Orla Lehmann

Who was Orla Lehmann?

Peter Martin Orla Lehmann was a Danish statesman, a key figure in the development of Denmark's parliamentary government.

He was born in Copenhagen, son of Martin Christian Gottlieb Lehmann, assessor, later conference councillor and deputee in the College of Commerce. The father was German, born in Haselau at Uetersen in Holstein, while the mother was Danish and daughter of a Mayor in Copenhagen. The family belonged to the same social circle as the Ørsted brothers and the poet Oehlenschläger. Orla was put in the German realschule in the St. Petri parish, later moved to the Borgerdydskole and began his studies at the University of Copenhagen in 1827. After a year studying literature, when he read Heine in the company of H. C. Andersen, he began his Law studies. After a study programme which he found tedious, he graduated in 1833.

Although of German extraction, Orla Lehmann's sympathies were with the Danish National Liberal Party. and he contributed to the liberal journal the Kjøbenhavnsposten while he was a student, 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 River as the boundary of Denmark, and the Duchy of Schleswig as an integral part of the kingdom.