Why did Samuel Taylor Coleridge travel to Germany with William and Dorothy Wordsworth?

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Portrait of poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge — Samuel Taylor Coleridge Samuel Taylor Coleridge, detail of an oil painting by Washington Allston, 1814; in the National Portrait Gallery, London.

Samuel Taylor Coleridge traveled to Germany with William and Dorothy Wordsworth in 1798 after receiving an annuity of £150 from Josiah and Thomas Wedgwood. This financial support provided him with the independence necessary to pursue his intellectual interests abroad.1

During his time in Germany, Coleridge attended lectures on physiology and biblical criticism at Göttingen. This experience allowed him to gain exposure to advancements in German scholarship that were not yet widely known in England at the time. Following his return, he applied these insights to his work in literary criticism, philosophy, and theology.12