In his famous »Voyage Round the World«, and also in his essays »More on the Human Races and Outline for a Future History of Mankind«, Georg Forster (1754-1794) took a knowledgeable and committed stand on the central controversies of physical anthropology. In the form of a source-related reconstruction, the present study is the first to point up the allusions and references to the scientific discussion of the day to be found in these texts, and indicates Forster's position in the context of the relevant debates and controversies. Though he did not live to write the >new anthropology< that he was planning, its basic outline thus becomes discernible.