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Lehmann, Emil

The 1901 Jewish Encyclopedia

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German jurist; born at Dresden Feb. 2, 1829; died there Feb. 25, 1898; son of the merchant Bonnier Lehmann. He attended the Israelitische Gemeindeschule and the Kreuzschule in Dresden, and then (1848) went to Leipsic and devoted himself to the study of jurisprudence until 1851. On his return to Dresden he applied himself to journalism, and was connected eight years with the "Sächsische Dorfzeitung." With Bernhard Beer, Zacharias Frankel, and Wolf Landau he engaged in the struggle to secure a larger measure of legal rights for the Jews of Germany. The legislation of 1868 in Saxony, by which this aim was attained—at least so far as that kingdom was concerned—is to be credited to his efforts and those of his collaborators. In 1863 he began the practise of his profession as an attorney, and later as royal notary.

Lehmann took an active part in public affairs, and from 1865 to 1883, with but short intervals, was a member of the city council of Dresden, and most of the time its vice-president. He was a member of the Landtag of Saxony from 1875 to 1880, as an adherent of the Fortschrittspartei. When the anti-Semitic agitation, inaugurated by Stöcker, set in throughout Germany, he took a considerable part in the pamphlet warfare of the period.

For several decades Lehmann was president of the Jewish congregation in Dresden, an interesting history of which, covering the period of his recollection, he wrote under the title "Ein Halbjahrhundert in der Israelitischen Religionsgemeinde zu Dresden," Dresden, 1890. He wrote also, under the title "Der Polnische Resident Behrend Lehmann," Dresden, 1885, a sketch of the founder of the congregation, his own ancestor. Among his other writings should be noted: "George Gottfried Gervinus," Hamburg, 1871; "Zur Synode," Breslau, 1871; "Höre Israel,"ib. 1871; "Lessing und Seine Bedeutung für die Juden," Dresden, 1879; "Gabriel Riesser," Leipsic, 1881; and "Die Juden Jetzt und Einst: Zur Lösung der Judenfrage," Dresden, 1887.

After his death his children and a number of his friends edited and published a collection of his writings under the title "Emil Lehmann, Gesammelte Schriften," Berlin, 1899.