Ludwig Feuerbach

Ludwig Feuerbach (1804–1872) was a German philosopher, the leading critic of religion among the Young Hegelians. The son of a famous jurist, he studied theology at Heidelberg and philosophy under Hegel in Berlin, but an anonymous early book denying immortality cost him a university career and he lived mostly on his wife's share of a porcelain factory in rural Bavaria. The Essence of Christianity, published in 1841 and translated into English by George Eliot, argued that God is a projection of human nature and that theology is really anthropology; it was embraced by Marx and Engels, who later turned against him. He died in poverty near Nuremberg.