The genre of moral weeklies was inspired by English periodicals, particularly the highly successful publications edited and written by Joseph Addison and Richard Steele, which appeared three times a week or even daily (The Tatler, The Guardian, and The Spectator).

Unlike some other German moral weeklies, Der Patriot had an independent editorial team that did not simply translate English counterparts but instead selected and developed its own topics.
Many German scholars and writers contributed to Der Patriot, but all published their articles under pseudonyms. Their true identities were not revealed until three years after the last issue was published.

“In the course of the seventeenth and especially the eighteenth centuries, Hamburg’s press evolved from a mere supplier of information to a vehicle of public opinion. During the first half of the eighteenth century, Hamburg’s growing print culture was closely connected to the development of the city’s enlightened reform movement, embodied in the first Patriotic Society (1724–1726). For example, Hamburg’s own moral weekly, Der Patriot, a product of the Patriotic Society, informs both the rise of periodical press and the spread of enlightened ideals. Modeled on British periodicals, The Tatler and The Spectator, Der Patriot contained instructive essays on a variety of subjects, generally articulating middle-class norms and values. By appealing to a wide audience and disseminating useful knowledge and enlightened philosophy, such journals aimed to reorient the reader’s moral outlook and lifestyle, in particular to raise the intellectual and moral standards of its readers.

Hamburg’s Der Patriot ran from 1724 until 1726, and was so popular that it was published in book form several times between 1728 and 1765. It was the most influential of the German moral weeklies. Der Patriot, seeking to enlighten and influence the morals of its readers, set itself in direct competition with the church. Aiming to “root out or at least expose all ridiculous or dangerous actions, mistakes, abuses and harmful habits through the orderly use of human reason,” Der Patriot's elevation of reason over faith angered Hamburg’s strong orthodox Lutheran church, which initiated a “pamphlet war” denouncing the journal. Der Patriot found both a multitude of detractors and supporters; roughly thirty-five pamphlets against and twenty-one in favor of the periodical appeared. This ‘battle of the pens’ certainly encouraged popular interest in Der Patriot and caused the publisher to print six thousand copies instead of the four hundred initially planned, reflecting both an expanding readership and growing popular interest in Enlightenment tenets. Der Patriot, furthermore, reflects the republic’s civic morality as it strove to promote the common good. If its attitude toward Hamburg’s governance was generally positive, it openly presented concrete proposals for improvement in the republic as well as the dangers of extravagance and excess, the loss of civic-mindedness, and political apathy. Indeed, Der Patriot asserted both the right and the duty of Hamburgers to speak out on any question regarding the welfare of their city-state.” (Aaslestad, Place and Politics).