Christian Wilhelm von Dohm

Christian Wilhelm von Dohm.

Christian Wilhelm von Dohm (11 December 1751 – 29 May 1820) was a German historian and political writer.

Dohm was born in Lemgo on 11 December 1751. Although the son of a Lutheran pastor at Lemgo's St. Mary's Church, he was a staunch advocate for Jewish emancipation. He entered Prussian officialdom in 1779, first as archivist in Berlin. In 1781, at the suggestion of his friends Moses Mendelssohn and Friedrich Nicolai, Dohm published a two-volume work entitled Ueber die bürgerliche Verbesserung der Juden ("On the Civil Improvement of the Jews"), which argued for Jewish political equality on humanitarian grounds. It was widely praised by the Jewish communities in Berlin, Halberstadt, and Suriname. In 1786 he was ennobled (untitled nobility), gaining him the nobiliary particle von before his surname.

Dohm died on his Pustleben estate near Nordhausen on 29 May 1820.

References

•  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Singer, Isidore; et al., eds. (1901–1906). "Dohm, Christian Wilhelm Von". Jewish Encyclopedia. New York: Funk & Wagnalls Company.