Görres, JAKOB JOSEPH VON, a distinguished German author, was born at Coblenz, 25th January 1776. In common with most of the ardent youth of the time, Görres threw himself eagerly into the movement of the French Revolution; and a journal established by him, Das Rothe Blatt, advanced the most extreme opinions of the time. In 1799 he went to Paris as the chief of a deputation to negotiate the annexation of the Rhine-land to the French Republic, but in Paris became convinced of Napoleon's despotism. On his return to Germany he settled down as a lecturer on physics in his native town, and devoted himself exclusively to literature for several years. In 1807 he published the first part of his well-known collection of German Volksbücher; and in 1810 his work on Asiatic mythology. From these studies, however, he was aroused to the hope of liberation from French tyranny by the reverses of the French arms in the Russian expedition. Appealing to the national sentiment of his countrymen in the Rheinischer Merkur, he became, in truth, the literary centre of the national movement. After the re-establishment of German independence Görres denounced the encroachments of domestic absolutism with the same energy, until, having drawn upon himself the displeasure of the Prussian government, he was obliged to flee to France, and afterwards to Switzerland. In 1827 he accepted the professorship of the History of Literature in the university just founded at Munich by the liberal King Louis of Bavaria. His later years were devoted to literature, and to the controversies as to mixed marriages and Hermesianism (see HERMES). He was the founder of the Catholic journal, Die Historisch-Politischen Blätter. His chief work was his Christliche Mystik (1842; new ed. 1879). He died 29th January 1848. An edition of his works (9 vols.) appeared between 1854 and 1874. See the Life by Sepp (1876).