Immanuel Kant died on February 12, 1804, at 11:00 A.M., less than two months before his eightieth birthday. Though he was still famous, German thinkers were engaged in trying to get “beyond” his critical philosophy. He had become almost irrelevant. His last important contribution to the philosophical discussion had been made almost five years earlier. This was the open “Declaration Regarding Fichte's Wissenschaftslehre” of August 7, 1799. In it, he had stated clearly his conviction that all the more recent philosophical developments had little to do with his own critical philosophy, that “Fichte's Theory of Science was a totally indefensible system,” and that he was very much “opposed to metaphysics as defined by Fichte.” Urging philosophers not to go “beyond” his critical philosophy, but to take it seriously not only as his own last word, but also as the final word on metaphysical questions in general, he, in effect, took leave of the philosophical scene. Nothing more, certainly nothing different was to be expected from him. German philosophy, and with it the philosophy of Europe as a whole, was taking a course he could not appreciate. Yet these developments had little to do with the dying man in Königsberg. Some said he had outlived his time, but he no longer took any interest in them.