Why did Johann Gottfried von Herder write Journal of My Voyage in the Year 1769?

Johann Gottfried von Herder wrote the Journal of My Voyage in the Year 1769 to document a profound personal transformation he experienced during his sea voyage from Riga to Nantes.1

The journal serves as a testament to his realization of his own destiny and vocation. During the journey, Herder began to view himself as a "groundless being" who had departed from the security of his past to venture into an unknown future. This experience solidified his sense of purpose: to unveil that future by drawing insights from the past, thereby allowing his contemporaries to better understand the character of their own time. The work captures this pivotal shift in his intellectual and personal life, which ultimately influenced generations of thinkers in fields ranging from philosophy and literature to anthropology and political thought.1