Ernst Ferdinand Klein was a German jurist

Jurist

A jurist or jurisconsult is a professional who studies, develops, applies, or otherwise deals with the law. The term is widely used in American English, but in the United Kingdom and many Commonwealth countries it has only historical and specialist usage...

 and prominent representative of the Berlin

Berlin

Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...

 Enlightenment

Age of Enlightenment

The Age of Enlightenment was an elite cultural movement of intellectuals in 18th century Europe that sought to mobilize the power of reason in order to reform society and advance knowledge. It promoted intellectual interchange and opposed intolerance and abuses in church and state...

.

Career

Klein studied law at Halle

University of Halle-Wittenberg

The Martin Luther University of Halle-Wittenberg , also referred to as MLU, is a public, research-oriented university in the cities of Halle and Wittenberg within Saxony-Anhalt, Germany...

 under Daniel Nettelbladt

Daniel Nettelbladt

Daniel Nettelbladt was a German jurist and philosopher.Nettelbladt studied theology and law at the universities of Rostock, Marburg and Halle, where be became a doctor of law in 1744...

, a follower of Christian Wolff

Christian Wolff (philosopher)

Christian Wolff was a German philosopher.He was the most eminent German philosopher between Leibniz and Kant...

, before practising law in Breslau. In 1781 he moved to Berlin

Berlin

Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...

, where he served in the Prussian justice department as an adviser to Frederick

Frederick II of Prussia

Frederick II was a King in Prussia and a King of Prussia from the Hohenzollern dynasty. In his role as a prince-elector of the Holy Roman Empire, he was also Elector of Brandenburg. He was in personal union the sovereign prince of the Principality of Neuchâtel...

's High Chancellor Johann H. C. von Carmer and worked with Carl Gottlieb Svarez

Carl Gottlieb Svarez

Carl Gottlieb Svarez, originally Schwartz was a Prussian jurist and reformer who worked on the Landrecht.- Bibliography :* Adolf Stölzel, Carl Gottlieb Svarez, Berlin 1885...

 to co-author the reforming Prussian Civil Code, the Allgemeines Landrecht. He was active in the Mittwochsgesellschaft

Mittwochsgesellschaft

The German word Mittwochsgesellschaft may refer to the:* Berliner Mittwochsgesellschaft , or Gesellschaft der Freunde der Aufklärung...

(Wednesday Society): his Freiheit und Eigenthum (1790) was presented as a set of dialogues between members of the society. In 1791 he returned to Halle, and in 1800 was once again in Berlin as an Upper Court Councillor.

Works

• Freiheit und Eigenthum [Freedom and Property], 1790
• Grundsätze des gemeinen deutschen und preußischen peinlichen Rechts. Halle 1796 (2nd ed. Halle 1799).
• Grundsätze der natürlichen Rechtswissenschaft, 1797

Further reading

• Klaus Berndl, Ernst Ferdinand Klein Ein Zeitbild aus der zweiten Hälfte des Achtzehnten Jahrhunderts ISBN 3-8258-6562-2
• Michael Kleensang: Das Konzept der bürgerlichen Gesellschaft bei Ernst Ferdinand Klein. Einstellungen zu Naturrecht, Eigentum, Staat und Gesetzgebung in Preußen 1780-1810 (=Studien zur Europäischen Rechtsgeschichte Bd. 108), Frankfurt 1998. ISBN 3-465-02903-8