Friedrich Julius Stahl, a German jurist, born in Munich, Jan. 16, 1802, died at Brtickenau, near Kissingen, Aug. 10, 1861. He was of a Jewish family named Schlesinger, but adopted the name Stahl in 1819 on becoming a Christian. He was professor of law at Erlangen and Wurzburg, and from 1840 at Berlin. In 1848 he founded with Bethmann-Hollweg the German church diet, of which he was vice president till 1859, and was a leader of the high Lutheran party. As a member of the Prussian chamber of deputies (1849), of the Erfurt parliament (1850), and from 1854 of the upper house of the Prussian legislature, he advocated feudal principles. His most important work is Philosophie des Rechts (2 vols., Heidelberg, 1830-37), in which he develops his famous theory of a " Christian state," which is to aid the church by the secular arm in extending Christianity. In Die Kirchenverfas-sung, etc. (Erlangen, 1840), he declared himself in favor of an episcopal form of church government. In 1855 he had a controversy with Chevalier Bunsen, which attracted general attention in literary circles.

His last great work was Die lutherische Kirche und die Union (Berlin, 1859).