Christian Wilhelm von Dohm (; 11 December 1751 – 29 May 1820) was a German historian and political writer.

Biography

Dohm was born in

Lemgo Lemgo (; nds, Lemge, Lemje) is a small university town in the Lippe district of North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is situated between the Teutoburg Forest and the Weser Uplands, 25 km east of Bielefeld and 70 km west of Hannover. T ...

on 11 December 1751. The son of a Lutheran pastor at , he was a radical advocate for

Jewish emancipation Jewish emancipation was the process in various nations in Europe of eliminating Jewish disabilities, e.g. Jewish quotas, to which European Jews were then subject, and the recognition of Jews as entitled to equality and citizenship rights. It in ...

. He entered Prussian officialdom in 1779, first as archivist in

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and List of cities in Germany by population, largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's List of cities in the European Union by population within ci ...

. In 1781, Dohm published a two-volume work entitled ''Ueber die bürgerliche Verbesserung der Juden'' ("On the Civil Improvement of the Jews"), which argued for Jewish political equality on humanitarian grounds. It was widely praised by the Jewish communities in Berlin,

Halberstadt Halberstadt ( Eastphalian: ''Halverstidde'') is a town in the German state of Saxony-Anhalt, the capital of Harz district. Located north of the Harz mountain range, it is known for its old town center that was greatly destroyed by Allied bomb ...

, and Suriname. In 1786 he was ennobled (untitled nobility), gaining him the nobiliary particle

von The term ''von'' () is used in German language surnames either as a nobiliary particle indicating a noble patrilineality, or as a simple preposition used by commoners that means ''of'' or ''from''. Nobility directories like the ''Almanach de ...

before his surname. Dohm died on his estate near Nordhausen on 29 May 1820.

References

* 1751 births 1820 deaths People from the Principality of Lippe 18th-century German historians German male non-fiction writers People from Lemgo German Freemasons Members of the Bavarian Academy of Sciences Ambassadors to Saxony Geheimrat Activists against antisemitism Opposition to antisemitism in Germany {{germany-historian-stub