The education of Anacharsis Cloots (1755–1794) at the Berlin Académie militaire des nobles (1770–1773)

Abstract

This article examines the education that Anacharsis Cloots (1755–1794) received during his stay at the Berlin Académie des nobles (1770–1773). Cloots wrote at several occasions about his education there, notably naming Sulzer as a philosophical influence 10 years later. Examining the pupils’ life at the Académie, Sulzer’s teaching, and the detailed study schedule, this paper wonders what elements may have influenced Cloots. It is likely that Sulzer taught the philosophy of Wolff, but it is difficult to ascertain his influence on Cloots. There are similarities between Wolff’s civitas maxima and Cloots’s ‘universal republic’ that justify further studies.