REIMARUS, HERMANN SAMUEL (1694-1768), Ger man philosopher and man of letters, was born at Hamburg, on Dec. 22, 1694. He was educated by his father and by the famous scholar J. A. Fabricius, whose son-in-law he became, and later at Jena. He was professor of Hebrew and Oriental languages in the high school of his native city from 1727 till his death. His house was the centre of the highest culture, and a monument of his in fluence in that city still remains in the Haus der patriotischen Gesellschaft, where the learned and artistic societies partly founded by him still meet. He died on March 1, 1768.
Reimarus's reputation as a scholar rests on the valuable edition of Dio Cassius (1750-52) which he prepared from the materials collected by J. A. Fabricius. He also published Abhandlungen von den vornehmsten W ahrheiten der natiirlichen Religion (Hamburg, 6th ed. 1791) ; Vernunftlehre (Hamburg and Kiel, 1756, 5th ed., i 790) Betrachtungen fiber der Kunsttriebe der Thiere (Ham burg, 5762, 4th ed., 1798). But his work is his Apologie oder Schutzschrift fur die verniinftigen Verehrer Gottes (carefully kept back during his lifetime), from which, after his death, Lessing published certain chapters under the title of the Wolfenbuttel Fragments (see LESSING). Other portions were pub lished by "C. A. Schmidt" (1787) and D. W. Klose (1850-52).
The original MS. is in the Hamburg town library.
The standpoint of the Apologie is that of pure naturalistic deism. Miracles and mysteries, with the exception of the Creation, are denied, and natural religion is put forward as the absolute contradiction of revealed. The essential truths of the former are the existence of a wise and good Creator and the immortality of the soul. These truths are discoverable by reason, and are such as can constitute the basis of a universal religion and lead to happi ness. A revealed religion could never obtain universality, as it could never be intelligible and credible to all men.
See the "Fragments" as published by Lessing, reprinted in vol. xv. of Lessing's Werke, Hempel's edition ; D. F. Strauss, H. S. Reimarus and seine Schutzsckrift fiir die verniinftigen Verehrer Gottes (1862, 2nd ed., 1877) ; C. Voysey, Fragments from Reimarus (1879) (a translation of Strauss's book, with the second part of the seventh fragment, on the "Object of Jesus and his Disciples") ; R. Schettler, Die Stellung d. Philos. Reimarus zur Religion (Leipzig, 1904) , and J. Engert, Reimarus als Metaphysiker (Paderborn, 1909).