Georg Büchner, poet and scientist, was born at Goddelau in the vicinity of Darmstadt, October 17, 1813. Not long afterwards the family moved to Darmstadt; this accounts for the fact that Darmstadt is frequently spoken of as Georg Büchner's native city. He studied the natural sciences, later also philosophy, at Strassburg and Giessen. While a student at Giessen he became involved in secret revolutionary activities, as a result of which, and particularly as a result of his connection with the composition, publication, and secret distribution of the inflammatory pamphlet, The Hessian Courier, he was forced to flee in March, 1835, to Strassburg. Henceforth he kept himself aloof from political and seditious machinations and devoted himself exclusively to scientific and philosophical studies and to literary work. For his achievements in science and philosophy the University of Zürich granted him the doctorate, and he began giving lectures there on comparative anatomy in October, 1836. He died of typhoid, February 19, 1837, just four months after his removal to Zürich, at the age of twenty-three years and six months, honored and lamented by his colleagues and students, upon whom he had made an unusually deep impression.
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