Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (1770-1831) was born into an upper middle class family in Stuttgart, Germany. The views that would make him the leading philosopher of the nineteenth century grew out of all-night conversations with fellow students at the seminary at the University of Türbingen, which included the philosopher Schelling and the poet Hölderlin. After graduation he worked for seven years as a private tutor before he received his first teaching appointment, in 1801, as a lecturer at the University of Jena. In 1805 he was appointed professor of philosophy but the following year, with Napoleon's victory at Jena and the French occupation, he lost his position. He moved to Bamberg and supported himself for a while as a newspaper editor, then as a school principal in Nuremberg. In 1816 he was reappointed professor of philosophy, first in Heidelberg and then in 1818 at Berlin where he remained for the rest of his life.

bio by Daniel Kolak in Lovers of Wisdom
(Wadsworth, 1997)