Paul Anton De Lagarde

1827-1891. German oriental and OT scholar. He studied theology and philology at Berlin and Halle, but rejected the Pietistic faith of his father and teachers and became a lifelong foe of organized religion. He entered into a productive scholarly career in ancient oriental literature, especially the Septuagint, but his unpleasant personality made it difficult to secure a university chair. Even after receiving an appointment at Göttingen in 1869 he remained an unrestrained polemicist. Although his published works were fragmentary, he was regarded by contemporaries as an outstanding orientalist. A fervent nationalist, Lagarde was a leading critic of German society, and he saw a national religion, a Germanic- Christian faith, as the means to effect a spiritual regeneration.