Johann Jakob Moser

His additional efforts at and success in independent learning[citation needed] enabled him to gain an appointment as professor of law at the same university at the early age of 18 or 19 years.

[citation needed] In 1721 Moser married Friederike Rosine Vischer, daughter of a Württembergian Upper Council President.

Their oldest son, Friedrich Karl von Moser, was born on 18 December 1723 in Stuttgart, and became a jurist, political writer and a statesman.

In 1736 he was called to head the Faculty of Law at the University of Frankfurt (Oder), but had to leave after three years due to his thoroughly Liberal ideas which were disliked by King Frederick William I of Prussia.

He spent the years 1739 to 1747 at Ebersdorf, mainly concerned with completing the monumental 53 volumes of his Deutsches Staatsrecht ("German Constitutional Law"), a pioneering research analysing the named subject matter more systematically than ever done before, and based on a through study of the sources.

In July 1759 he was arrested and imprisoned without judicial procedure in solitary confinement in the fortress Hohentwiel, on the charge of authoring subversive writings.

In 1764, aged 63, he was released, in part due to the intercession of Friedrich the Great of Prussia, and was rehabilitated and restored to his position, rank and titles.

Johann Jacob Moser wrote the first description of the German state based not on abstract principles but on concrete legal rules and judicial decisions.