Ernst Immanuel Cohen Brandes

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Ernst Immanuel Cohen Brandes (1 February 1844 – 6 August 1892) was a Danish economist, writer, and newspaper editor. He edited Kjøbenhavns Børs-Tidende, a paper that mixed stock-price lists with bold literary and social writing. It published work by many leading Danish writers, including Henrik Pontoppidan, who would later win the Nobel Prize, and Brandes is linked to what is known as the Modern Breakthrough in Danish literature. Brandes killed himself in 1892 after being outraged by Pontoppidan’s blasphemy conviction for an anonymously written article in the paper in 1889.

Brandes was born in Copenhagen into a Danish Jewish family, the elder brother of Georg Brandes and the older than Edvard Brandes. He trained as an economist and spent much of his career on economic and social questions. In 1885 his book Samfundssporgsmaal (Social Questions) attacked Malthusian population theory and David Ricardo’s theory of value, and he also criticized the Marxist movement.

He wrote for Politiken, which Edvard helped found in 1884, before becoming editor of the Kjøbenhavns Børs-Tidende in 1889. His goal was to create a modern, entertaining opposition paper that could challenge the conservative press, and he attracted writers such as Johannes Jørgensen, Sophus Claussen, and Viggo Stuckenberg. Through Edvard he met Pontoppidan, who joined the Børs-Tidende on 30 July 1889, writing under the pen name Urbanus.

Pontoppidan published two pieces in 1889 and 1890—“Messias” and “Den gamle Adam”—in the Børs-Tidende, sparking a scandal and leading to blasphemy charges in December 1890. Brandes stood trial for the two articles. He was acquitted for “Den gamle Adam” but sentenced to two months for “Messias.” Pontoppidan admitted authorship but faced no penalty. The case went to the Danish Supreme Court, which again acquitted the Adam article but upheld the conviction for Messias, reducing the sentence to a fine of 300 kroner in December 1891. Distraught by the outcome, Brandes killed himself by poison in Copenhagen on 6 August 1892.