.
Academy of Useful Science.
