author
Amand Berghofer
1745–1825
An Austrian Enlightenment-era writer, philosopher, and educator, he wrote with a reflective, personal voice that linked feeling, moral thought, and everyday life. His work offers a glimpse into the literary and intellectual world of late 18th- and early 19th-century Central Europe.
1 Audiobook
Empfindungen aus meinem Leben
by Amand Berghofer
About the author
Born in Grein in 1745 and dying in Graz in 1825, Franz Xaver Amand Berghofer was an Austrian philosopher, writer, and teacher. Reference sources consistently describe him as a figure of the Enlightenment tradition who worked in education as well as literature, and he is also associated with places including Steyr, Baden near Vienna, Prague, and Graz.
Berghofer appears to have begun his career teaching German grammar and rhetoric and later served as director of a German main school in Steyr before leaving that post in the late 1780s. His writing is remembered for combining literary, philosophical, and pedagogical interests rather than fitting neatly into a single field.
A surviving example of his work, Empfindungen aus meinem Leben, shows a strongly introspective style, mixing lyrical and reflective prose. For modern listeners, his appeal lies in that thoughtful, personal tone and in the window he gives onto Austrian intellectual life of his time.