GUTBERLET, KONSTANTIN. — Theologian and philosopher, b. at Geismar on 10 January 1837, d. at Fulda on 27 April 1928. He completed his studies in Rome at the Collegio Germanico and the Gregorian University (1856–62), under the guidance of P. Liberatore and P. Perrone. Upon returning to his homeland, he devoted his work as a professor to the diocesan seminary of Fulda, with which he shared the various vicissitudes during the Kulturkampf and remained actively connected until his death, teaching there successively mathematics, natural sciences, exegesis, and philosophy.
His name is linked, together with that of J. Pohle, to the foundation, in 1888, of the Philosophisches Jahrbuch, the organ of that Görres-Gesellschaft to which, toward the end of the previous century, the most vigorous currents of German Catholic philosophy converged. Through his extensive scientific activity, inspired by traditional realism and neo-Scholasticism, he took a stand against the materialism and determinism with which the positivistic culture of the time was imbued.
Principal works: Lehrbuch der Philosophie (Münster 1878; 4th ed. there 1906–1909); Das Gesetz von der Erhaltung der Kraft u. seine Beziehung zur Metaphysik (there 1885); Die Willensfreiheit und ihre Gegner (Fulda 1893; 2nd ed. there 1904); Der Mensch, s. Ursprung und s. Entwicklung (Paderborn 1896); Der Kampf um die Seele (there 1898); Psychophysik (Mainz 1905); Der Kosmos (there 1908).