DAHLMANN, FRIEDRICH CHRISTOPH (1785 186o), German historian and politician, was born at Wismar on May 13, 1785; he came of an old Hanseatic family of Wismar, which then belonged to Sweden. He studied classical philology at Copenhagen and Halle, and again at Copenhagen. After finish ing his studies, he translated some of the Greek tragic poets, and the Clouds of Aristophanes. But he was also interested in modern literature and philosophy, and in the political developments of his time. In 1809, on the news of the outbreak of war in Austria, Dahlmann, together with the poet Heinrich von Kleist, whom he had met in Dresden, went to Bohemia, and was afterwards with the Imperial army until the battle of Aspern. After taking his doctor's degree at Wittenberg (18io) he qualified at Copenhagen in 1811 as a lecturer on ancient literature and history, on which he delivered lectures in Latin. In 1812 he received a chair at Kiel university.
From 1815 onwards, as secretary to the perpetual deputation of the estates of Schleswig-Holstein, he began in memoirs, or articles in the Kieler Bldtter, which he founded himself, to advo cate the half-forgotten rights of the Elbe duchies, as against Denmark. The Danes afterwards accused him of having invented the Schleswig-Holstein question (q.v.). After his transference to the chair of history at Gottingen in 1829, he had a share in fram ing the Hanoverian constitution of 1833; and when in 1837 the new king Ernest Augustus declared the constitution invalid, Dahl mann inspired the famous protest of the seven professors of Gottingen. He was deprived of his position and banished, but German national feeling had been stimulated by his action.
After some years spent in Leipzig and Jena, King Frederick William IV. appointed him in Oct. 1842 to a professorship at Bonn. His Politik (1835) had already made him a great name as a writer; he now published his Danische Geschichte (184o-43), a historical work of the first rank; and this was soon followed by histories of the English and French revolutions, which advocated constitutional monarchy. After the revolution of 1848 broke out, the "father of German nationality" was appointed one of the committee of 17 nominated to draw up a draft constitution for submission to the national assembly summoned at Frankfurt. Dahlmann represented Prussia on this committee, and with the jurist Albrecht drafted a scheme. (See also GERMANY.) Dahlmann was also a member of the parliament. His object was to make Ger many as far as possible a united constitutional monarchy, with the exclusion of the non-German Austrian dominions. Prussia was to provide the emperor, but at the same time—and in this lay the doctrinaire weakness of the system—was to give up its separate existence, consecrated by history, in the same way as the other States. When Frederick William IV. was elected hereditary em peror (March 28, 1849), Dahlmann was one of the deputation which offered the crown to the king in Berlin. The king's refusal was less of a surprise to him than to most of his colleagues. He counted on being able to compel recognition of the constitution by the moral pressure of the consent of the people. It was only when the attitude of the Radicals made it clear to him that this course would lead to a revolution, that he decided, after a long struggle, to retire from the national parliament (May 21). He was still, however, one of the chief promoters of the conference of the imperial party at Gotha; and he took part in the sessions of the first Prussian chamber (1849-5o) and of the parliament of Erfurt (185o). But finally, convinced that for the moment all efforts towards the unity of Germany were unavailing, he retired from political life and again took up his work of teaching at Bonn. His last years were, however, saddened by illness, bereavement and continual friction with his colleagues. He died on Dec. 5, 186o.
Dahlmann's chief works were :—Quellenkunde der deutschen Geschichte nach der Folge der Begebenheiten geordnet (183o, 7th edition of Dahlmann-Waitz, Quellenkunde, Leipzig, 1906) ; Politik, auf den Grund and das Mass der gegebenen Zustdnde zuruck, ge f uhrt (1835); Geschichte Ddnemarks (3 vols., Geschichte der englischen Revolution (1844) ; Geschichte der f ranzosischen Revolution (1845).
See A. Springer, Friedrich Christoph Dahlmann (2 vols., 1870-72) ; and H. v. Treitschke, Histor. and polit. Aufsdtze, i. 365 et seq.; Chris tern, F. C. Dahlmann's politische 1848