Christoph Friedrich Nicolai

Christoph Friedrich Nicolai
Born	Berlin, Margraviate of Brandenburg
Died	January 11, 1811(1811-01-11) (aged 77) Berlin
Occupation(s)	Author, bookseller, critic, historian
Known for	Satirical fiction, travel literature, literary criticism

Christoph Friedrich Nicolai (born 18 March 1733, died 11 January 1811) was a notable German author, bookseller, critic, and historian with a focus on regional topics, recognized for his satirical fiction and travel literature.

Life

Nicolai was a native of Berlin and took over the bookselling enterprise Nicolaische Buchhandlung from his father, Christoph Gottlieb Nicolai. He pursued his education in Frankfurt (Oder) beginning in 1749, where he acquired both professional skills in the family business and an appreciation for English literary works.

After returning to Berlin in 1752, Nicolai became involved in literary controversies, notably defending John Milton against the criticisms of Johann Christoph Gottsched. In 1755, he anonymously released Briefe über den jetzigen Zustand der schönen Wissenschaften in Deutschland, a work that critiqued both Gottsched and his adversaries. His promotion of English literature brought him into close collaboration with intellectuals such as Gotthold Ephraim Lessing and Moses Mendelssohn. Together with Mendelssohn, he founded the journal Bibliothek der schönen Wissenschaften (1757–1760). Later, alongside Lessing and Mendelssohn, Nicolai co-edited the influential literary review Briefe, die neueste Literatur betreffend (1759–1765), followed by Allgemeine deutsche Bibliothek (1765–1792), which advocated Enlightenment principles opposing religious dogmatism and excessive literary ornamentation.

Although most of his novels have faded into obscurity, some like Das Leben und die Meinungen des Herrn Magister Sebaldus Nothanker (1773–1776) and the satirical Freuden des jungen Werthers (1775) were well received during his lifetime. His extensive work Anekdoten von König Friedrich II. von Preussen (1788–1792) provides valuable historical perspectives on Frederick the Great’s court. Between 1788 and 1796, Nicolai issued a twelve-volume travel series titled Beschreibung einer Reise durch Deutschland und die Schweiz, which reflected his increasingly conservative outlook in later years. Despite his early stature as a literary figure and self-proclaimed successor to Lessing’s legacy, Nicolai’s strict conservatism ultimately limited his enduring influence.

In addition to his literary contributions, Nicolai recorded some of the earliest documented instances of visual hallucinations occurring with maintained insight and without association to psychiatric illness, thereby contributing to foundational neuropsychological knowledge. His detailed observations on these phenomena were significant enough to be cited in subsequent literary contexts.

He passed away in Berlin in 1811. His Bildniss und Selbsbiographie was published by Moses Samuel Löwe in 1806 within the collection Bildnisse jetzt lebender Berliner Gelehrter.

Further reading

• Leopold Friedrich Günther von Goeckingk, Friedrich Nicolais Leben und literarischer Nachlass (1820)
• Jakob Minor, Lessings Jugendfreunde, in Joseph Kürschner's Deutsche Nationalliteratur, vol. lxxii. (1883)
• Otto Hoffmann, Herders Briefwechsel mit Nicolai (1887)
• Ernst Friedel, Zur Geschichte der Nicolaischen Buchhandlung und des Hauses Brüderstraße 13 in Berlin (1891)
• Ernst Altenkrüger, Friedrich Nicolais Jugendschriften (1894)
• Pamela E. Selwyn, Everyday Life in the German Book Trade: Friedrich Nicolai as Bookseller and Publisher in the Age of Enlightenment, Penn State Press, 2010.