Hermann Samuel Reimarus

Hermann Samuel Reimarus (1694–1768) was an orientalist in Hamburg. He did not dare to publish his Apology or Defense for the Rational Worshippers of God during his lifetime.

Lessing published excerpts from it — the Wolfenbüttel Fragments — and thereby set off the Fragment Controversy. Hegel knew of this affair; the question of whether the Gospels are historically reliable had been posed since Reimarus and was answered anew by Strauss seventy years later.