Andreas Joseph Hofmann

[13] In 1777 he moved to Vienna to gain experience at the Reichshofrat or Aulic Council, one of the supreme courts of the Holy Roman Empire[14] and became a Privatdozent in 1778.

[1] His satirical articles caused conflict with the authorities, and instead of being given a position at the newly re-founded University of Lviv as had been originally envisioned, he was forced to leave Austria.

As Hofmann declared his support of the ideas of the French Revolution openly in his lectures, he was soon spied on by the increasingly reactionary Mainz authorities,[24] who had outlawed all criticism of state and religion on 10 September 1792.

[25] However, before the investigation of his activities had progressed beyond the questioning of his students, the archbishop and his court fled from the advancing French troops under General Custine, who arrived in Mainz on 21 October 1792.

A popular and powerful orator, he criticised both the old regime of the Elector and the French military government in his speeches, which were especially supported by the more radical students[27] who idolised the incorruptible Hofmann.

[30] Hofmann lectured in the rural areas of the French occupied territory,[31] calling for support of the general elections in February and March 1793 which he helped organize.

[16][34] After a short service in the military, where he commanded an equestrian regiment that fought against insurgent royalists in the Vendée and was wounded several times,[35] he was sent to England on espionage missions.

However, at a Joseph Haydn concert in London on 2 June 1794, he was recognized and reported to the authorities by his former student Klemens Wenzel von Metternich.

In his 1795 essay Des nouvelles limites de la republique française, he argued for the Rhine as natural Eastern border of France.

[16] Hofmann spent his retirement pursuing activities such as breeding domestic canaries[42] but became a somewhat famous figure among Vormärz liberals and was visited by intellectuals such as Hoffmann von Fallersleben and Ludwig Walesrode [de].