Orla Lehmann

Peter Martin Orla Lehmann (19 May 1810 – 13 September 1870) was a Danish statesman, a key figure in the development of Denmark's parliamentary government.

He was born at Copenhagen. Although of German extraction his sympathies were with the Danish National Party and he contributed to the liberal journal the Kjøbenhavnsposten while he was a student of law at the University of Copenhagen, and from 1839 to 1842 edited, with Christian N. David, the Fædrelandet. In 1842 he was condemned to three months imprisonment for a radical speech. He took a considerable part in the demonstrations of 1848, and was regarded as the leader of the Eider-Danes, that is, of the party which regarded the Eider as the boundary of Denmark, and the Duchy of Schleswig as an integral part of the kingdom.

He entered the cabinet of Count A.W. Moltke in March 1848, and was employed on diplomatic missions to London and Berlin in connection with the Schleswig-Holstein Question. He was for some months in 1849 a prisoner of the Schleswig-Holsteiners at Gottorp. A member of the Folketing from 1851 to 1853, of the Landsting from 1854 to 1870, and from 1856 to 1866 of the Rigsråd, he became Minister of the Interior in 1861 in the cabinet of K. C. Hall, retiring with him in 1863. He died at Copenhagen in September 1870.

His book On the Causes of the Misfortunes of Denmark (1864) went through many editions, and his works were published posthumously in four volumes.

References

• Orla Lehmann: Orla Lehmanns efterladte Skrifter. 4 bd.   Kjøbenhavn, 1872–1874
• Orla Lehmann: Af Orla Lehmanns Papirer: Bidrag til Danmarks Tidshistorie i det 19. Aarhundrede; udg. af Julius Clausen.  Kjøbenhavn, 1903
• Orla Lehmann: Om Aarsagerne til Danmarks Ulykke: et historisk Tilbageblik.   Kjøbenhavn, 1864 (On the causes of the misfortunes of Denmark)
• C. E. F. Reinhardt: Orla Lehmann og hans Samtid: et Bidrag til Belysning af Friheds- og Nationalitets-Tankens Udvikling i Danmark.   Kjøbenhavn, 1871

This article incorporates text from the public domain 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica.