Louis de Beausobre

Who was Louis de Beausobre?

Louis Isaac de Beausobre was a German philosopher and political economist of French Huguenot descent. He was born in Berlin, the son of the French Protestant churchman and ecclesiastical historian Isaac de Beausobre and his second wife, Charlotte Schwarz. He is not to be confused with his elder half-brother, the pastor and theologian Charles Louis de Beausobre.

Beausobre was educated at the Collège Français in Berlin, where he was taught and greatly influenced by Johann Heinrich Samuel Formey. He went on to study philosophy at Frankfurt an der Oder, and later in Paris. On his return to Berlin he was received as a member of the Prussian Academy of Sciences in 1755.

Frederick the Great, out of esteem for Isaac de Beausobre, adopted Louis as his son, and supported him in his studies.