Albrecht was born in
Elbing (Elbląg),
West Prussia, and studied at the
Humboldt University of Berlin, the
University of Göttingen, and the
University of Königsberg. He taught
jurisprudence in Königsberg in 1829, relocating to Göttingen the following year. After his association with the Göttingen Seven in 1837, which resulted in his dismissal, he found work as a freelance lecturer at the
University of Leipzig. Here, in 1840, he became a professor of law. When the
King of Hanover Ernest Augustus declared in 1837 that he did not feel bound by Hanover's constitution,
Friedrich Christoph Dahlmann tried to persuade the University of Göttingen to oppose the king's stance on the validity of a constitution. Dahlmann drafted a protestation, which was signed by the
Göttingen Seven including Albrecht. A revolt from parts of the liberal bourgeoisie against the king was thwarted, but journalists documented events and a public sensation was stirred throughout
Germany and
Europe. The seven professors swore their oath on the constitution and so provided the prerequisite for the
Revolution of 1848. In 1847 Albrecht joined the
Lübeck chapter of the
Germanistentage. In 1848, during the 1848 March Revolution, Albrecht was a member of the
Frankfurt Parliament and a delegate to the
Siebzehnerausschuss, whose constitution he prepared. From 18 May to 17 August he represented
Hamburg-Harburg in the
Frankfurt Parliament, where he allied himself with the
Casino faction. In 1863 Albrecht was appointed to the
Geheim Hofrat (approx. "Secret Advisory Council"), shortly before his retirement in 1868. Albrecht remains a significant figure in jurisprudence for his conception of the state as a purely theoretical legal entity, a view he developed in an 1837 review of
Romeo Maurenbrecher's "Grundsätze des heutigen Staatsrechts". This view stands in opposition to the old Germanic concept of the state as
Verbandsperson, a collective person, a position defended by
Otto von Gierke. His father in law was the astronomer
Christian Ludwig Ideler. == References ==