Karl Friedrich Neumann

He studied philosophy and philology at Heidelberg, Munich and Göttingen, became a convert to Protestantism and took the name of Neumann.

From 1821 to 1825 he was a teacher in Würzburg and Speyer; then he learned Armenian in Venice at the San Lazzaro degli Armeni[1] and visited Paris and London.

[2] In 1829 he went to China, where he studied the language and amassed a large library of valuable books and manuscripts.

Returning to Germany in 1833, Neumann was made professor of Armenian and Chinese in the university of Munich.

[1] Neumann's leisure time after his enforced retirement was occupied in historical studies, and besides his "Geschichte des englischen Reichs in Asien" (Leipzig, 1857, 2 volumes), he wrote a history of the United States of America, Geschichte der Vereinigten Staaten von Amerika (Berlin, 1863–1866, 3 volumes).