public static Class forName(String className) throws ClassNotFoundException 
{
        try
        {
            return Class.forName(className, true, Thread.currentThread().getContextClassLoader());
        }
        catch(ClassNotFoundException e)
        {
            ;// Intentionally ignored
        }
        catch(SecurityException e)
        {
            ;// Intentionally ignored
        }
        // Fall back to default class loader 
        return Class.forName(className);
}

Similar to Class#forName(java.lang.String) , but attempts to load through the thread context class loader. Only if thread context class loader is inaccessible, or it can't find the class will it attempt to fall back to the class loader that loads the FreeMarker classes.