Wilhelm Eduard Albrecht (4 March 1800 – 22 May 1876) was a German

constitutional law Constitutional law is a body of law which defines the role, powers, and structure of different entities within a state, namely, the executive, the parliament or legislature, and the judiciary; as well as the basic rights of citizens and, in fe ...

yer, jurist, and

docent The title of docent is conferred by some European universities to denote a specific academic appointment within a set structure of academic ranks at or below the full professor rank, similar to a British readership, a French " ''maître de con ...

. Albrecht was most notable as a member of the

Göttingen Seven The Göttingen Seven (german: Göttinger Sieben) were a group of seven liberal professors at University of Göttingen. In 1837, they protested against the annullment of the constitution of the Kingdom of Hanover by its new ruler, King Ernest Augus ...

, a group of academics who in 1837 protested against the abrogation of the constitution of the

Kingdom of Hanover The Kingdom of Hanover (german: Königreich Hannover) was established in October 1814 by the Congress of Vienna, with the restoration of George III to his Hanoverian territories after the Napoleonic era. It succeeded the former Electorate of Ha ...

by King Ernest Augustus. Albrecht was born in Elbing (Elbląg),

West Prussia The Province of West Prussia (german: Provinz Westpreußen; csb, Zôpadné Prësë; pl, Prusy Zachodnie) was a province of Prussia from 1773 to 1829 and 1878 to 1920. West Prussia was established as a province of the Kingdom of Prussia in 177 ...

, and studied 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 ...

Göttingen Göttingen (, , ; nds, Chöttingen) is a university city in Lower Saxony, central Germany, the capital of the eponymous district. The River Leine runs through it. At the end of 2019, the population was 118,911. General information The ori ...

, and

Königsberg Königsberg (, ) was the historic Prussian city that is now Kaliningrad, Russia. Königsberg was founded in 1255 on the site of the ancient Old Prussian settlement ''Twangste'' by the Teutonic Knights during the Northern Crusades, and was name ...

. He taught

jurisprudence Jurisprudence, or legal theory, is the theoretical study of the propriety of law. Scholars of jurisprudence seek to explain the nature of law in its most general form and they also seek to achieve a deeper understanding of legal reasoning a ...

in Königsberg in 1829, relocating to Göttingen the following year. After his association with the Göttingen Seven in 1837, which resulted in his dismissal, he found work as a freelance lecturer in

Leipzig Leipzig ( , ; Upper Saxon: ) is the most populous city in the German state of Saxony. Leipzig's population of 605,407 inhabitants (1.1 million in the larger urban zone) as of 2021 places the city as Germany's eighth most populous, as ...

. Here, in 1840, he became a professor of law. In 1847 Albrecht joined the

Lübeck Lübeck (; Low German also ), officially the Hanseatic City of Lübeck (german: Hansestadt Lübeck), is a city in Northern Germany. With around 217,000 inhabitants, Lübeck is the second-largest city on the German Baltic coast and in the state ...

chapter of the Germanistentage. In 1848, during the March Revolution, Albrecht was a member of the

Frankfurt Parliament The Frankfurt Parliament (german: Frankfurter Nationalversammlung, literally ''Frankfurt National Assembly'') was the first freely elected parliament for all German states, including the German-populated areas of Austria-Hungary, elected on 1 Ma ...

and a delegate to the Siebzehnerausschuss, whose constitution he prepared. From 18 May to 17 August he represented Harburg in the

, where he allied himself with the Casino faction. In 1863 Albrecht was appointed to the ''Geheim Hofrat'' (approx. "Secret Advisory Council"), shortly before his retirement in 1868. Albrecht remains a significant figure in jurisprudence for his conception of the state as a purely theoretical legal entity, a view he developed in an 1837 review of Romeo Maurenbrecher's "Grundsätze des heutigen Staatsrechts". This view stands in opposition to the old Germanic concept of the state as ''Verbandsperson'', a collective person, a position defended by

Otto von Gierke Otto Friedrich von Gierke, born Otto Friedrich Gierke (11 January 1841 – 10 October 1921) was a German legal scholar and historian. He is considered today as one of the most influential and important legal scholars of the 19th and 20th century. ...

. His father in law was the astronomer

Christian Ludwig Ideler Christian Ludwig Ideler (21 September 1766 – 10 August 1846) was a German chronologist and astronomer. Life He was born in Gross-Brese near Perleberg. His earliest work was the editing in 1794 of an astronomical almanac for the Prussian gover ...

References

* Anke Borsdorff: ''Wilhelm Eduard Albrecht, Lehrer und Verfechter des Rechts. Leben und Werk.'' Centaurus-Verlags-Gesellschaft, Pfaffenweiler 1993, * Heinrich Best, Wilhelm Weege: ''Biographisches Handbuch der Abgeordneten der Frankfurter Nationalversammlung 1848/49''. Düsseldorf: Droste-Verlag, 1998. (S. 81)

External links

*
Biography from the Göttingen archive
{{DEFAULTSORT:Albrecht, Wilhelm Eduard 1800 births 1876 deaths People from Elbląg Dissidents 19th-century German lawyers People from West Prussia Humboldt University of Berlin alumni University of Göttingen alumni Academic staff of the University of Göttingen University of Königsberg alumni Academic staff of the University of Königsberg Academic staff of Leipzig University Members of the Frankfurt Parliament Members of the First Chamber of the Diet of the Kingdom of Saxony