Like many German intellectuals of his day, the Catholic publicist and scholar Joseph Görres (1776-1848) initially welcomed the French Revolution. A native of Coblenz, he hoped that the arrival of French troops in the Rhineland in 1792 would liberate his homeland from provincialism and usher in an era of greater enlightenment. But after traveling to Paris in 1799, his enthusiasm for the French Republic began to wane. He was dismayed by the violence he had witnessed there and felt that the revolution had betrayed its own ideals. Years later, he joined other German publicists in the journalistic battle against Napoleon during the Wars of Liberation.