Karl Heinrich Heydenreich as philosophical Writer

This contribution portrays the Kantian philosopher Karl Heinrich Heydenreich, who for no obvious reason fell into almost total oblivion shortly after his early death. While Heydenreich did not develop his own philosophical system comparable to the representatives of German Idealism, he nevertheless played an invaluable role in communicating, disseminating and applying the philosophy of Kant. Examining specific characteristics of Heydenreich's numerous philosophical writings, the author looks at (1) their communicative qualities, (2) their richness of content and certainty of method, and (3) the concept of a "philosophy of life", as developed by Heydenreich. The author also looks at, but does not attempt to explain, the obvious question why a writer and academic so unusually successful and well-known during his own lifetime, praised even to the point of eulogy as a philosophical genius, should be so rapidly forgotten after his death, and why this situation has remained unchanged up to the present day.