Johann Georg Ritter von Zimmermann

He studied at Göttingen, where he took the degree of a doctor of medicine, and established his reputation by the dissertation, De irritabilitate (1751).

After traveling in the Netherlands and France, he practised as a city physician (Stadtphysicus) in Brugg, and wrote Über die Einsamkeit ("Of solitude", 1756, 1784–1785) and Vom Nationalstolz ("Of national pride", 1758).

[1] In Zimmermann's character there was a strange combination of sentimentalism, melancholy and enthusiasm; and it was by the free and eccentric expression of these qualities that he excited the interest of his contemporaries.

According to the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition, "[t]hese writings display extraordinary personal vanity, and convey a wholly false impression of Frederick's character.

"[1] He has a daughter named Katharina von Zimmermann who died in her 20s from tuberculosis, which also killed her mother and grandmother.