---
title: "Isis (journal, 1816)"
chunk: 3/5
source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isis_(journal,_1816)"
category: "reference"
tags: "science, encyclopedia"
date_saved: "2026-05-05T03:39:39.448196+00:00"
instance: "kb-cron"
---

Before the end of 1816, Isis was banned in Austria. Meanwhile, Oken continued to campaign for freedom of the press and, for example, published a report on the meeting of the Dutch estates under the title "Against the Restriction of Freedom of the Press". In June 1817, the Prussian Minister of Police, Wilhelm Ludwig Georg Fürst zu Wittgenstein, complained to Carl August about a derogatory criticism of a Prussian decree of 1811 that had appeared in the Oppositions-Blatt and a small note in Isis, in which Oken complained about Prussia's presumption in wanting to interfere even in insignificant matters such as those of the Vienna Agricultural Society. Six days later, a serious warning was issued to the editor of the opposition journal Friedrich Justin Bertuch and Oken, stating "that in the event of further disregard of the sovereign's or authorities' orders, the suppression of this journal will be pursued".
During the Wartburg Festival, which Oken and other professors from Jena attended, an auto-da-fé took place on the evening of October 18, 1817, during which parts of a Prussian Uhlan uniform, a Hessian soldier's braid and an Austrian corporal's baton, as well as several books by authors considered reactionary, including Karl Albert von Kamptz, Theodor Schmalz, Karl Ludwig von Haller and August von Kotzebue, were burned. Fourteen days later, Oken published a report on the meeting at Wartburg Castle, which also contained a list of the burned books and objects, along with mocking signs.
Kamptz, the head of the Ministry of Police in Berlin, whose Codex der Gensd'armerie was one of the burned books, railed in a letter dated November 9, 1817 to Grand Duke Carl August about the "bunch of feral professors and seduced students" and went on to write: "If true freedom of thought and freedom of the press really flourishes in Your Royal Highness's states, then censorship practiced by fire and pitchforks, by enthusiasts and minors, and terrorist proceedings against freedom of thought and freedom of the press in other states are certainly not compatible with this." The following day, a report by Weimar State Minister Karl Wilhelm von Fritsch exonerated Oken and the other professors, stating that they had not taken part in the burning. Nevertheless, on November 27, 1817, number 195 was confiscated and a temporary ban on the printing of Isis was issued, which was lifted on December 15. From December 2 onwards, a commission consisting of members of the Weimar state government investigated the Isis incidents. Oken was interrogated several times in Weimar. The commission submitted its report to the state government on December 20. The government was willing to return the confiscated copies of Isis if the disputed passages were removed. Oken did not agree to this deal. On January 24, 1818, Oken was sentenced to six weeks in prison for "offenses against the highest dignity of the sovereign, offenses against the official dignity of the upper state authorities and the academic senate in Jena, denigration of German rulers and governments and insulting foreign official authorities". Together with his statement published by the Bremer Zeitung at the end of March 1818, Oken had the sentence printed in full in Isis. Oken appealed against the sentence to the Jena High Court of Appeal and was acquitted on April 29, 1818.

=== The August von Kotzebue incident ===
Through an indiscretion, the history professor Heinrich Luden from Jena came into possession of one of the numerous bulletins written by the Russian consul general Kotzebue and intended for Tsar Alexander I in mid-December 1817. He wrote a biting commentary on it for the journal Nemesis, although Kotzebue was able to prevent its publication and dissemination by court order on January 15, 1818. Oken nevertheless published Luden's article in the first issue of Isis in 1818. After the issue was published, the remaining copies were confiscated. Isis was banned again on January 31, 1818, and was not published again until the end of April. Both Luden and Oken were sentenced to three months imprisonment and a fine of 60 thalers by the Königlich Sächsischen Schöppengericht in Leipzig. Oken chose the fine and again published the files relating to the trial in Isis. On March 23, 1819, Kotzebue was murdered in Mannheim by the Jena fraternity member and theology student Karl Ludwig Sand.