Wilhelm Ludwig Wekhrlin

Born July 7, 1739, near Stuttgart; died Feb. 24, 1792, in Ansbach. German publicist and satirist.

In his journals Chronologen (1779-81) and Das graue Ungeheuer (1784-87), Wekhrlin exposed the social and political conditions of life in Germany and conducted a struggle against the feudal yoke and church obscurantism. He condemned internecine wars. Wekhrlin wrote the satirical travel diary Mad Anselmus: A Journey Through Upper Germany (1778). At first Wekhrlin believed in enlightened absolutism, but later he came to accept the Great French Revolution. In 1792, Wekhrlin was arrested on suspicion of ties with the Jacobins.