Theodor Christian Lohmann (October 18, 1831 – August 31, 1905) was a 19th-century German administrative lawyer, civil servant and social reformer, second in importance only to Otto von Bismarck in the formation of the German social insurance system. He is considered one of the major forces advocating for legislation for occupational safety and health, as co-architect of Bismarck's social security and as a seminal figure in the relation of Diakonie and social politics.
Private life, education, and early career
Theodor Lohmann was the seventh of eight children in a rural, patriarchal Lutheran household. From early on Lohmann had been influenced by the pious German Lutheran Great Awakening movement of Ludwig Harms, characterized by proselytism and sanctification. Lohmann's father, Ernst Heinrich Lohmann (1797–1856), was a merchant and owner of a brickyard. His mother, Johanna Juliana Lohmann (born Hardegen), died early. Theodor Lohmann attended the gymnasium in Celle.
From 1850 he studied jurisprudence and political science at the University of Göttingen, where he also engaged in the study of church theory and came in contact with the Inner Mission for the first time, which led him to write his first thesis Communismus, Socialismus, Christenthum. His thesis received a great deal of academic attention for its proposal of an extensive reform of society in the light of the newly emerging socialist theories. In 1851 he was one of the founders of the Burschenschaft Germania of Göttingen. Four years later Lohmann entered the civil service of the Kingdom of Hanover. In 1858 he passed the second Staatsexamen.
Subsequently, Lohmann was active in different roles for the royal administration of Hanover. In 1861 he was assigned to the administration's cultural department, and as general secretary in 1869 Lohmann participated in the first Evangelisch-Lutheran synod in Hanover. In the 1860s he had already engaged himself with the development of the Lutheran Inner Mission (Innere Mission), effectively reorganizing the constitution of the Hanover state church. Together with the theologian Gerhard Uhlhorn and others he played an important role in the establishment of the Evangelischer Verein ("Evangelisch Association") and the Stephansstift, a diaconical institution of Hanover created in 1869 for the promotion of religious freedom. He was also involved in the assistance of youth and old people as well as vocational training. In 1862 Theodor Lohmann had married Louise Sophie Elisabeth Wyneken (1839–1879). The couple had three children.
Work as a social reformer
During the Austro-Prussian War the Kingdom of Hanover was occupied in 1866 by Prussian troops, and Hanover became a Prussian province. For the administrative lawyer Theodor Lohmann this presented a major fork in his career path: In 1871 Lohmann and his young family moved to Berlin and he assumed a position in the Prussian Ministry of Commerce, where he worked on matters concerning industrial workers. In this capacity he participated in the drafting of a number of bills, including the amendment of the German Trade, Commerce and Industry Regulation Act, which introduced factory inspection in Prussia, and formed the basis for the current-day Gewerbeaufsicht ("industrial, commercial and business inspectorate").
From 1866 to 1873 Hermann Wagener, journalist, Conservative, Prussian and Reichstag deputy, and friend of Bismarck was an official in the Prussian Ministry of State, and an important voice for reform. According to Hennock, Lohmann's role in the period after Wagener's departure is under reassessment by historians:
Wagener’s departure from the political scene in 1873 coincided with the arrival of Theodor Lohmann at the Prussian trade ministry as well as with the tensions caused by the Gründerkrise. Henceforth Lohmann was the most important innovator until in 1880 he was joined by (Chancellor Otto von Bismarck ) himself. That is well known. But the picture of Lohmann’s actions that emerges from (work published in the 1990s and subsequently) has led to a significant re-evaluation of (Lohmann's) role.