Johann Wilhelm von Archenholz

Archenholz passed from the Berlin Cadet school into the Prussian army at the age of sixteen, and took part in the last campaigns of the Seven Years' War.

[6] Returning to Germany in 1780, he obtained a lay canonry at Magdeburg Cathedral, and immediately entered upon a literary career by publishing the periodical Litteratur- und Völkerkunde (Leipzig, 1782–1791).

But the work by which he is best known to fame is his history of the Seven Years' War, Geschichte des siebenjährigen Krieges (first published in the Berliner historisches Taschenbuch of 1787, and later in 2 volumes.

[6] In 1791 Archenholz lived in France with his family, publishing German language reports about the French Revolution in his journal Minerva.

[citation needed] In 1792 he moved to Hamburg, and there, from 1792 to 1812, edited the Minerva, which had a reputation for its literary, historical and political information.