ECKARTSHAUSEN, KARL VON

ECKARTSHAUSEN, KARL VON (1752–1803). Exceptionally popular in nineteenth-century Russia and unknown elsewhere, Karl von Eckartshausen began his career in Bavaria as a jurist, and then turned to mysticism and alchemy. The popularity of his numerous writings, all of which had to be translated into Russian, may be credited to two circumstances: the first was preoccupation with mysticism among the elite dilettantes of the early 19th c., e.g., Tsar Alexander I, A. Golitsyn, R. Koshelev; the second was his personal acquaintance with I. V. Lopukhin, who translated his writings and devoted himself to publishing mystics and Freemasons at Moscow University.