10 Facts About Eduard Lasker

Eduard Lasker promoted the unification of Germany during the 1860s and played a major role in codification of the German legal code.

Lasker at first compromised with Chancellor Otto von Bismarck, who later strenuously opposed Lasker regarding freedom of the press.

In 1881, Eduard Lasker left the National Liberal party and helped form the new German Free Thought Party.

Eduard Lasker was born at Jarotschin, a village in Posen, the son of a Jewish tradesman.

Eduard Lasker attended the gymnasium, and afterwards the University of Breslau.

Eduard Lasker then continued his legal studies at Breslau and Berlin, and after a visit of three years to England, then the model state for German liberals, entered the Prussian judicial service.

Eduard Lasker joined the radical German Progress Party, and in 1867 was elected to the German parliament, but he helped to form the National Liberal Party, and in consequence lost his seat in Berlin, which remained faithful to the radicals; after this he represented Magdeburg and Frankfurt in the Prussian, and Meiningen in the German parliament.

Eduard Lasker threw himself with great energy into his parliamentary duties, and quickly became one of its most popular and most influential members.

Eduard Lasker refused to follow Bismarck in his financial and economic policy after 1878; always unsympathetic to the chancellor, he was now selected for his most bitter attacks.

Eduard Lasker's death was the occasion of a curious episode, which caused much discussion at the time.