Theodor Ludwig Lau

Theodor Ludwig Lau (Königsberg, East Prussia, 15 June 1670-Altona, February 1740) was a German lawyer and free thinker known for his radical writings.

In 1694/95 he studied for a year in Halle with Christian Thomasius and then traveled to the Netherlands, England, and France.

He then worked in the service of the Duke of Courland, Friedrich Wilhelm Kettler, until 1711.

[3] Lau published his Deist-Spinozist views in his 1717 and 1719 works in which he adopted a materialistic and pantheistic interpretation of Spinoza's Ethics shared by Friedrich Wilhelm Stosch.

He lived in Altona under a false name beginning in 1736 and died in poverty.