Heinrich Dernburg

Who was Heinrich Dernburg?

Heinrich Dernburg was a German jurist, professor, and politician. Born in Mainz, Grand Duchy of Hesse, he was the brother of Friedrich Dernburg.

Of Jewish origin, Dernburg was baptized as a Christian together with his family in 1841. He was educated at the gymnasium of Mainz and the universities of Gießen and Berlin, graduating from the latter in 1851. In the same year he became Privat-docent of the juridical faculty of the University of Heidelberg. In 1852 he was called to Zürich as assistant professor, and was appointed professor in 1855. In 1862 he accepted a similar position in the University of Halle, which he represented in the Prussian House of Lords from 1866 to 1873, when he became professor of Roman and Prussian law in the University of Berlin. He reentered the Herrenhaus in 1873. With Brinckmann and others he founded in 1851 the "Kritische Zeitschrift für die Gesammte Rechtswissenschaft".

Dernburg was one of the leading experts for Prussian civil law as codified in the ALR. His work sought to keep a balance between "mercantile interests" and "social utopias". Unlike other Pandect scholars of his time, Dernburg was never accused of advocating a doctrinary and reactionary form of legal positivism.