In 1837, when Ernst August I of Hannover abolished the then only four-year-old constitution of the kingdom, Friedrich Dahlmann (1785-1860) authored a protest booklet along with a group of professors who became known as the “Göttinger Sieben”(The Göttingen Seven), which subsequently led to their dismissals. Having been Professor of Political Science since 1829, the historian with the distinctive sideburns was a champion for liberalism in the Vormärz period. Ritmüller shows him as a shady figure: on the one hand, he leans, Moses-like, on the pillar of constitutional law. However, the horn-like hairs of his over large head, the claw-like hands and the oversized feet make him appear like a diabolical jurist who deals with the state like an “advocatus diaboli”.
