Etching of Moses Mendelssohn (left) with Gotthold Lessing (standing) and the Lutheran theologian Johann Caspar Lavater. Moses Mendelssohn (6 September 1729 - 4 January 1786) was a German-Jewish philosopher. Gotthold Ephraim Lessing (22 January 1729 - 15 February 1781) was a German writer, philosopher, dramatist, publicist and art critic. Johann Kaspar (or Caspar) Lavater (15 November 1741 - 2 January 1801) was a Swiss poet, writer, philosopher, physiognomist and theologian