The want of books and scientific apparatus at Cassel induced him to resort frequently to Gottingen, where he became betrothed to Therese Heyne, the daughter of the illustrious philologist, a clever and cultivated woman, but illsuited to be Forster's wife.
No one since Heyne has had so great an influence on German academical life, and for a whole generation the Berlin school had no rival.
His archaeological and mythological Memoire sur Venus (1775),(1775), which has been ranked with similar works of Heyne and Winckelmann, gained him admission to the Academie des Inscriptions (1778).
Shortly after the foundation of the university of Gottingen appeared Zeitungen von gelehrten Sachsen (1739), still famous as the Gottingische gelehrte Anzeigen, which during its long and influential career has been conducted by professors of that university, and among others by Haller, Heyne and Eichhorn.
Bertrand and Helbig, among others, have held that the descriptions are of actually existing works of art, while Heyne and Friederichs deny this.