ABSTRACT
Fichte and Niethammer were censor-free professors, that is, as representatives of the state and its university, they had been entrusted by the government, the court of Duke Karl August, to censor their own writings in their authorial capacity and others writings in their editorial capacity. Among other things, the constitutional, or state, law governing the behavior of state servants specified that irreligious and atheistic writings were not to be published, so Fichte and Niethammer were obliged to show diligent care as censors that irreligious and atheistic writings were not published in their journal, but they were also given authority as censors to determine that the writings published in their journal were not irreligious or atheistic. In their written defense, the two editors divided the responsibility to answer the charge of publishing atheistic essays, each providing his own juridical defense. Niethammer, speaking solely as an editor, defended their decision to publish the essays from the implicit accusation of editorial negligence.
