STRAUSS, DAVID FRIEDRICH German theologian and man of letters, was born at Ludwigsburg, near Stuttgart, on Jan. 27, 1808. After a short interval of teaching he went to Berlin (1831), but Hegel died just at the time of his arrival, and of Schleiermacher's lectures only those on Jesus inter ested him. But he mixed with the disciples of Hegel, and con ceived the main idea of his two great works—the Leben Jesu and the Christliche Dogmatik. He returned to Tiibingen, where he lec tured for a time, but soon found it necessary to give his whole energies to the preparation of his book, the Leben Jesu (1835). The work produced an immense sensation by its destructive method. In 1840 and the following year he published his Christ liche Glaubenslehre (2 vols.), the principle of which is that the history of Christian doctrines is their disintegration.
Between the publication of this work and that of the Friedliche Blatter he had been elected to a chair of theology in the university of Zurich. But the appointment provoked such a storm of pop ular ill will in the canton that the authorities pensioned him off before he was installed. With his Glaubenslehre he took leave of theology for upwards of twenty years. He then published a series of biographical works, which secured for him a permanent place in German literature (Schubarts Leben, 2 vols., 1849, Christian Marklin, 1851 ; Nikodemus Frischlin, 1855; Ulrich von Mitten, 3 vols., 1858-186o, 6th ed. 1895; H. S. Reimarus, 1862).
With this last-named work he returned to theology, and two years afterwards (1864) published his Leben Jesu fur das deutsche Volk (13th ed., 1904). His Christus des Glaubens und der Jesus der Geschichte (1865) is a severe criticism of Schleiermacher's lectures on the life of Jesus, which were then first published. From 1865 to 1872 Strauss resided in Darmstadt, and in 187o published his lectures on Voltaire (9th ed., 1907). His last work, Der alte and der acne Glaube (1872; 16th ed., 19o4; English translation by M. Blind, 1873), caused some consternation among his friends. Like all his critical works it suffered from his lack of critical study of the texts themselves.
AUTHORITIES.—Strauss's works were published in a collected edi tion in 12 vols., by E. Zeller (1876-78), without his Christliche Dogmatik. His Ausgewohlte Briefe appeared in 1895. On his life and works, see E. Zeller, David Friedrich Strauss in seinem Leben and seinen Schriften (1874) ; A. Hausrath, D. F. Strauss and die Theologie seiner Zeit (2 vols., 1876-78) ; F. J. Vischer, Kritische Gange (1844), vol. i., and by the same writer, Altes und Neues (1882), vol. iii. ; R. Gottschall, Literarische Charakterkopfe (1896), vol. iv.; S. Eck, D. F. Strauss (1899) ; K. Harraeus, D. F. Strauss, sein Leben and seine Schriften (1901) ; and T. Ziegler, D. F. Strauss (2 VON., I 908-09) .